After a poster campaign for Hanau terror victims: the city of Regensburg imposed a fine – at the same time she praised herself

Created: 05/10/2022 07:53

By: Stefan Aigner

At the official presentation, Mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer adorned herself with the poster campaign "Say their Names" in March 2021. © Michael Bothner

Embarrassing behavior in the administration of the city of Regensburg.

While the public order office is pursuing the initiator of an anti-racist poster campaign with a fine and a court hearing, the municipal office for culture of remembrance praises himself for taking part in this very campaign.  

Regensburg – Annual commemoration days, exhibitions and networks, how to deal with problematic street names, various actions that were carried out – sometimes independently, sometimes together with civil society actors.

All of this is in the annual report of the Office for Culture of Remembrance and Prevention of Racism, which Education Officer Hermann Hage will present to the Education Committee of the Regensburg City Council on Wednesday.

This year's report is 57 pages long.

Poster campaign in Regensburg was intended to remind victims of racism

The statements on pages 17 and 18, which deal with an anti-racist poster campaign, make you sit up and take notice.

Because while the administrative department expressly praises this campaign entitled "Say their names" and prides itself a little on participating in it, another municipal agency, the Regensburg regulatory office, is pursuing the initiator of this campaign with a fine and soon also court proceedings.

Why is?

As part of the International Weeks Against Racism last year, various streets and squares were temporarily named after the victims of racism - with posters.

The whole thing was initiated by the "working group for foreign workers" (aaa), especially in memory of the former Regensburger Fatih Saraçoğlu.

He was one of the nine victims of the attack in Hanau on February 19, 2019 and during his childhood he often went to the aaa in his free time

Poster campaign for victims of racism: Approval was difficult

According to aaa board member Michael Waffler, it was initially difficult to even get permission to hang up the posters.

Only after a signature campaign and intervention with the mayor did the regulatory office give the green light.

A few selected spots were approved to hang the posters.

The whole thing was registered by a member of the association.

Back then, it took less than 48 hours for most of the posters to be torn down by unknown persons, destroyed or covered with right-wing extremist stickers.

The city of Regensburg didn't care.

The aaa filed a complaint against an unknown person - but without success.

Later, at a city event, a lot of people had access to the posters.

The destroyed ones were hung up again - and a few more too.

And here the problem begins.

Too many posters hung up: the Regensburg regulatory office imposed a fine

The municipal security service later counted 34 posters that were "illegally" hung in unauthorized places.

The perpetrators: unknown.

But the city knew the applicant of the poster campaign, with which one adorns oneself at the moment.

Instead of contacting him and asking him to remove the posters, a week later a fine fluttered into the house: he should pay over 250 euros.

It is true that one cannot prove that he put up the posters, but according to the view of the municipal law enforcement officers: he is responsible as the applicant and must pay.

Neither an objection by the aaa nor an intervention by the Greens in the Regensburg city council could change anything about this tough stance.

The case now has to go to court.

(By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from the World Heritage city and the Upper Palatinate. Register here.)

City of Regensburg office praises poster campaign - but the initiator is punished

In the annual report of the Office of Remembrance Culture there is nothing about the embarrassing behavior of the colleagues in the municipal offices.

Instead, you can read there about the city's participation in the completely privately organized poster campaign:

"With the SAY THEIR NAMES campaign, we commemorated personalities who fought against racism, were affected by racism or lost their lives as a result of racist continuity in Germany.

(...) SAY THEIR NAMES means that affected persons urgently need to be heard.

And how can they ultimately be remembered more permanently than in the form of the names of streets and squares that are used every day?

With the campaign, we were only able to name a few names to represent a large number of people.”

Bizarre: For the fact that the names, which one department of the city proclaimed for itself, were also posted in the wrong places, the other department asks the cashier who actually took care of it.

“Following an objection, the district court of Regensburg will now decide on the fine imposed,” said the city’s press office when asked by our editors.

"The delivery there took place in January 2022. The outcome of the procedure therefore remains to be seen."

Contradictory behavior of the administration: Weak decision-making mayor is silent

The rest of the city council has not commented on the subject and the mayor of Regensburg, Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (SPD), who is considered to be indecisive, still praised this action at the International Weeks Against Racism, for which the city had not found a responsible person and considered important, stays out and lets their administration be easy - not for the first time.

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