"We must help our colleagues in the affected flood areas, who are now facing nothing, and show solidarity", said the herzogenaurach businessman lothar maydt at the general meeting of the forder- und werbegemeinschaft a few weeks ago in the hotel herzogspark. Now the owner of the household goods store of the same name has put his word into practice.
"I had tears in my eyes at the television pictures, it is terrible to have to watch, if the existence sinks in the water or swims away", maydt tells us afterwards.
As is well known, he rebuilt his shop and stored a large part of the shelves and furniture. "Who likes to throw something away, you always think you can use it later for sure.
During the flood disaster, maydt remembered his store equipment, which was stacked in a property on the back alley. But how to get needed parts to the flooded areas and how to get in touch with retailers, lothar maydt said.
Plans and drawings faxed
He contacted the retail association, suppliers, purchasing association and representatives of his suppliers and asked to make a contact. This worked also, with him family schneider from grimma and a einzelhandler from topen announced themselves.
Now petra and lutz schneider from grimma came to herzogenaurach in a van to pick up parts of the store equipment. The businessman from herzogenaurach had faxed plans and drawings to grimma in advance, and the colleague from saxony knew in advance what he wanted to load in herzogenaurach. The schneider couple runs the "altstadt hotel grimma and a specialty store for gifts, arts and crafts as well as china, glass and household goods, similar to the specialty store in herzogenaurach.
Water and mud everywhere
As petra schneider told us, the city center of grimma was washed out, water, mud and dirt everywhere. "We had 1.80 meters of water in the store and the damage to the goods was around 120.000 euros", tells her husband lutz. The mud flooded the stores, warehouses and adjoining rooms "it seeped into every crack and after a short time it stank like hell", petra schneider shook her head afterwards.
As the couple further reported, this was the second "haunting"." "In 2002 we had 2, 20 meters, we are starting now for the third time, after the opening in 1996", the couple tells.
After the first flood, they received some compensation, but now the insurance company is getting in the way and the schneiders are happy to get at least 50 percent of the damage reimbursed. Petra schneider is impressed by the neighborly help, at the moment the sale takes place on the hotel parking lot in two tents, the store is supposed to open on 9. September to be reopened.
"20 to 30 people came, cleared out the store and everything that was usable was spooled and cleaned. A woman brought boxes, packed them full of dishes, loaded them into her car and reeled it in at "home", petra schneider tells.
This support and help gives the couple the strength not to give up. But it didn't have to come to this, of course. Since the floods of 2002, plans have been underway for flood protection, but objections from burghers and the greens have prevented construction from beginning. "Maybe these people have changed their minds, because the mayor now wants to enforce the protective wall", petra schneider hopes for flood protection.
For lothar maydt, the support is a matter of course, a catastrophe can strike any one of us and we were probably helpless on our own", he said. He certainly does not want to let the new connection rub off again and wants to visit the colleagues in grimma.