Urgent support sought for Trailer community ‘karlhelga’

The long-standing struggle of the Karlhelga Trailer community – described variously as the battle of the Gallic village against the Gröner Empire or David versus Goliath – has not only been followed by the readers of our newspaper. This is evident from the fact that the petition to amend Local Plan No. 428 – which concerns the site on which the Trailer community is located – attracted over 10,000 signatories.

The petition was adopted in amended form by the City Council on 24 January 2024, with 40 votes in favour, 19 against and no abstentions. This petition and the City Council’s decision have made it more difficult for the Gröner Group to evict the caravan site, as they had intended, and the plot of land currently forms part of the Gröner Group’s insolvency estate.

The residents of the Trailer community are still keen to purchase this plot of land; we asked Melle, one of the campaigners, about the current situation.

Melle, what is the current situation regarding the plot of land?

The plot is currently still subject to insolvency proceedings because the Gröner Group has gone into administration, and we are still trying to buy the plot. As things stand, there will be a compulsory auction. We do not yet know when this will take place – whether it will be at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. We are very confident that we will acquire the site as part of this compulsory auction.

Why are we so confident? There was, after all, that city council resolution, based on the most widely signed petition in the city of Leipzig, with over 10,000 signatures. This led to the planning resolution for the site. In other words, it’s of absolutely no interest to investors. You don’t know whether you’re even allowed to build anything there at all? If so, how much can you build? After all, many environmental considerations must be taken into account, as well as the interests of the current users. In this context, we commissioned BUND and Ökolöwen to carry out a survey to identify which animals live here. Among others, there is the green toad, which is also found at Plagwitz railway station, as well as other protected species. The ponds where the green toad lives are also worthy of protection.

You also have supporters from the neighbourhood and beyond, don’t you?

Yes, we do a lot of public relations work, not just in the neighbourhood. Among other things, we organized this exhibition, ‘Drinnen im Draußen’, and we’re receiving an incredible amount of support from the local community and other people who, in one way or another, benefit from our project or are connected to it. I don’t think an investor will buy the site under these circumstances. We’re likely to be the only interested parties.

Even if you win the forced sale auction, you’ll still need money if only the market value is offered. Are you running a crowdfunding campaign or taking a different approach?

We’re taking a multi-pronged approach. We’ve set up a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to finance all the expenses required in addition to the purchase. As this is a complicated process, we require an insolvency solicitor; we require a solicitor to handle the proceedings with the city council; and then we have another solicitor who specializes in criminal law, in case we receive threats or similar issues. This means we have three different solicitors whom we have to pay on an ongoing basis. We’re also producing information materials, leaflets and so on; that’s what this crowdfunding campaign is intended for.

We’re also raising funds through direct loans and will be handling the whole process without a bank. This means there’s also a relatively high level of security for people who want to give us direct loans. What are direct loans? They’re loans – smaller loans – we’re talking here about anything from 500 euros upwards from people who support the project. They can draw up a contract with us; they then lend us the money for a certain period and get it back afterwards. This enables us to go ahead with the purchase.

So, we’ve covered the most important points. I wish you every success.

Conclusion: Things are moving forward with karlhelga, though there is resistance coming from a particular political party. The party with the capital ‘A’ – for ‘Alternative’ – isn’t just opposed to alternative forms of housing. Whether it’s alternative lifestyles, energy generation or other alternatives that are simply ‘alternative’ in a different way, they’re keen to take action against them.

Consequently, a motion regarding the wagon settlements and Trailer communitys will be on the agenda at the next city council meeting. In this, local residents – who are, after all, karlhelga’s biggest supporters – will once again be called upon to discredit the Trailer communitys. However, those asking the questions do not know whether there have been any complaints, or how many; they will have to enquire about this too, in question 7. We can look forward to the administration’s response.

A note: Some karlhelga websites linked in older articles are no longer available. The hosting platform noblogs.org, which was used by karlhelga, fell victim to Trump’s sanctions. We have linked to the current sites in this article.