EUROPE/MIGRANTS-GERMANY GHOST TOWN Beyond the ugly headlines, Germans open hearts, homes for refugees
Record ID:
144198
EUROPE/MIGRANTS-GERMANY GHOST TOWN Beyond the ugly headlines, Germans open hearts, homes for refugees
- Title: EUROPE/MIGRANTS-GERMANY GHOST TOWN Beyond the ugly headlines, Germans open hearts, homes for refugees
- Date: 12th August 2015
- Summary: KERPEN-MANHEIM, GERMANY (RECENT) (REUTERS) FIELDS VARIOUS OF CRANES PARKED IN COAL MINE CORNFIELD / ENTRANCE TO KERPEN-MANHEIM TOWN SIGN READING: "MANHEIM" HOUSE BY CORNFIELD SERBIAN ASYLUM SEEKER, LEONARD SPASIC, WALKING PAST CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN ASYLUM SEEKER, LEONARDO SPASIC, SAYING: "I feel good here. And I don't care whether I have neighbours or not. I feel safe here. I have a place to sleep, and don't have to sleep on the street. I am very thankful for what I have here, and happy that I can live in peace here with my family." EMPTY TOWN, CHURCH BELLS HEARD CHURCH STEEPLE CLOCK ON CHURCH TOWER EMPTY SCHOOL BUILDING CLOSED WINDOWS AT SCHOOL VARIOUS OF KERPEN-MANHEIM RESIDENT, ANGELIKA GURDON, SITTING ON SCHOOL BENCH WITH TWO YOUNG ARMENIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS GURDON'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (German) KERPEN-MANHEIM RESIDENT, ANGELIKA GURDON, SAYING: "We have a lot of refugees here in Manheim that need help but don't come here. I don't know why not. There are people who can't read and write, there are some from the Balkans who probably think that they would only get deported and that it is not worth learning German. Or maybe it is too difficult for them, I don't know. We are making a big effort." GURDON DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (German) KERPEN-MANHEIM RESIDENT, ANGELIKA GURDON, SAYING: "I find it a great idea. When you see how the migrants are being housed in tents and everything, and here the houses are empty and the blinds are down. It's clearly much better for them to be accommodated in a house in any case. That is clear, even if it is only for a short period of time - it is all for a short period of time anyway. But in any case the houses are better than everything else, in these sports halls where they all have to sleep next to each other, they don't have any privacy. In these houses there are two families that have to share and get on, but mostly they seem to get along well." EMPTY PLAYGROUND SWING (SOUNDBITE) (German) COMMUNITY MANAGER OF KERPEN-MANHEIM ADVISORY COUNCIL, WOLFGANG ESSER, SAYING: "There are other people who help out on their own initiative with furniture. I get calls from people in the town or in nearby towns who want to provide things for them. The only problem we have to solve is transport. Otherwise the readiness to help is there, no question, even outside of Manheim." ESSER SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) COMMUNITY MANAGER OF KERPEN-MANHEIM ADVISORY COUNCIL, WOLFGANG ESSER, SAYING: "This might be an advantage, in such a town that is dying out - we have problems here that normal villages don't. So we might be more open-minded about it here. When children and youngsters play here, they don't always follow the rules, that was always the case. But here no-one takes it too seriously, because the town is on its way out anyway. So that is why it is relatively simple I think, and that makes it easier for them to integrate themselves, and also because they have more freedom here." VARIOUS OF EMPTY TOWN
- Embargoed: 27th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVABMTWJAILMI8A6K8RR9L0U98LF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Arson attacks and unruly protests against the 450,000 refugees crowding into Germany this year have dominated the headlines as the country struggles to cope with a record-breaking influx of asylum-seekers fleeing war, violence and famine.
But there is another story in Germany that is getting far less attention:
The millions of Germans who are opening their hearts and homes to help the tired, poor and huddled masses from the Middle East, Asia and Africa find shelter and perhaps a new life in a country that won't stop trying to atone for its Nazi past.
