Mayors go to Saxony-Anhalt: return visit to the Prime Minister

Created: 10/29/2022, 7:59 p.m

By: Tanja Brinkmann

In front of the Luther monument on the market square, the mayors and the district administrator with their companions as well as Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (3rd from left) lined up for a group photo.

© Private

A lunch with consequences: At the premiere of the Passion Play in Oberammergau, the mayors of the district met Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt.

Now they have visited him in Lutherstadt Wittenberg - and were impressed.

Oberammergau/Wittenberg – He has won new fans.

A whole busload full.

In terms of career, they don't bring him anything, but Reiner Haseloff doesn't care much.

He cares about the exchange.

To awaken mutual understanding.

And to underpin the historical ties between all federal states.

That is why it was also a personal concern of the Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt (CDU) to guide his Bavarian guests through Wittenberg.

The father of the country took four hours to do this.

And he impressed the 14 mayors from the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and district administrator Anton Speer (free voters) not only with his profound knowledge of history, but above all with his open, sympathetic nature.

The heads of the town hall had already experienced how open-minded Haseloff is in Oberammergau.

They met the Prime Minister at the premiere of the Passion Play in mid-May.

He had already arrived for the ecumenical service, but had made no arrangements for lunch.

"So I invited him to sit down with the mayors in the tavern," remembers Oberammergau's community leader Andreas Rödl (CSU).

They immediately welcomed the guest from Saxony-Anhalt "and had a great time".

Ohlstadt's Mayor Christian Scheuerer (independent) remembers "incredibly interesting conversations".

Of course, he and his colleagues invited the man from Wittenberg to dinner.

Of course, they did not expect that he would promptly issue a counter-invitation.

The prime minister with the mayors Elisabeth Koch, Claudia Zolk, Vanessa Voit, Aloisia Gastl, Gisela Kieweg, the state parliamentarian Barbara Regitz and district farmer Christine Singer in Oberammergau.

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So it came about that Scheuerer, as the mayor's spokesman, chartered a bus a week ago and set out for Saxony-Anhalt with colleagues - "from all over the district" - and their partners.

"If I promise something, I keep it," Haseloff said to him.

Nobody expected that he would personally guide his Bavarian guests, who of course paid for the whole thing out of their own pocket, through his hometown and take a good four hours to do it.

"It was a unique experience," says Scheuerer.

Speer can only agree with that.

He already knew Haseloff.

Among other things, from the summit of the prime ministers in 2019 on the Zugspitze.

As a result, he knew that he really liked the qualified physicist.

Since the trip to Wittenberg, however, Speer has been "very impressed by the man, also because he is so natural".

Reiner Haseloff, here next to the Cranach monument, proves to be a well-founded expert on German history.

© Private

After the "extraordinary experience" in Oberammergau, Haseloff gave the mayors and the district administrator a unique day in his homeland.

What drives him, among other things, is the tourist exchange.

"Especially during the Passion Play, many international visitors first come to Oberammergau and then continue to the Luther memorials," explains the Prime Minister in the Tagblatt interview.

In addition, there are many Unesco World Heritage Sites in Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt.

That also connects.

Especially with Rödl, who unfortunately could not be there at the weekend because of the farewell to Pastor Peter Sachi, he spoke during the passion visit about how to boost the flow of tourists to Corona again.

He used the visit, of which he immediately sent pictures to his Bavarian colleague Markus Söder (CSU), but also "to illustrate the big picture of 1100 years of German history".

There are many links between the two federal states in particular.

"Very exciting," says Scheuerer.

"You see a lot of things very differently." Haseloff also convinced him and his colleagues with his profound knowledge - "that was really a walking history lesson".

But the Prime Minister also wanted to whet the appetite for his homeland – “Mayors are important multipliers”.

Of course, this also applies to prime ministers, which is why Speer immediately invited Haseloff to Linderhof.

An offer that he gladly accepts – no later than 2025, when the grotto will be open again.

It's the flow of tourists that appeals to him.

"I would like to boost these connections again," says the Wittenberger.

He has already found good allies in his visitors from the district.