German town in uproar over plans for neo-Nazi training centre

BERLIN - The citizens of the small German town of Delmenhorst were up in arms yesterday after failing at the last minute to thwart a notorious far-right group's plans to buy up a hotel overlooking its main park for use as a training centre for neo-Nazis from across the country.

The renowned German neo-Nazi and Hamburg lawyer Juergen Rieger was poised to buy up the vacant €3.4m ($6.8m) City Park Hotel in Delmenhorst's centre yesterday despite frantic attempts by local residents to raise enough cash to purchase the building themselves.

The sudden setback for the townspeople occurred after the hotel's owner flatly refused the idea of a residents' buyout and announced that he was ready to donate the hotel to Mr Reiger to avoid paying an outstanding mortgage on the property.

"Legally there is nothing we can do. We cannot stop the owner from doing what he wants with his property," Delmenshorst's exasperated mayor, Carsten Schwettmann, said yesterday.

Timo Frers, spokesman for Delmenhorst city council said there were fears that the town, which is currently known merely for being the home of the pop star Sarah Connor, would now become a national rallying point for Germany's expanding neo-Nazi movement.

"We are completely surprised and shocked, nobody expected this development," he said.

Residents of Delmenhorst, a town of 79,000 inhabitants near Bremen, had staged a series of protests in a bid to stop the neo-Nazi project and had raised Euros 625,000 in their attempt to purchase the hotel themselves, Mr Frers said yesterday.

Gunter Feith, a 58-year-old Delmenhorst architect who launched the campaign to prevent Mr Rieger's plans had argued that residents' lives would "no longer be normal" if a neo-Nazi organisation moved into the town.

"Our phones have not stopped ringing," he said after yesterday's announcement, " We are facing an emergency," he added.

Mr Rieger, who is well-known in Germany for defending Holocaust deniers and leading rallies in memory of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, aims to buy up the hotel on behalf of the London-based Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation for Fertislisation Ltd - named after a former Nazi who made millions on the stock market.

A neo-Nazi ideologue, who cherishes the idea of creating an Aryan master race, Mr Rieger is widely reported to have plans to turn the Delmenhorst hotel into a centre for neo-Nazis from across Germany.

"There is a great shortage of premises for rightwing groups," he is reported to have said before announcing his plans to buy the hotel.

He heads an obscure group called the Germanic Faith Community for Life Creation and hit the headlines in Germany two years ago after he bought an abandoned mansion which was intended to house an Aryan fertilisation clinic.

His plans for the building were not realised after they were given widespread publicity and attracted protest demonstrations.

This time however, there appeared to be nothing to stop Mr Rieger from going ahead at least with his plan to acquire the hotel.

Guenter Mergel, the hotel's owner said he rejected the idea of a residents' buyout because that the sum raised was not enough.

"I am fed up with trying to work with the town. I am going ahead with my plans to donate the property as this will stop the town turning me into a pauper," he told Radio Bremen.

Delmenhorst's campaigners insisted yesterday that they would continue to fight the neo-Nazi hotel project and attempt to force Mr Reiger to back down through public protests.

- INDEPENDENT