############################################################ 'Germans First' Is What These Voters Like to Hear ---------------------------------------------------- By Ulrike Moser EHRINGSHAUSEN. So she's the one, the person causing the stir. At first glance, she appears likable. Corpulent, resolute, while at the same time obliging, amiably firm: simply a solid woman. Her ruffled blouse is buttoned to the top, her hair is tinted red, and her neck bears silver jewelry set with small turquoises. Nothing about Doris Zutt is noteworthy. If you did not know her, you would probably overlook her on the street. Ehringshausen is inconspicuous, too, neither idyllic nor isolated. The community of 10,000 is nestled in a valley between northern Hesse's low mountains and Westerwald forest. It is a place without attractions, and tourists seldom find their way here. But thanks to Mrs. Zutt and others in the community, there is one thing that makes this town on the map. In the March 1997 local elections, 22.9 percent of Ehringshausen's voters cast their ballots for this woman and her party, the National Democratic Party (NPD). Since then, the NPD has held seven seats on the town council and two on its executive board. It is now the third-strongest party, behind the Social Democrats and the Independent Voters Association (FWG). Ehringshausen has become the extreme right's bastion in Hesse. Not so long ago, the council group leaders and party chairmen of the Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and FWG received some mail from Mrs. Zutt and her husband, Alfred. The postcard from the island of R�gen, where the Zutts spent their vacation, shows the globe and several naked posteriors. Its caption says, "This world has only one ozone hole, but plenty of assholes." This may be relatively harmless, but it shows the tone the Zutts have brought to local politics. The restaurant in the train station run by Mehmet Demirbuga could hardly be more dismal. Two tables, five gambling machines, plastic flowers above the counter, and a pervading musty smell of old smoke. The Turkish man, who has lived in Ehringshausen for seven years, has five children and worries about them. "I'm constantly afraid something will happen to them," he says. Calm vanished from the town several months ago. Someone smeared SS runes on the wall of the Lutheran pastor's house, and "Death to the FWG" and "intellectual arsonists" on the town hall. Someone has stuck stickers from the "Young National Democrats," the NPD youth organization, on the car of the independent mayor, Eberhard Niebch. A few days ago, the Social Democrats' council group leader J�rgen Mock received a letter signed, in English, "German Watch." The letter closed with the threat: "The day of reckoning will come." Besides being involved in the town's political life, the Zutts also run a store called Patriots' Meeting Place that attracts visitors, all from the same scene, from all over Germany. You cannot miss the Patriots' Meeting Place in the center of Ehringshausen. A banner in the colors of the Reich's war flag � red, white and black � waves on the corner. The sign on the door reads: "Two years of books and CDs to preserve the people." The displays in the window include a portrait of Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's party deputy, with the caption "I don't regret anything," books by Holocaust denier David Irving, and a map of Germany showing the borders before World War I and before the end of the World War II. The store offers bomber jackets, CDs by right-wing skinhead bands and such curiosities as perfumes to match the customers' convictions: Nationalist for men and Valkyrie for women. Mr. Zutt runs the store. One daughter helps out. Their son has a branch store in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In Ehringshausen, the NPD is a family business. Another daughter has a seat in the town council; her boyfriend is on the executive. Mr. Zutt has been a member of the council since 1989. The police once removed him for cursing the other councilmen too offensively. When speaking with "unpatriotic" journalists, the aggression in Mr. Zutt's voice is impossible to miss. He says he collects all articles about the NPD, along with the names of their authors. "Later I'll tell some, 'This is what you wrote about us back then.'" No one knows how many members the party has in the community. "No figures," Mrs. Zutt says. But some of the seven representing the party on the town council are not members, indicating that the membership cannot be that large. But their support in the town is all the greater � even if almost no one in Ehringshausen supports the NPD in public. What no one can really explain is why the party is so successful in this town. Ehringshausen's economy is based on the iron- and plastics-processing industry. Immigrant workers were brought into the small town in the 1960s. Today, foreigners make up 10.5 percent of the population, but Turks and Italians are not the primary targets of resentment. Envy and spite are directed mainly against ethnic German immigrants from Russia, who are seen as enjoying special privileges. The unemployment rate is unspectacular here: 8.2 percent. J�rgen Schlingensiepen, the town's Protestant pastor, thinks the roots of right-wing extremism go deep in Ehringshausen. "People here have voted farther to the right than the rest of the country since 1900," he notes. Just under 80 percent voted for the Nazi party (NSDAP) in 1933. In Germany as a whole, the figure was 43.9 percent. There was and still is continuity � especially among the Zutts. Mr. Zutt's grandfather is said to have played an important role in the NSDAP, and his father was a founding member of the NPD. But does that really explain things? The Zutts' home lies in the center of town, and their activities also seem to be at home in the midst of the community. The NPD has gained recognition for being visible in Ehringshausen, often more visible than the other parties. The Zutts attend every community festival. And they seem to express widespread anxieties and fears when they exploit resentment and fan fears with their slogans: jobs for Germans first, construction sites for Germans first. "German," says Mrs. Zutt, "is the language of the blood." Not everything was bad in the Third Reich, she adds. Such slogans are good for attracting votes, but when the party is in office, observers say the NPD does not do its part. "The NPD does not want to accept any responsibility," Mr. Mock says and notes that when the council decides whether to increase municipal fees, the NPD representatives abstain or vote no. Politicians from the three other parties agree that they underestimated the NPD for too long. It has been represented in the council since 1989, when it received 6.3 percent of the vote. That figure increased to 13.6 percent in 1993. Then, in March 1997, it rose to 22.9 percent, and Ehringshausen was no longer so inconspicuous. "We failed for years to take the NPD seriously," says Mr. Mock. No one had reservations about working together with the NPD. On the contrary, when Mr. Niebch was elected mayor in 1992, the deciding votes were cast by the NPD. One year later, Mrs. Zutt even became chairwoman of the environmental committee � with the votes of the Christian Democrats and FWG. "That was a grievous mistake," the Christian Democrats' council group leader Werner Neu now says. Now, the parties plan to act in unison against the NPD. Before the state parliament elections last year, the town's two pastors sent every household an open letter saying: "Ehringshausen's democratic forces will not tolerate our community being ruled by hate, malice and mindless nationalism." The Zutts sued every signatory for libel � without success. No one knows how to keep the NPD from repeating its success in the next local elections. Mr. Schlingensiepen hopes the Zutts will increasingly discredit themselves in the eyes of voters, especially as their positions become increasingly sectarian. Mr. Zutt now wears a "Thor's hammer" around his neck. The couple celebrate midsummer and midwinter festivals, as the Nazis did. This year, the Zutts staged a "national German baptism" for their grandson, reciting "Germanic sayings" and the "genealogical table." Mr. Mock would prefer not to rely on the deterrent effect of such performances. He sees only one clear solution, and not just for Ehringshausen: a ban on the NPD. Such a suggestions only makes Mrs. Zutt smile, though less amiably than before: "Then even more people will join us." September 17 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 ############################################################
