»Der Grünberger ist besser als sein Ruf«. Weinbau in Grünberg/Zielona Góra gestern und heute

Lecture and wine tasting with Agnieszka Bormann

In the accompanying program of the exhibition "A Gentleman on a Silesian Journey": When John Quincy Adams visits Grünberg (today: Zielona Góra) in Silesia in July 1800, he finds the town and the entire region "planted with vines". Alongside cloth production, viticulture is the most important source of income for the approximately 7,000 inhabitants. Given the location of this easternmost German wine-growing region, however, "all the effort and expense that Grünberg's inhabitants put into this fruit seems to him to be a lottery". However, viticulture has been part of Grünberg since the 12th century. After an interruption caused by the Second World War and its consequences, Polish winegrowers are successfully continuing this tradition today. Agnieszka Bormann will present the wine town of Grünberg/Zielona Góra in her lecture. Afterwards we invite you to a commented tasting of several wines from the region.

Agnieszka Bormann is a Germanist and cultural manager and has been working as a cultural officer for Silesia at the Silesian Museum in Görlitz since 2018. At the end of 2025, she published the German-Polish anthology "Grünberg in Schlesien in Reise- und Presseberichten aus dem 18.-20. Jahrhundert" with partners from Zielona Góra.