Zwickau

Seidel eyes chief mayor's seat

Wants to be closer to the people

Zwickau, Germany
February 7, 2000
Freie Presse Chemnitz

(kma). Frank Seidel wants to be chief mayor. In any event, the CDU city council, in an emergency meeting of the CDU district association, city council faction and state association on Friday evening on the theme of "Scientology," announced his interest in campaigning in the chief mayor election in 2001. "My primary mission is now to stabilize the faction. The nomination won't happen until later. I'll decide then. If my work succeeds, I'll rise to the occasion," said Seidel yesterday. In any case he now knows where he wants to put special worth: "Put people at the center of attention, less prestigious objects, more discussion for people and less complex bureaucracy, find solutions and not reasons why something does not work."

Zwickau

Donald Duck, exit, stage right

Zwickau, Germany
January 28, 2000
Freie Presse, Westsachsen

(raech). Donald Duck is gone. On Friday Kurt Fliegerbauer, chief of Osterstein Castle Management, Inc., had the Walt Disney figure removed from his "Kavalier" building on Hauptmarkt. "Since Donald has apparently become a problem for many people, I decided to take this step," said Fliegerbauer, who still thinks it was a good idea to begin with.

For reasons of aesthetics and consideration for monuments, planning commissioner Dietmar Vetterman was happy that Donald Duck retreated. Besides that, the figure had not been entered on the building application. It was a work from a painting by Viennese artist Gottfried Helnwein, who is friends with Fliegerbauer and is also a Scientology member. Both are regarded as great admirers of Carl Barks, the cartoonist who draws the world-renowned comic figures from Walt Disney.