The Scholl Case by Anja Reich-Osang

Author:Anja Reich-Osang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2016-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

The less say Heinrich Scholl had at home, the more power-conscious he became at work. His portrait in oils now hung in the municipal museum. His office in the new town hall was at least three times the size of his old barracks office. He was used to getting his way and regarded any form of opposition as a personal attack.

‘Scholl was the uncrowned king of Ludwigsfelde,’ says journalist Jutta Abromeit.

Dieter Ertelt, Scholl’s longstanding deputy, had taken early retirement. This had not a little to do with his boss. Scholl preferred to do everything himself, says Dieter Ertelt—and always right away. ‘If he was determined to have something, he was…well, I don’t want to say unscrupulous…I once said to him: “You’re here for the SPD.” He said: “If the SPD doesn’t want me any more, I’ll just have to resign.”’

Dieter Ertelt wasn’t the only one to distance himself from Scholl. The mayor had a growing number of critics and his ideas found less and less favour. His proposal to sell council housing to private investors only just scraped through. The outlet centre under the motorway bridge didn’t. Scholl was thwarted, for the first time in his career. Before long, his great dream looked set to be thwarted too, the project that was to bring him immortality in Ludwigsfelde: the naturist thermal spa.

The old swimming baths, where Scholl had worked after his stint at the circus, were to be replaced with new ones. For two years, the mayor had been negotiating with a company that proposed to build an indoor pool with two saunas. The state of Brandenburg had promised funding; it looked as if everything was settled. Then up popped Heinz Steinhart, a new investor, who operated thermal spas and leisure pools all over the country. He took one look at Scholl’s swimming-pool plans and said: ‘Yes, of course, that’s the way everyone plans: a little of everything and nothing proper.’

It was one of those phrases that fired Heinrich Scholl’s ambition. Steinhart’s proposal might have been twice as expensive as the original one, but the mayor, who always had to be the best, did not want a run-of-the-mill municipal pool in his town; he wanted the best swimming baths in Germany. The thermal spa in Ludwigsfelde was to be his final project: baths worthy of the Romans, the king’s parting gift to his people. The only trouble was that his people weren’t at all keen on the gift. The town council was up in arms about the twenty-million-euro baths. They wanted a swimming pool, not a wellness temple. The minister of sports, Reiche, refused to subsidise the project.

Steinhart says that when he joined the project ‘in the preliminary stages’, he almost backed out again. ‘At that time, there were still old Russian barracks where the thermal spa is today. I couldn’t imagine bringing leisure to this town.’ It was Scholl who convinced him—and it wasn’t just the fact that his town had the lowest tax rate in Brandenburg. ‘He was a very strong mayor, very shrewd, very well connected.

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