“Today I sent a letter to my two long-term tenants announcing a rent reduction.” This is how a Facebook post by Richard Reischl (CSU), who is not only the mayor of Hebertshausen, but also the private landlord of two apartments, begins. By the end of the year, he will charge the two families who live there 100 euros less per month. Reischl did not expect the hype that his publicly announced rent reduction triggered, even if he published it consciously, of course.
SZ: You have almost become a celebrity, Stern reported, a Hamburg online magazine speaks of “Germany’s nicest landlord”, your post is shared in many groups and rated positively. What signal did you want to set?
Richard Reischl: First of all: I never thought that there would be such a media echo. I didn’t want to patronize anyone, but rather to stimulate thought. You can only get through crises and difficult situations together. Everyone has to ask themselves what they can contribute here. I can do it by giving a rent reduction to families with children, who are currently suffering the most from the explosive development of all costs. Why should only tenants restrict themselves and landlords not? Of course, I also experience additional costs, but if you have more, you can also give more.
In any case, the response to the post was tremendous. Can you describe them?
Yes, that was and is really crazy. My post alone has reached figures that I otherwise do not have anywhere near. Usually 100 people like what I post. Now it is over 2500. This is also because it has been shared in many groups. I don’t know why, but also, for example, in the group “The biggest building sins of all time” with 450,000 members. There alone, my post has been liked 31,000 times, with over 1,700 comments. Altogether there are probably several millions who have read this post by now. And then interview requests came from everywhere, from Radio Gong, SWR 3, from Sat 1 breakfast television, I only turned down the request from the Bild newspaper.
Do you also get criticism on social networks?
So 98.5 percent of the reactions are positive. But 1.5 percent accuse me of populism, that I flaunt myself, that I do party advertising or that I want to run for a new office. If there were a mayoral election coming up, I would accept the latter, but the next mayoral election is in four years, and I haven’t decided today whether I’ll stand for election again. Of course, the more popular the post becomes, the more critics there are. Some feel directly addressed or hit. But I hope that some people will think about what they could contribute in private.
What does your party, the CSU, say, which is not exactly known as a representative of tenants’ interests? came criticism?
(laughs) Indirectly, of course, always. You can tell by the fact that when you look, almost no likes come from CSU circles. But that doesn’t interest me much. I’m not a vicarious agent for the CSU, but rather the thumbtack under the butt. I’m in the party because I want to stand up for Christian values. Even if there are unfortunately always members of the CSU for whom Christian values are not so important, see the mask affair and the like. If you notice undesirable developments in your immediate vicinity, then you counteract them. And that’s what I do with it.