The District MD111OM: Overview

The District MD 111 OM covers the federal - states Sachsen Anhalt and Thüringen. It has 65 Clubs and about 1800 members.
The borders to the north are Niedersachsen and Brandenburg, to the west Hessen, to the east Sachsen, and to the south Bayern.

In the former DDR there were no Lions clubs. After the breakdown of the DDR new federal states of the BRD were build. Now it was allowed to found Lions clubs. First, they were organized in the Distrikt MD 111 O, which covered all the new federal states and Berlin. Some years later, there were so many clubs, that a redistriction became necessary. The north formed the Distrikt MD 111 ON with Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg - Vorpommern, in the south-east Sachsen became the Distrikt MD 111 OS. The remaining federal states Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen formed the Distrikt OW for Ost (= German word for east) and West. The shortage OW had a bad sound. Oh Weh! Germans say, if everything goes wrong and they are in trouble. So the district renamed in 2007 to OM for Ost(=east) - Middle.
The district is large for Germany. In addition, it is very different inside.There are agricultural regios e.g. the Altmark in the north, industry and trading ruled cities like Magdeburg, Erfurt and Halle, and cultural and academic centers like Weimar and Jena. After the breakdown of the former DDR, many people, espcially the younger ones, moved to west Germany. Many industrial companies were closed. To perform strutural improvement and rebuild the economy, many people from west Germany immigrated to the new federal states. Those immigrans often looked for friends in their new surrounding and many of them became members of Lions. Thus lions clubs were places of contact between people from east and west after 40 years of total separation. Lions clubs were very important to connect people with quite different life styles and attitudes.
As a consequence of the breakdown of many industries there are numerous social problems. Our clubs have a lot to do, caring for those people. So, the ability to cope with activities abroad is rather low. The workload in the direct neibourhood is too great.
From the times of the sovjet union many people have good connection to eastern europe. Our district performs activities in Poland, Rumenia, Ukraine and White Russia.
Because most of the clubs were founded after the breakdown of the DDR, they are 10 to 15 years of age. Compared to west Germany the age distribution is lower. As many younger people went to the west, it has become difficult to get new members of Lions. The unemployment is very high. Some good Lions got into trouble, because their companies were insolvent. So they could no longer spend enough mony for the Lions club ans left it. The income in the eastern part is substantial lower than in the western part of Germany. In addition, the profit of the companies is lower. Both has the consequence of lower budges for clubs and districts. Some Lions can not take positions in the district cabinet, because ist is too expensive for them. But the will to serve the society ist very strong.

In contrast to West - Germany, women are used to have leading positions in offices and economy. The persentage of female Lions is high. That is important for our activies with children an young people.

Our disdrict has 12 Leo - clubs. Their cooperation has been tested in many activities. In addition, they perform own activities, e.g. the charity run around die Adolf - sea (has nothing to do with Adolf Hitler!) in Magdeburg. A problem is, that most young people have their working place in west Germany. So the Leo clubs suffer from a low attendance rate. But this can be compensated by intensiv communication via internet and your Leo clubs are stable groups and continue to make a greate work.

The Lions District MD111OM consists of 6 regions and 14 zones.

In the following, we shall give a short description of the regions and zones:

The zones I/1 and I/2 consist of some middle sized cities south of the Harz - Mountain in Thüringen. The beautiful landscape is a pleasure for the visitor.

Region I

Region I  - Zone I

Altenburg, Bad Frankenhausen/Kyffhäuser, Bad Langensalza, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Sondershausen, Worbis-Heiligenstadt/Eichsfeld

Region I  - Zone 2

Arnstadt-Ilmenau, Gotha, Ohrdruf

Region I  - Zone 3

Erfurt: Zone I/3 is the capital of Thüringen. The four Lions - clubs of Erfurt belong to the most active one of our district.

Erfurt-Amplonius, Erfurt-Meister Ekkehard, Erfurt-Thuringia, Erfurt-Via Regia

Region II

Region II  - Zone 1

The western part of Thüringen (Zone II/1) has many active clubs in small and middle sized Towns:

Bad Salzungen-Rhön-Werra, Eisenach-Wartburg, Meiningen, Sangerhausen-Rosenstadt, Schmalkalden

Region II  - Zone 2

Thüringen Woods are moutains, building the border of Thüringen and Franken, which is the north-east part of Bavaria. Thera many active clubs in small towns:

Eisfeld, Hildburghausen, Schleusingen, Sonneberg

Region III

Region III  - Zone 1

Jena is has a university with an old tradition. The developement of optical glases was the base for the optic industries (Schott, Zeiss). Jena names itself the "silicon valey" of eastern germany. Weimar has become famour as the town of Goethe, Schiller and other German poets and artists.

Apolda, Jena, Jena - Johann-Friedrich, Pößneck, Rudolstadt-Heidecksburg, Saalfeld, Weimar

Region III  - Zone 2

The eastern part of Thüringen is in the neighbourhood of Sachsen. It is the zone III/2

Eisenberg, Gera, Greiz

Region IV

Region IV  - Zone 1

Zone IV/1 contains very different towns of the former "chemical Industry triangle" (Bitterfeld, Wittenberg), of the salt mining region (Bernburg) and the town of the "Bauhaus" architecture (Dessau).

Bernburg, Bitterfeld, Dessau-Anhalt, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Zerbst-Anhalt

Region IV  - Zone 2

The hillery landscape of the eastern Harz moutains contains some very beautifull small towns with an old tradition.

Merseburg, Naumburg/Saale, Querfurt, Weißenfels, Zeitz

Region IV  - Zone 3

Halle is the biges town in Sachsen - Anhalt and has a very old university. The are four Lions clubs in Halle, two of them are very active lady clubs:

Halle an der Saale, Halle Saalkreis, Halle-Dorothea Erxleben, Halle-Fünf Türme

Region V

Region V  - Zone 1

The northern part of Sachsen Anhalt is called "Altmark". It has a low population density and is governed by agriculture. It is part of the northern German planes, formed by glaciers of the ice age. From history, is was a part of Prussia. The dialect resembles more that of Berlin than that of Sachsen. Some town are members of the Hanse, an international trade connection from the middle ages.

Arendsee, Salzwedel, Salzwedel –Altmark, Stendal

Region V  - Zone 2

Region V/2 is the capital of Sachsen - Anhalt, Magdeburg, and some clubs in the surrounding.

Haldensleben, Magdeburg, Magdeburg-Kaiser Otto I., Ohrekreis, Oschersleben, Schönebeck-Bad Salzelmen

Region VI

The Regions VI/1 and VI/2 have beautifull small touristic town at the northern slope of the Harz moutains.

Region VI  - Zone 1

Blankenburg/Harz, Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode, W. 'Anna zu Stolberg'

Region VI  - Zone 2

Aschersleben, Hettstedt, Lutherstadt Eisleben

Impressum .....................................................................................last correction 18.07.2009 21:22