Eppertshausen politician Ann-Katrin Brockmann defends herself with a personal statement against the post by Roland Hardt from the satirists of Die PARTEI.
Eppertshausen – “Roland Hardt – your political actor”: This is the name of the Facebook page of the only district council member of the satirists from Die PARTEI, who won the seat in the 2021 district elections. You can smile at some of the publications and the rare speeches of the curious one-man show, but on February 19 Hardt overshot the mark with a Facebook post from the point of view of several CDU politicians. The Eppertshäuserin Ann-Katrin Brockmann, honorary leader of the CDU in the municipal council and also honorary deputy leader of the CDU in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district council, prompted a personal statement at the district council meeting on Monday afternoon in the Groß-Umstadt town hall. She called Hardt’s release “undignified and disgusting” – but the reaction was stubborn.
That’s what it’s about: To commemorate the victims in the Auschwitz death camp and their liberation by the Red Army on January 27, 1945, Brockmann made a statement in February together with Gottfried Milde, Lutz Köhler and Maximilian Schimmel in a Facebook post. All belong to the CDU district executive; Schimmel is also chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the district council, “that’s why, and also because Roland Hardt belongs to the district council, the topic belongs there,” said Brockmann after the meeting. In photos, the four Christian Democrats are holding up notes that say “We remember”.
–However, Hardt copied these photos, edited them without any corresponding notice and posted them himself with the addition “We also commemorate the victims of National Socialism”. Although he added a black bar over the eyes of the four people, all of them remained clearly visible. Hardt added the word “Hanau” to Lutz Köhler’s “We remember”, “Lübcke” to Maximilian Schimmel, “NSU” to Ann-Katrin Brockmann and the additions “WeDoNothing” (“We do nothing”) to Gottfried Milde. WeCoverUp” (“We cover up”). Which means that it doesn’t take much to interpret that Hardt accuses the four CDU politicians – Köhler has been Deputy District Administrator since last year – of being blind in the right eye.
After the district council meeting, Brockmann described it as “under all sow to portray it as if we didn’t care if people were murdered”. In her statement, which she read out at the end of the meeting, she emphasized that neither she nor her parliamentary group, her district association and her party mattered “where the person comes from, what their political views are or even what their name is reads”. Roland Hardt’s post was “tasteless, unworthy and hurtful” and had “nothing to do with satire anymore”.
She also addressed Hardt directly – but he was standing in the hallway of the Stadthalle during her contribution because he had demonstratively left the hall because of a previous application by the AfD and had not noticed that the next item on the agenda, which was about him, had already begun went. Right before the meeting, Maximilian Schimmel had sought a conversation with the elected official, who is also the second chairman of the district association of Die PARTEI. “But he didn’t see his mistake,” says Brockmann, who is now considering legal action with the district CDU. Because Roland Hardt did not comply with the request to remove the post even after the appeal in the district council.
Hardt explained the following day: “I don’t see why I should take it down. Although I knew that the contribution is a brief border crossing. The CDU’s Remember campaign is hypocritical, however, because many things went wrong at the state level and I wanted to express my disapproval.” As a private individual, he could possibly come to terms with removing the post “for the sake of peace”. For the PARTEI, which has expressly made it its task to criticize as pointedly as possible, this is hardly an option: “The article will therefore remain online.” He also finds it problematic that the matter is even discussed in the district council plenary session allowed to be. “It came as a surprise to me on Monday. Even if I had been in the hall and been able to answer, I would have only been able to do so spontaneously.” He is considering whether to lodge a complaint with the district council management in this regard.
For Ann-Katrin Brockmann, the publication and accusation by the district council colleague were particularly painful because the woman from Eppertshausen had “a personal connection to Sedat Gürbüz” – he was one of the victims of the 2020 murder attack in Hanau, which was done out of righteousness. In addition, the district CDU included people who had “friendly connections” to the Kassel CDU district president Walter Lübcke, who was killed by a right-wing extremist in 2019. (By Jens Dorr)
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