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Welcome to Exact. |
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Taken by surprise, and marooned, that’s how the employees of the Hotel Maritim feel now in Halle |
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The hotel has been made into an accommodation for refugees. |
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The employees learned from the media that the hotel shut down operations, |
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and as of today, most don’t know what is going to happen to them now. |
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From a four-star hotel to a refugee reception center. Our reporters are on location: |
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The Maritim hotel in Halle, last Thursday. Police cars are positioned. |
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Employees are gathered at a side entrance. |
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The hotel has ceased all operations effective immediately. |
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They just, they made this all, without consultation with us, right over our heads |
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Visitors, and people who own businesses in the hotel, are dismissed and told to leave. |
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Yesterday as I came in for the late shift, I learned that from today, I am not allowed to enter |
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my business anymore and that I cannot serve any more customers. |
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Since last week, nothing is how it used to be here anymore. In one heave-ho action, |
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they transformed a four-star hotel into a refugee center. |
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Employees only learned of this from the media at the beginning of September. |
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The Great Refugee Crisis. It arrived in the midst of the Maritim staff. |
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Andreas Lehmann is the puzzled chairman of the workers’ council. |
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We accompany him on his last day to his place of employment. |
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He has worked in the Hotel industry for 37 years. He was the night-shift auditor |
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at the hotel reception. Now he’s out of work. |
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”Yes, I am angry, that my employment has been terminated. I don’t know… |
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I am seething. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act.” |
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Last Thursday he met with his colleagues at the hotel that now isn’t one anymore. |
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About fifty colleagues have gathered. Britt Heidenreich is there too. It is her birthday today of all days. |
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She is 42 years old; for 25 years she worked at the Maritim as a waitress. |
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The sudden closure took her completely by surprise, like everyone else. |
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”I don’t think anyone expected this. Until the 5th of September |
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when we had to learn of this through the press. |
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How do we deal with this… We are trying to process it, we didn’t want to believe this |
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for the longest time, but meanwhile… this is the bitter truth.” |
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”Employees were informed from the very beginning of the repurposing of the hotel, and they were offered |
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compensatory places of work,” says the Maritim Corporation when being asked. |
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But obviously this had never reached the employees, they feel marooned. |
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Michael Schwammberger has worked at the hotel since 1985 as a chef. |
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”I don’t have anything to say, it’s all done.” |
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”How do you feel treated by your employer, how long have you worked for them?” |
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”41 years. 41 years. I started here as an apprentice when I was 16. And now they pull the rug out |
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from underneath our feet. Just like that.” |
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The staff walk away to a worker’s assembly meeting. But there they also won’t learn what is going to happen with them now. |
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They are angry that now suddenly they hear everywhere that the hotel wasn’t profitable anyway. |
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The Hotel Maritim, built in 1968, had always been regarded as a modern carte de visite for the city of Halle. |
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310 single rooms were considered hard to manage, and with a revenue goal of €3 million |
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per year, money was strictly budgeted. |
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But from now on, the Maritim Corporation will earn €3 million with refugees every year. |
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A three-year rental contract has been signed with the county of Sachsen-Anhalt. |
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The county was desperately seeking for refugee facilities. |
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”They say they were under pressure, but I have to say, they made these problems themselves. |
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That we have to suffer for these problems created by politicians… that’s very sad.” |
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Politics under pressure. How much so shows in the tempo. |
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On September 10th, the contract was ready to be signed. On October 1st, the first refugees arrived |
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A hotel was transformed into a temporary address for refugees. |
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But when the first buses arrived, the welcome was scornful. |
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Protests. The usual suspects. People hiding behind banners, |
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not facing the reality of a world full of refugees. |
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17,000 asylum seekers were taken into Sachsen-Anhalt county alone this year. |
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The Center for refugee processing in Halberstadt is hopelessly overwhelmed. |
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The hotel is supposed to bring some relief. It has been planned that up to 700 people will live here. |
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This has nothing to do with luxury accommodation in a four-star hotel. |
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The small one-bed rooms are being occupied by up to five people. |
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Rumors that the refugees are enjoying an exclusive kitchen are propaganda from the Internet. |
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While the refugees move in, the business owners have to say goodbye to the hotel. |
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The proprietors of the hair salon and the beauty salon were caught off guard as well by the closing. |
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Since the 1st of October, the clientele can’t come back onto the property. |
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The salon owner Karin Lüschke feels completely let down by politicians and the Maritim Corporation |
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”Nobody helps. Nobody cares. We have nothing to say. |
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They do everything for the refugees, which doesn’t mean I’m angry at the refugees, in no way, |
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but they should’ve treated us differently. |
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They should have talked to us differently. Not from one day to the next.” |
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Also finished are the infant swimming courses at the hotel’s own swimming pool. |
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The trainer Kathrin Zäh rented space here, but she is out of work as well now. |
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She is disappointed, but she’s not angry. Especially not at the refugees. |
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”Oh well, this is certainly a difficult situation, for Germany to find adequate housing |
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for the refugees, where they can live under humane conditions. |
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But on the other hand, that people are being put out in the street, |
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unemployed, that other people who helped build this hotel, like the swimming pool, |
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that they can’t use these structures anymore, |
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to figure out the situation, I’m sure it was hard. |
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I just find it disappointing how hastily everything went down.” |
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This kid and his family from Iraq know nothing of the frustration behind the curtains. |
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What takes place in and at the hotel is being watched closely |
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by Helmut Geier, directly opposite. |
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The 80-year-old has seen a lot as a seaman for the German Marines. |
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But what happens right now in front of his own door, it touches him. |
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”I am just happy that these people have a place to sleep, yes? I mean, they have been |
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fleeing, doesn’t matter where they come from, but at least now they have sort of arrived somewhere. |
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I think that’s pretty nice. |
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Refugees need help, and they need a place to stay. |
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But for the Hotel staff anger and frustration remains that neither the Hotel Corporation nor the politicians |
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made an effort to talk to them honestly and promptly. |
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A few weeks ago, before the staff had gotten a taste of the refugee crisis, |
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when some of them were housed as guests. Andreas Lehmann and his colleagues |
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would’ve been willing to engage in helping. |
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”Surely we could’ve found a solution where we could’ve helped with the care for refugees, |
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but they decided all that over our heads. Now we’re not allowed to… So now… it’s over.” |