8th July 2003

A trip to Zetel - by Counsellor Duncan Allan (Ret.)

The Sutherland County Committee sent a delegation consisting of the Area Administrator, a bi-lingual teacher from Dornoch Academy and a Councillor to Zetel in North Germany in June as part of a cultural exchange with our twinning partner. Zetel and the countryside around have a population of 11,000 people and constitute the local authority, which is the lowest of four tiers of government. There are 29 Councillors elected by proportional representation and the present administration is of the Socialist Party. There are no wards so no elected member is responsible for any particular area.

Zetel was a seaport in the Middle Ages and much of the land round about has been won from the sea in the Dutch fashion. A mile long bund protects the area. The land is flat and rural with pleasant well ordered towns built from the traditional local red brick. It has the air of a prosperous community and is within easy commuting distance of larger nearby towns such as Wilhemshaven and Emden and is popular with well off retired people. Rainfall averages 30” per annum and temperatures seldom fall below freezing. Cycling is very popular and it is permitted on pavements, which have been widened in town centres at the expense of the road. The small farms grow barley, maize for silage and the distinctive black and white Friesian cattle are to be seen everywhere. At the time of our visit the asparagus crop had been harvested and strawberries were starting to ripen. A car park for 5000 cars can be seen at Wilhemshaven for loading onto just one of the enormous car ferries that ship cars for export. The automobile industry is at the very heart of the German economy.

However all is not as it seems. Farming is in dire straits. We saw a 40hectare farm that had been abandoned. The local brick works has cut its labour force to the minimum. The once famous Olympia typewriter factory in Wilhelmshaven, that employed 15,000 people, has closed. Unemployment is running at 12% and the number of students in the local grammar school has been deliberately reduced in favour of vocational training, because graduates cannot obtain employment. It is difficult to motivate pupils if they see little chance of employment. The dozen or more tree nurseries thrive and export trees all over Europe and even to Brazil. The modern brewery flourishes. We saw four enormous sheds that held 19,500 turkeys, the maximum allowed by Planning.

Quite clearly there is a desperate need for some strategic thinking and they have come up with a big idea, a very big idea that will benefit the whole of Lower Saxony. They plan to create a deepwater container port at Wilhelmshaven on an area of 320 hectares that will be recovered from the sea. The amount of silt to be dug out will fill a train that would stretch from Berlin to Shanghai. Work will start in 2005 and is expected to be completed five years later. The port will employ 600 people directly and will accommodate container ships with a draught as deep as any ship that can traverse the Suez Canal. The Jade Wesser Container Port, as it is to be named, will be linked to the Baltic and North Seas by smaller container ships, and to Poland, Russia and other Eastern European countries by rail. The first phase will cost 1billion euros. Rotterdam and Asia are already preparing for the next generation of container ships and Germany is determined not to be left behind. The enterprise is to be funded entirely from private sources. Just to give an idea of the size requirements, the quay will be 1725m in length to accommodate four ships at any time of the day or night and on any day of the year. The cranes will be capable of unloading ships with 24 rows of container stacks. The partners are Lower Saxony 71%, the City of Bremen 20% and Wilhelmshaven with 9%.
Streets in the towns and villages were spotless, as householders are obliged to sweep the street fronting their property. Young children are taught to put rubbish in a bin and it is socially unacceptable to do otherwise. Zetel has a recycling depot capable of dealing with the rubbish produced by 120,000 people. The dump includes large sheds, weighbridges, crushers and rotating sorting drums on a huge scale costing 20million euros to establish. Their share of the annual running costs is 2.5million euros. Twelve men are employed. We were shown part of the original landfill site full of the usual incredible array of plastic, cans, glass bottles, mattresses, wood and garden produce, attended by flocks of seagulls. Alongside was the new landfill site with a much lower percentage of inert, processed, inoffensive material of a uniform size. Needless to say all householders are required by law to sort their rubbish out before putting it into separate containers prior to removal. Primary legislation is gradually being introduced that requires packages and bottlers to make life easier for those who have to deal with the end product of the throwaway society. The dump is lined with clay and rain water falling on it is collected, filtered and returned to a local stream.

Recreational facilities are excellent. There are four sports halls which are used by school children for PE during the school day which runs from 8am until 1.30pm and includes Saturday morning. Thereafter sports clubs take over. There are youth clubhouses, barbecue barns that can be hired and two old sandpits filled with water provide excellent swimming lakes. These lakes are in a park like setting and have children’s play areas, picnic facilities, changing rooms, toilets and once again, barbecue facilities. Strict control is maintained on the type of usage.

School swimming is taken very seriously. During primary school children undertake quite difficult tests at Bronze, Silver and Gold standards. At the age of 12 years 35% obtain Gold and 65% Silver, which is not surprising since they start learning to swim when only 4.

There is a theatre that seats 300, complete with a sophisticated lighting system, rehearsal rooms and clubrooms.

The Council buys land as required, or when it becomes available sometimes using compulsory purchasing powers, to provide plots for sale to individuals to build houses. There are no Council houses. All houses for rent are provided by the private sector and those in financial need have their rents paid by the Council. This makes for a more flexible labour force, able to migrate to wherever work is available. Judging by the appearance of towns and villages there is good planning. Houses are all different but are usually 11/2 storey and fit in well with the traditional style that has evolved from the old reed thatched dwellings of the past. The Council owns the remains of the ancient forest that once covered the German plain and it is used as a community resource and for recreation. The peat bogs that were once in common ownership have been drained and sold to farmers for agricultural purposes.

North Germany imports oil from Norway and Russia, coal from Columbia and generates 30% of its electricity from atomic power stations. Each Council was asked by government to designate an area on which they would agree to have windmills. Zetel has six of these stately, 90m high machines in the middle of a field of maize. We were told by the local Councillor that the noise can be heard up to 3km away if the wind is in that direction. That is the extent to which planning is delegated to councils. As far as we could gather community benefit is given to the Council to spend as they see fit.

The quality and care with which street materials are used deserves comment. Different sizes and colours of bricks, slabs and cobbles indicate pedestrian and vehicular usage and present a most pleasing appearance. Great emphasis is placed on tree planting at roadsides and in squares. Horticulturists and foresters are employed to maintain them and the ubiquitous linden tree is of course a favourite. Large trees are removed before they become a hazard.

The hospitality industry is given an excellent bonus compared to the UK because Germans can be given two, four or six weeks recuperative holidays, at the expense of insurance companies, if they are recovering from an operation or severe illness. We saw the results in a nearby town given over to this type of business because it surrounds a beautiful lake. The town was thronged with convalescents and tourists on a Sunday. It seems that the spa lives on in Germany.

The foregoing is a short personal account of a three and a half day visit. Thanks are due to our kind, attentive and most considerate hosts, in particular Bernd Pauluschke, (Burgermeister), Heiner Lauxtermann (Gemeindedirektor), Wolfgang Neuman, Annette Haupt and of course Willi Harenberg. Also my thanks go to Liam O'Neill for his organisational skills and Karl Weidner for his instant translation and droll sense of humour. Karl, in conjunction with others, will take forward the important youth links that both Zetel and Sutherland wish to foster. On the eve of our departure one of the party was heard to murmur "Auf wiedersehen pet" and Annette smiled.