A piece of vestadt in the west

Aachen/coburgdumpling dough and fried sausages – somehow logical, as a souvenir, if one was visiting coburg. Annette and christian schorn always took this with them when they were in the city on the vest. But this time they came up with a different "souvenir"…

The couple has lived in aachen for 20 years. But both have connections to coburg, so annette and christian are here regularly. Annette: "in the fall vacations of 2019, we were out and about in the city center when we spontaneously came up with the idea of buying a manhole cover."

With the forwarding agency to aachen

That same evening, christian schorn and his father, who gave the couple the manhole cover, were at the CEB (coburger entsorgungs- und baubetrieb) to pick it out. "We have decided on the variant with the angular edging", says christian schorn. Until the manhole cover finally arrived in aachen, passed scarcely three weeks. "It was easier to buy the cover than to find a forwarding agency to deliver it to aachen."

Until the manhole cover was installed at the beginning of the year, the couple stored it in the garage between. "We hired a landscaper who put the lid in on a path on our property", says annette schorn. The gardener had to calculate everything exactly and cut out the stones accordingly.

Roots in coburg

The reason why it had to be a manhole cover with the coburg moor is that both annette schorn and her husband christian have roots in the city on the west side of germany. "My father-in-law and my mother are from coburg," says petzold, the 49-year-old tells. While her father-in-law has moved to aachen to study, schorn’s mother has moved to the lower rhine. Annette: "my grandfather was the first trombonist at the theater in coburg and my great-grandfather was a master builder and built several houses in pilgramsroth." the couple then met in cologne..

So far, only positive feedback has come from friends and acquaintances about the new manhole cover. The grandmother of one of their daughter’s friends is from coburg herself and was very happy when she saw the manhole cover. "Coburgers are just met everywhere", says annette schorn.

That the manhole cover with the coburg moor is bought by private people does not happen very often, but regularly, says katarzyna petzold from the CEB. "It happens five to ten times a year. Mostly it is however in the city area that someone would like to have the cover for itself." A lid costs 800 euros, transport and relocation would then also come to the buyers.

That the "moor however, it is the exception that the ballot is sent to another state or further afield. "I’ve been here for about ten years now, but I think that’s only happened three times", says petzold. The most recent case, however, was in september: "we sent one to wathlingen in lower saxony. There it should be shown in an exhibition." the farthest a manhole cover has traveled was in 2017. The election african reiner buchner, who comes from beiersdorf, had a manhole cover sent to namibia at that time.