Herbert Flügel earned his reputation as a local researcher of the City of Bautzen and the Oberlausitz. In the past decades, he has worked intensively on its history, culture and architectural monuments, and has campaigned tirelessly for their preservation and appreciation. In many publications, lectures or even as a city guide, he has passed on his tremendous knowledge, always characterized by a deep love and respect for this city, the landscape and its inhabitants.

He worked in several associations, among others being the Old City Society and the Circle of Friends of the Lausitzer Music Summer. His contribution to the 1000th anniversary of the city is a memorable film about Bautzen. Until late in his long life, Herbert Flügel took an active part in the spiritual and cultural life of the city.

Herbert Flügel was born in 1908 in Ellefeld (Vogtland). In 1921 his family relocated to the paternal site in Wehrsdorf. At Easter, 1922, he entered the Landschaftsliche Oberschule in Bautzen, and graduated from there in 1928. Afterwards, he studied as a “Volksschulen” teacher at the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in the Leipzig Pedagogical Institute. Interrupted by military service and war imprisonment, he spent many decades teaching at various schools. He has lived in Bautzen since 1948.

In its meeting on June 27, 2006, the City Council unanimously decided to award Herbert Flügel Honorary Citizenship. He accepted this high tribute on 17 July 2006 From Lord Mayor Christian Schramm, in the auditorium of today’s Vocational Center for Economics and Technology, the place where Herbert himself had received his high school diploma. The laudation held Dr. Siegfried Seifert, himself an honorary citizen of the city of Bautzen.