Brushwood weir island

In 2015, the town of Forst celebrated its 750th anniversary. A festival committee was set up to prepare and organise the event.

In the course of numerous evening meetings, ideas matured and were put into action. On 27 June 2015, the fifth Border Rose, named From Park to Park, was ceremoniously dedicated on the Reisigwehrinsel at the Rose Garden Festival. From numerous designs by the artist Thomas Rother, the festival committee had selected nine rose sculptures for Forst, Lubsko and Brody and discussed some of their future locations.

The first Forst Border Rose was erected during the inauguration ceremony for the restored Kegeldamm (Kegel embankment). Called Peace, the steel sculpture stands on the site of the former Long Bridge which until 1945 led over the Neisse to the Forst district of Berge (today Polish Zasieki). The Border Rose looks over the Neisse towards Poland as a symbol of peace. Two Border Roses were erected by the town of Forst in its Polish partner towns on- March 4th 2015 as a gift on the occasion of 15 years of German- Polish town partnership. The Border Rose The Rose is located at the town hall in Brody and The Kindergarten Rose at the cultural centre in Lubsko.

Following the Neisse dyke to the south, you come to the Reisigwehrinsel (Brushwood Weir Island) which was created by regulation of the course of the Neisse River. The border river between Germany and Poland is tamed and controlled by a total of three weirs. The Mühlgraben (Mill ditch), the town's lifeline, has its origin in the river here.

The Reisigwehrinsel has been freely accessible to visitors again since 2007. During the East German era, the water management authority had an office here. The weirs were controlled manually. The town of Forst repossessed the island in 2005. The modern weir system and fish ladder on the Neisse were built between 2006 and 2007.

The name Reisigwehr indicates that there used to be simple weir structures made of wood (brushwood) here. Water from the Neisse has been diverted to the Mühlgraben since the Middle Ages. The site plan from 1937 shows a small gardener's cottage on the site of the current low-rise building. In those days, one could cross the Reisigwehrinsel and the weirs in an easterly direction to reach a beach and sunbathing area (in what is now Poland). The Reisigwehrinsel played no role in the East German Rose Garden at that time being completely overgrown with trees and shrubs.

When the Reisigwehrinsel was transferred to the town of Forst in 2005, it became possible to integrate this part of the landscape into the Rose Garden. The first task was to dismantle a building and garage complex on the northern part of the island. Paths were laid out and wild roses planted in preparation for the centenary of the East German Rose Garden in 2013.

In 2013 too, the Rose town of Forst hosted artists from all over the world who had applied for the First International Art Symposium. Based on the theme: With every goodbye there is a new beginning – the transformation of the chestnuts of the Kegel Embankment, sculptors created sculptures from chestnut trunks felled near the Neisse. Each artist focused intensively on the topic and in just one week the unhewn logs were transformed into works of art that inspire amazement, pleasure and reflection. 16 artists from eight nations took part. Many of the sculptures created by the sculptors found their place on the Reisigwehrinsel.

Seven further objects were added to the path on the Reisigwehrinsel in 2019. These were sculptures created at the Second International Art Symposium in Forst in September 2018. Before you reach the Reisigwehrinsel, you will be greeted by the 5.5 metre high Memory and Fantasy sculpture by Paolo Vivian (Italy). The remaining sculptures can be discovered on the circular route.