Hans-Joachim Kohlase

“In other places, the devil has brought much misfortune – but our Spreewald is a splendor!” This is how the former water management expert and regional developer Hans-Joachim Kohlase sees the legend of the devil, who lost his oxen while plowing and thus created the numerous river courses of the Spreewald. In a dialect poem, he assigned this legend to a regional context and “processed it in terms of water management”, knowing full well that it was the Ice Age and not the devil that was involved.
He was born into water management in 1936, as his father was a dyke officer in Neu Zauche and responsible for large parts of the northern Upper Spreewald. At that time, extensive poldering was carried out through dike construction measures. But the Spreewald boy was like all other children who grew up in the middle of the Spreewald, in the “green paradise”: There was little interest in the adult world, after all, there was an inexhaustible playground with numerous distractions right on the doorstep! This changed after an incisive experience: he did not greet the local NSDAP group leader on the village street with an outstretched arm, but only casually with “Good day!”. He was made a “slug” in front of the whole class so that this would never happen again. But the “never” part was soon over, the brown haunting was soon over. Hans-Joachim now attended the grammar school in Lübben and was an outstanding gymnast there. He even made it to district school champion. However, his teacher and coach was none other than the father of Karin Janz, the later GDR gymnastics legend. After studying water management in Magdeburg and Dresden, he soon took on very responsible tasks in his home region, as the Cottbus energy district at the time was dependent on a continuous supply of water for the coal-fired power plants and the regulation of water levels in the Spreewald. After their wedding in 1957 and the birth of their first two children, the young family moved into a chic new apartment in Lübbenau in 1961, complete with all mod cons. Anyone who had previously lived in the countryside in the simplest of conditions would have appreciated this very much!
After 1992, he took over the “Spreewald Regional Office”, a project funded by the European Union and the state of Brandenburg. He was firmly convinced that the beauty of the landscape and the fame of the Spreewald’s delicatessen gherkins were an asset that had to be exploited. It is thanks to him that the Spreewald region and Spreewald products have been placed under European protection. The “Spreewald Economic Area” was examined and delimited according to geographical, hydrogeographical and cultural-historical aspects and confirmed by a decision of the European Court of Justice in 1999. This laid the foundations for a unique regional development success story. Today, around 600 hectares, up to 40,000 tons of cucumbers are harvested and processed and marketed throughout Germany and beyond. The Spreewald brand was created so that consumers can be sure that they are buying genuine Spreewald products: The crossed snake heads are taken from Spreewald mythology and adorn the gables of numerous residential and farm buildings in the Spreewald region – a true umbrella brand.

Now retired, but far from retiring, Hans-Joachim Kohlase gives many lectures to an interested audience every year. It covers the course of the Spree from its source to its mouth as well as traditions and festivities, customs and costumes.
Sometimes even in his Neu Zauch’schen dialect, where, in his opinion, the simplest German is spoken, because there is no “mich und mir” but only “mia”.
Now he has decided to create a special Spreewald treat – the “Spreewald Burger”. “Here in the Spreewald, the bread is baked by a butcher, because our Grütz sausage and sliced sausage contain more grain than meat. Deliciously served on a wholemeal roll with a 2-centimetre-thick slice of sliced sausage garnished with gherkins, tomatoes and onions, this burger can only be healthy,” he says.
But he also repeatedly refers to his “devilish oxen”: “The legend and the Ice Age – fiction and truth. Such parallels fascinate me!” The people of the Spreewald know his ambitions in this regard and affectionately call him the “last Puschochsen”!

Peter Becker, Jan. 2009/2025