Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher will not become an honorary citizen in his hometown of Kerpen for the time being. At the end of November, the factions in the city council agreed that there was currently no need for an honor system for the city, a spokeswoman for the city told the German Press Agency. The decision was not made by the administration or the mayor, but rather a decision by politicians in the council. Several media outlets had previously reported.
The decision was met with incomprehension, especially by Schumacher’s younger brother Ralf. “This is typical of Germany and our politics,” writes the ex-racing driver and TV expert on Instagram alongside a screenshot of an article about the decision from the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. Performance “doesn’t seem to be important anymore.” Given what his brother had done for Kerpen through his successes, he was “just at a loss for words.”
At the beginning of 2024, the Michael Schumacher fan club in Kerpen campaigned for honorary citizenship for the former Formula 1 world champion with a petition. Like his brother, Michael Schumacher was born in Hürth, but spent a large part of his childhood in Kerpen and ran a go-kart track there. After suffering a serious head injury in a skiing accident at the end of 2013, Michael Schumacher no longer appeared in public.
The Kerpen city administration announced that Mayor Dieter Spürck (CDU) could understand that Ralf Schumacher was standing up for his brother. Michael Schumacher, as well as racing driver Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and the social reformer Adolph Kolping, made the city’s name known to the world. In March, the awarding of honorary citizenship to Michael Schumacher was discussed in the city council and postponed unanimously. It was said that the parliamentary groups and the non-party city councilors should first agree on whether honorary citizenship should be introduced. To date, the city administration has not received any new applications on this topic.
#honorary #citizenship #Michael #Schumacher #Kerpen
