The local elections last year in Oberursel saw a change in the ruling coalition.  The parties CDU and FDP had held a majority for many years and suddenly found themselves replaced by a mixture of the Green, SPD and OBG parties.

At the end of the day, no party holds more than a third of the seats, so the only chance for the town’s parliament to move anything forward is to work together.

It is something that is reflected in the new structure of the town’s administration in the Rathaus. (more…)

Last week the Bundestag-Mobil made a stop at the Epinayplatz in Oberursel.  The Bundestag-Mobil is basically a lorry that expands to form a mobile exhibition about the workings of the Bundestag.

The Bundestag-Mobil on the Epinayplatz in Oberursel

Inside there is an impressive backlit photo of the glass dome that sits on top of the Reichstag building in Berlin, and a number of terminals to access the Bundestag website.  At one end a monitor shows the current debate in the main parliament chamber. (more…)

With local elections taking place in Oberursel tomorrow, amongst other things for the town parliament (Stadtparlament), I decided to take a trip into the town centre this morning and see what the political parties had to say for themselves.

In particular I wanted to know about plans to replace the town swimming pool, which has been closed for several years.  Recently there has been some discussion about the town selling off land to finance the building work.  This would not be so bad, if there was not already a sports field on it!

Then I wanted to know what plans the town has for the future of the schools here, in particular any plans for Ganztagsschulen – schools that teach all day rather than just in the morning.

And finally I wanted to see what they had to say about the forthcoming Hessentag, in particular about the lack of information for businesses in the town and my recent attempts to get a permit to enter the closed-off part of the town in order to visit my customers during the event. (more…)