This veritable German ghost town of Kerpen-Manheim - all but abandoned after utility RWE bought it to tear it down for a future 400-meter deep open-pit mine - has become a temporary home for 80 refugees from Somalia, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia.
Local authorities rented some of the condemned buildings from RWE to shelter refugees until their cases can be examined, a process that can take months or even years. It is one of the myriad of creative solutions Germans have come up with to handle the crush of refugees - twice as many as the 200,000 last year.
18-year-old asylum seeker Leonardo Spasic, who recently arrived to the small town with his family from Serbia, said he felt safe in his new home while he awaits his application to be processed.
"I feel good here. And I don't care whether I have neighbours or not. I feel safe here. I have a place to sleep, and don't have to sleep on the street. I am very thankful for what I have here, and happy that I can live in peace here with my family," he told Reuters.
75-year-old local resident, Angelika Gurdon, teaches two young Armenian girls German.
She said the town community is making a great effort to integrate the newcomers, and that she found the idea of using an otherwise empty town very practical.
"We have a lot of refugees here in Manheim that need help but don't come here. I don't know why not. There are people who can't read and write, there are some from the Balkans who probably think that they would only get deported and that it is not worth learning German. Or maybe it is too difficult for them, I don't know. We are making a big effort," she said.
"I find it a great idea. When you see how the migrants are being housed in tents and everything, and here the houses are empty and the blinds are down. It's clearly much better for them to be accommodated in a house in any case. That is clear, even if it is only for a short period of time - it is all for a short period of time anyway. But in any case the houses are better than everything else, in these sports halls where they all have to sleep next to each other, they don't have any privacy. In these houses there are two families that have to share and get on, but mostly they seem to get along well," she added.
Germany has a long tradition of welcoming refugees, in part a response to its Third Reich past when 500,000 Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis fled. They found shelter in more than 80 countries. After World War Two, Germany took in some 13 million displaced persons and refugees fleeing west from Eastern Europe.
Another 1.8 million ethnic Germans from Russia and Kazakhstan have moved to Germany since 1990 as well.
In the town of Kerpen-Manheim, community leader Wolfgang Esser has been collecting furniture, clothing and household goods donated by other Germans to distribute to refugees. He also organises youth soccer and sports for the children of the newcomers.
He said everybody in the small town, where most of the 1,000-year-old town's 1,600 residents have already left the shuttered red-brick buildings, do their bit to join the cause.
"There are other people who help out on their own initiative with furniture. I get calls from people in the town or in nearby towns who want to provide things for them. The only problem we have to solve is transport. Otherwise the readiness to help is there, no question, even outside of Manheim," he said, adding that the fact that the town was not crowded allowed an easier integration.
"This might be an advantage, in such a town that is dying out - we have problems here that normal villages don't. So we might be more open-minded about it here. When children and youngsters play here, they don't always follow the rules, that was always the case. But here no-one takes it too seriously, because the town is on its way out anyway. So that is why it is relatively simple I think, and that makes it easier for them to integrate themselves, and also because they have more freedom here," he added.
The sight of asylum-seekers laughing, riding bicycles or waiting for a rare bus on the tidy if empty streets of Kerpen-Manheim mark a striking contrast to scenes of smouldering, burned out refugee centres in towns such as Troeglitz and Remchingen.
Some 150 newly erected shelters have been attacked, damaged or destroyed this year - often by arsonists bent on keeping refugees from being sheltered in new quarters in their towns. Swastikas were painted on one shelter that was burned out in Vorra.
Just as hostility to refugees can take many forms - from skinheads shouting abuse to the middle classes complaining about the affect on house prices - support for them also comes in a myriad of ways.
Hannelore Kraft, the state premier of Germany's biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said 150 civil servants had come out of retirement to help refugees get settled and protected.
In Hanover, a bishop set up a small flat next to his office now used by two refugees from Afghanistan. In Berlin, an elderly couple took in a 37-year-old man from Ghana. And a 20-year-old who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban decapitated his brother overcame his fear of water to become a lifeguard in Munich. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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