Several weeks ago a visitor to the town hall (Rathaus) in Oberursel attacked the people working there with a knife.  Only a day later I read that it was believed an attack  might take place at a grammar school in Frankfurt.

It’s not that these things don’t happen in Germany, but these two were too close for comfort – I even had a meeting the very next day at the town hall to attend!

It made me wonder if this sort of violence was on the increase.  Were these one-off attacks or threats?  I often read the local news and even the police press releases and can’t remember anything on quite this scale for a long time.

And yes, it worries me. (more…)

Many towns in Germany face the same problem – their station building.  Not on a scale with Stuttgart, but given that many of them were built in the 19th Century, they often suffer similar fates such as underused ticket offices, high running costs due to the old building materials, and general desire from travellers and locals for the buildings to be put to better use and provide more services.

At the same time, they expect them to look good and still retain their 19th Century character, and not get covered in graffiti.  With many of them being listed buildings as well, this is not an easy task.  Another complication is that the buildings are often owned by Deutsche Bahn, reducing the lack of influence that local towns have over how they are used.

Oberursel’s station is one of those that had suffered this fate until recently, but for the past three years things have started to change.  An organisation called SEWO, who were originally created by the town itself to re-develop the Camp King area, were able to buy the property from the railway. (more…)

Last winter many towns in Germany were criticised for not doing enough to prepare for the hard winter months. In fact, when I think about it, the last TWO winters have been very cold and with lots of snow here, and in some cases I had the feeling that the side roads were not being gritted or cleared. There were days when it was almost impossible to get off my parking space and I resorted to taking the bus into town to get to my appointments.

Now Oberursel, at least, is confident that it is well prepared for the 2011/2012 winter, and the new winter service came into force last Monday. At the same time, the mayor has made a point of reminding the residents that they have snow-clearing responsibilities as well! (more…)