A Siegfried-Borchardt-Platz in Dortmund? The show causes anger

The Citizen Services Committee of the Dortmund Council is one of the local political institutions closest to citizens: citizens can bring up things of their interest there – if they get the approval of the members of the committee, their subject comes last. Council to vote. The Commission claims that it takes this task seriously.

Presentation of a citizen at the meeting Thursday, December 14th – you have to put it this way – met with absolute contempt: demanded that a place in Dortmund be named after the recently deceased neo-Nazi Siegfried Borchardt of Dortmund.

The applicant was also unusual: Matthias Dida, as a consultant to the far-right dissident party “Derecht”, was himself a member of the Citizen Services Committee. In fact, he wanted to submit the application directly to the council, but was not allowed to do so because “Dierechte” had no parliamentary group status there.

So Dida tried to present his application to the council as a simple citizen through a trick through the commission. At the committee meeting, like every applicant, he was allowed to justify his request: Borchardt deserved a place because he had made a name for himself in the Borussia Dortmund fan scene and in local politics, for example as chancellor and member of the Northern District Council.

This is more than a charitable description of Borchardt’s activities. Borchardt, also known as “SS-Siggi”, has been a leading figure on the neo-Nazi Dortmund scene for decades. As a founding member of the riot group “Borussenfront” in the 1980s, the multiple convicted criminal loved to chase people of foreign origin through the northern part of town.

Requests to speak in the commission on the proposal were in turn clear: “This man does not even deserve to be called a small alley after him,” said the commission’s deputy chair, Dirk Gussmann (SPD). “We are not going to name a street after the Nazis,” said Svenja Noltemir of the Green Party.

The far-right dissident party “Derecht” regularly tries to get the attention of Dortmund through provocative moves in political bodies. When the council asked then-mayor Ulrich Serau to name the number of Jews in Dortmund and their places of residence, 2014 made headlines not only nationally, but even worldwide.

The Dortmund council has been excused from a discussion about the possible presence of Siegfried-Borchardt-Platz. Deyda’s application was approved by the Citizens Services Commission. It was unanimously rejected.