SocialSofa

On June 2, during the castle festival in Herzogenrath, the "SocialSofa" was inaugurated on the forecourt of Rode Castle.

The "SocialSofa" concept is based on an idea by Karin Bruers from Tilburg. Her idea was to bring people into contact with each other. The concrete benches have a weight of 1700 kg. They are lovingly decorated with mosaics by volunteers. There are now over 1,500 of these sofas in the Netherlands. In Kerkrade, Mrs. Regina Leue took up this concept and further developed the idea of designing the mosaics with pictures from the surrounding area. So there are 6 of them in Kerkrade (among others in the GaiaZoo and at the train station). In Germany there are only three sofas, the sofa in Eurode is the first SocialSofa in NRW and the 7th sofa of Regina Leue.

Last year at the Eurodetag the starting signal was given to design a "SocialSofa" for Eurode. The location chosen was Rode Castle, which together with Rolduc Abbey and Baalsbrugger Mill is part of the Eurode Historic Triangle. Mrs. Leue was supported in her work by many volunteers from Herzogenrath and Kerkrade. This group was internationally mixed. People from more than three countries, besides Germany and the Netherlands from Syria, Iraq and Bangladesh, worked together and got to know each other.

As motives the typical characteristics from Eurode were chosen:

For the city of Herzogenrath the "Moses" and the "Bockreiter", for the municipality of Kerkrade the "Jupp", the EBC as a building in the middle of the border, as well as the monuments of the Historical Triangle: Rolduc Abbey and Rode Castle. As a reference to the common mining period, the Adolf mine is depicted from Germany and the Dominale mine for Kerkrade. From the more recent history a boundary stone of the Neustraße and as a reminder of the cooperation the connecting piece, which connects the fire hoses of the fire departments of Herzogenrath and Kerkrade. This connection is symbolic of the fact that in Eurode many projects of cross-border cooperation have found their origin here on a small scale and have been continued along the border.

The mayors of the city of Herzogenrath and the municipality of Kerkrade were now able to unveil the sofa during the castle festival and hand it over to the citizens. It is the wish of all involved that this sofa with its magnificent view over Herzogenrath will bring sitting and viewing pleasure to many users. "We therefore hope that this sofa will find successors in this region," hopes Mrs. Leue.