German town of Delmenhorst says no to Nazi hotel

A few days ago the citizens of the northwestern Germany town of Delmenhorst, donated around 1 million euros to a fund a counter bid for the 100-room hotel in the center of the town after Juergen Rieger, a lawyer and far-right sympathiser, placed an offer for the property last month. This guy Rieger is a whack-job. Here's a quote:


His plan for the hotel, if he were to purchase it, was to turn it into an education center for neo-Nazis and a meeting place for the extreme right-wing party the NDP.

You can read more here: German town says no to Nazi hotel

Related topic: Small German town needs money to keep Nazis out

I just hope the city knows what they are doing with it and it doesn't become more run down than it already is or cost the residents of Delmenhorst more than it already has. Although there was a very loud and large campaign to get the city to buy the hotel (and keep the Nazis out) the 80,000 residents were not asked. It seems that it was the lesser of the two evils as despite the publicity no other investor stepped forward. It remains to be seen if the city can turn the hotel into a financial success. They are still undecided about how it will be used in the future.

Here´s the full story (in German) on Rieger. Not a nice person, putting it mildly.

Jürgen Rieger - Wikipedia

He owns property in other parts of Niedersachsen - Hameln, and Dörverden, near Bremen.

update...

The Hotel am Stadtpark "the nazi hotel" is now destined to be demolished. The demolition should begin in February 2009. The monthly running costs (€20,000) of just maintaining an empty and dilapidating building were draining the city coffers. The City council made their decision in June and hopes that with this action they will find a developer willing to purchase the land. Although there has been plenty of interest on ideas for using the building no investor was found prepared to invest the €s to undertake the necessary refurbishment of the Hotel. Of course many of the residents who together raised over 1 million euros to help purchase the hotel are now angry with the politicians who they believe have failed to make good on their promises. The politicians believe that it was the most sensible decision to make. Nobody wanted the hotel in its current state so they are looking to the future and see a new development for this area as the best way forward.

The Süddeutsche reported this week that the NPD don't really plan to use these buildings, they just get a cut of the cash when the owner sells at aan above market price to the local council.

Exactly. They'll just buy another hotel in the next street.

In the latest case, the owner of a building had a applied for a "swinger club" licence that the council turned down.
So he has said he will sell to the nazis if they don't reconsider.