By Danilo Gladow
Royal holiday in Lusatia: Queen Silvia of Sweden (79) inaugurates a project for people with dementia in the small town of Forst and brings royal splendor to Brandenburg.
The reason for the official visit to Forst (21,300 inhabitants) was the opening of the Smart City Forst, including a dementia-friendly residential complex in the center of the small town.
In the last two years, with the help of Queen Silvia’s “Silviahemmet” foundation, a network has been created there that, together with the Lausitzklink Forst, wants to make the entire city sensitive to dementia. Together with Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (61), she inaugurated the smart city.
This prefabricated building has been extensively renovated and is now the new home for seniors with and without dementia Photo: RALF GUENTHER
The building was designed with smart home technology in such a way that senior citizens with dementia can also live there independently.
“People are here where they belong – in the center. That way they can remain independent for as long as possible,” said Queen Silvia at the inauguration.
Before the ceremony, she was served a regional lunch menu (tomato soup, fried pike-perch, mascarpone and raspberry cream) in the imperial post office.
Fully digitized: In between, Queen Silvia pulled out her cell phone and took photos Photo: Ralf Guenther
And Forst was upside down: In the best weather, hundreds of Royal fans waited up to two hours in front of the Forster Hof, where the Queen was expected to give her opening speech. “I’ve been here for two hours because I want to see Queen Silvia. Simply exciting,” says Ingrid Fischer (68).
Brigitte Gebauer sat on a bench with the Queen and chatted with her: “It was an honor for me,” she says Photo: RALF GUENTHER
The queen still took time for the residents of the house and for a conversation with pensioner Brigitte Gebauer (84). Silvia sat down with her on the bench.
Gebauer: “She asked me how I was doing and if I was having a nice day – I didn’t expect that and it was an honor for me.”