Lahr’s Christmas market: Glühwein (mulled wine) and all kinds of goodies welcome visitors to the stands on the Marktplatz for the Christmas market which started on 5 Decmber, with the arrival of St. Nicholaus on 6 December and finished on 23 December. (see photo)
Euro coin kits: From 17 December, individual members of the public could purchase plastic bags from German banks for the price of DM 20 each, containing the new European coins but the new banknotes will not be available until 1 January 2002 the new currency comes into force. The main burden of the changeover will be borne by shops and stores. During an interim period until the end of February, retail customers will be able to pay in DM but will receive change in €.
Baden-Soellingen Swindle: On 19 December the provincial court in Mannheim announced long sentences for the accused in the “FlowTex Scandal” whereby an estimated DM 12 billion were made over many years through the fraudulent leasing of non-existent underground drilling machines. Manfred Schmider (aged 52) was sentenced to 12 years in prison, his business partners to nine and a half, seven and a half and six and a half respectively. Further trials will follow, dealing with bribery and corruption of accounting firms and government tax inspectors in this connection. The money was used to finance a luxurious lifestyle that included owning and running “Baden Air Park” which went bankrupt after Schmider’s arrest and was taken over by the Baden-Württemberg provincial government under the administration of Stuttgart airport.
White Christmas: For the first time in many years, Lahr snowed just before Christmas and the temperatures were below zero, so the snow stayed on the ground even in the Rhine Valley! This clear frosty weather was enjoyed by vintners who picked their frozen grapes to make ice-wine, by winter sports fans and by visitors to the Europa-Park but there were many accidents on the icy roads.
Utility companies “mergeritis”: At the end of the year, Lahr Stadtwerke (supplying natural gas and water) officially merges with other similar companies in the region (down as far as Freiburg and the Swiss border) to form “Badenova”, a joint company supplying energy in various forms (also including electricity in some areas. At the same time, “Badenova” moved its Lahr headquarters and service centre to a new building in the Lahr-West industrial zone (not far from the airfield). The gas company was founded 150 years ago to produce from coal gas for street and domestic lighting. The gas works were in Gaswerkstrasse (off Lotzbeckstrasse) in Lahr. Since the 1980s the company has merely supplied natural gas piped from the North Sea or Siberia as well as considerably modernizing its local water supply system.
Banks “mergeritis”: The Sparkassen (local municipal savings banks) in the Ortenaukreis (Offenburg county) announced their merger for 01.01.2002 to form the Sparkasse Ortenau/Offenburg. Lahr-Ettenheim Sparkasse will therefore cease to exist as a separate entity and its director will not be on the board of directors for the enlarged organization. Lahr’s Sparkasse had experienced difficulties in the past few years, firstly because one of its top managers played away embezzled customers‘ money at Baden-Baden casino and secondly because the value of credit securities had been overestimated (= a deficit of DM 70 million on paper, for which local communities were forced to provide collateral guarantees). Globalization seems to be rampant among financial institutions: Lahr-Gengenbach Volksbank announced its plans to join forces with the Volksbank Unterer Breisgau Ettenheim on 1.1.2002.
Expression of the year 2001: The jury of linguists in the German Language Society chose “11 September” as the most significant new expression to emerge from the year as a whole.