Auf den Steinen Street in Keyenberg resembles those of other German residential areas, with plush brown and white single-family homes surrounded by shrubbery. The atmosphere is peaceful. Too much, even. Out of about twenty residences, only three entrances are occupied by a car. From the last blue-roofed house, just before the field, a large excavator can be seen patiently and incessantly making its way. Within a few years, the Garzweiler II coal mine will be 450 meters away.
Keyenberg is almost a ghost town. As it had to be destroyed to make way for the pit, more than 80% of the inhabitants moved after accepting the offer to purchase from the mining and energy company. The plan changed, and the village was saved, but the residents did not return to their old homes, which are now owned by the company.
The neighboring village, Kuckum, along with three other places, suffered the same fate until February 24, 2022. What changed its atmosphere was the arrival of hundreds of Ukrainian refugees. Among them is Oksana Rusmanenko. The duty the meeting in the house of her German neighbors, when she has just had her long brown hair cut for free by the mother of the family, Marita Dresen.
“I’m really happy to have met them. They are very friendly and positive,” says Ms.me Rusmanenko, wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and a discreet smile.
Like Mme Dresen does not understand English or Ukrainian, they communicate through gestures and basic words. Her two children, who are the same age as Oksana, speak good English and often act as interpreters.
“German is difficult,” says the Ukrainian who is waiting for a place in a language course.
The 30-year-old was a sales manager for a company organizing business events in kyiv. Her Instagram account reflects her active lifestyle at the time. She poses while skiing, cycling, hiking, traveling, paragliding, aboard a hot air balloon or at social events.
In search of security
In the days following the Russian attack, she fled Ukraine with her boyfriend and members of his family. After a brief stint in Romania, she quickly found herself in Germany, where the reception program for Ukrainian refugees redirected her to this region. As early as March, she and her husband’s five family members were assigned a house in Kuckum.
This house was once occupied by a German family, before being abandoned for two years. “When we arrived, it was wet and dirty. But we cleaned everything up, says Mr.me Rusmanenko. We were just relieved to have a place to slow down, calm down and feel safe. »
From month to month, other people from Ukraine have found refuge in their home, so much so that Mme Rusmanenko now lives with 14 other people from seven different families. They share a single kitchen. Sometimes there are conflicts, admits the 30-year-old.
A dire lack of housing
Andrea Ludwigs-Spalink is president of the refugee aid association of Erkelenz, the municipality to which Kuckum, Keyenberg and the other villages near the mine belong. Since 2016, she has been providing assistance to asylum seekers from all over the world, in particular to understand and manage the administrative requirements related to their immigration status. She also gives integration courses, such as history and language courses. She points out that 800 refugees, including 500 Ukrainians, are housed in the municipality of around 44,000 inhabitants.
“Look, the Ukrainian children had brought musical instruments and they were singing,” says the warm red-haired lady, scrolling through photos of a social event on her phone. Refugees had cooked borscht, a traditional Ukrainian dish. »
It must be said that Germany has accepted more than a million residents of Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. The country of 83 million inhabitants is thus positioned as the second land of welcome in Europe, after Poland.
“Germany was not prepared to receive so many Ukrainians, judge Mme Ludwigs-Spalink. The main problem is accommodation. We are sorely lacking in housing, even for the Germans. It’s lucky we have empty houses here. »
We had to restore the houses, reconnect the heating and the water supply, find furniture. This work is still in progress, and the Ukrainians continue to arrive. About 250 of them are currently living in about 30 houses in Kuckum and other villages.
A reborn village
Their presence seems welcomed by the majority of the German residents of the village, who are now in the minority there.
“I am happy that there are new people in the houses. It’s safer and it prevents them from falling into disrepair,” says Marita Dresen, who is delighted to see the neighborhood come back to life.
Laughter echoes again in the children’s park. Women walk around with their pushchairs. A young couple walks hand in hand.
The Dresen family is always there to help neighbors with jobs, help them or lend them tools. She also organized a party on the occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day.
We were just relieved to have a place to slow down, calm down and feel safe.
Oksana Rusmanenko, for her part, tries to see her time in the most populous country of the European Union as an opportunity to discover a new culture. Although Kuckum now has the nickname of Little kyiv, the young woman has more friends there of German than Ukrainian origin. The day he met The dutyshe had spent part of the day at the carnival of Erkelenz, an important celebration giving rise in particular to a parade of allegorical floats.
Uncertain future
The former manager lives day to day, not knowing when she will be able to return to her homeland. “Initially, we only thought we would stay here for a few months. But we can clearly see that the war will not be over in the short term,” she notes with regret. His parents, who remained in Chernihiv, are doing well and have no intention of leaving their house, despite the long daily power cuts. M’s former employerme Rusmanenko has ceased her activities, but she does not rule out returning to kyiv if she finds an interesting position.
In the meantime, her daily life is made up of looking for an international job, online English lessons, occasional jobs and household chores. She hopes that no one else will join her already overcrowded household.
The support of Ukraine’s friends, such as Europeans and Canadians, keeps it optimistic. “People know that Ukrainians are fighting for the truth, for their homes, for their land. I hope Ukraine will be even more successful after the war. I’m really proud to be Ukrainian. »
What will happen to these villages after the eventual departure of their temporary occupants? Nothing is defined yet, but the city of Erkelenz has ambitions. A public consultation ends this week, during which several visions are presented to citizens. The scenarios propose to preserve the majority of historic buildings, to carry out a targeted demolition of dilapidated places and to give them diversified vocations: green spaces, agricultural land, cultural centers, creative industries, new residences. Elected officials and residents dream of seeing the pit transformed into a lake and breathing clean air on its green banks.