The district court of Nürtingen has ruled that a pensioner must leave his municipal apartment so that asylum seekers can move in. The 75-year-old Klaus Roth had appealed to the court against an action for eviction by the municipality of Neckartailfingen in the Stuttgart region. “The court is convinced that the termination of the tenancy on the part of the defendant … causes hardship … but does not outweigh this, taking into account the legitimate interests of the property owner”, the newspaper “Bild-Zeitung” quoted from the verdict. The background is a decision of the Esslingen district. More than a year ago, the district had allocated additional refugees to the village of 3,800 inhabitants in addition to the 40 current asylum seekers. The municipal council thereupon decided to accommodate the immigrants in Roth’s 150 square meter apartment. The pensioner should be able to rent a smaller apartment for this purpose. Because Roth and his two years younger partner refused to leave the apartment, the municipality sued for the return of the six-room apartment. It justified this on the grounds of “fulfilling public-law tasks”. Meanwhile, the community has to take in nine immigrants, and up to six of them are to be accommodated in Roth’s apartment, it was said. Roth, who has had several strokes and suffers from asthma and diabetes, must now leave the apartment by September 30. According to local media, Roth is very well known in the village. Most recently he helped as a driver for the nursing association and cared for senior citizens. When in 2015 within a few months hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers flocked to Germany, Roth had been active in a helper organization for asylum seekers.

jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2020/gemeinde-siegt-rentner-muss-wohnung-fuer-asylsuchende-verlassen/?fbclid=IwAR3snHB8E-PzT6UtJxHH_EocX6VF2OlRe9T-1VoEVhniESZbMG-7Z-UO5u4