Discord in the local council: With the crowbar

S chellhorn consists of just a few streets with well-kept single-family houses; sheep and donkeys graze in a pasture on the main street. The former village borders the neighboring town of Preetz so closely on one side that no transition can be seen. Other parts of the community lie between fields, meadows and lakes. There is some agriculture and tourism, and many residents commute to work in Kiel.

But the peace is deceptive: There have been rumblings for a long time in the local council, which only consists of members of three electoral communities. The local authority supervisory authority is currently examining a particularly blatant case: it concerns the construction of apartment buildings, the attempted influence of a municipal representative, a deputy mayor under pressure and disputed camps.

“It makes me sad how things are going at the moment,” says Thomas Schult, the mayor of Schellhorn. He took over the position a good year ago after two other volunteers threw in the towel in quick succession. Several members of the local council also resigned because of the bad mood. “We have so much planned,” says Schult. The elementary school will receive a new cafeteria and the fire station will be expanded. "That's more than enough for us volunteers to do. There should be other ways than fighting openly on stage."

The last time such an argument took place on an open stage was at the end of September. In fact, the scene in the basement of the “Landhaus Fillert” was reminiscent of a theater setup: in the back of the hall, the local councilors sat at U-shaped tables, with the audience sitting in rows of chairs in front of them. At the beginning of the meeting, Schellhorn resident Birger Bastian stood up and bombarded Mayor Schult and the minute-taker sitting next to him, Peter Krebs from the local administration, with questions: "How do you assess the fact that the deputy mayor tried to influence the voting behavior of a community representative? Why didn't the local administration do anything? What is happening to clarify these things?"

The case to which Bastian was referring had already occurred in February 2025. In an email available to taz, Deputy Mayor Steffen Kaczmarczyk wrote to a local councilor from another parliamentary group: "On February 6, 2025, you were the only member of the General Assembly to vote no. Our lawyer and we would be interested in your appropriate reasons." If the “appropriate reasons” are not presented by a set deadline, “I suggest that you leave the general council immediately”.

Apart from the fact that elected representatives only vote according to their conscience and do not have to justify themselves, this case is particularly piquant. The vote in question concerns Kaczmarczyk privately - it is about the construction of four apartment buildings that Kaczmarczyk and his wife are financing. However, the logo of his former voting community “Moin Schellhorn” appears in Kaczmarczyk’s email, and his voluntary role is named in the signature.

The local councilor did not respond to the request and remains a member of the committee. She didn't want to speak to the taz, but people around her say that since the email she has been reluctant to meet Kaczmarczyk and his wife, who also sits on the local council. She no longer enjoys volunteering.

The letter made the rounds in the local council at the time, reports Mayor Schult. His predecessor made it clear to Steffen Kaczmarczyk that she would not tolerate such behavior. He then promised that it wouldn't happen again. Kaczmarczyk, who did not respond to a request from taz, remains deputy mayor.

“Why is this coming back to the table now?” asks Schult. “We took action and something changed.” Others in the town see it differently: “These shenanigans and threats go on all the time,” says a former community representative.

Birger Bastian reports that he only recently found out about the email. The qualified engineer lives and works in Schellhorn. He has been watching community politics with concern for a long time: “There is a lot of tweaking and tinkering going on here.” Because of his open criticism, he has already been “decried because I annoy the authorities.”

He says someone anonymously put a printout of Kaczmarczyk's email in his mailbox. And unlike the affected local councilor, who only spoke about the issue in a narrow circle in February 2025, Bastian made the case public. “It bothers me when people don’t follow the rules,” he said.

He's not just concerned about the email, but also about the four apartment buildings that Kaczmarczyk and his wife are building. Even when they were approved, the rules could not have been followed, he suspects.

The houses are in the Schellhorn area, but can only be accessed via a road that lies on the ground in the neighboring town of Preetz. The city has declared the narrow, tree-lined street a “recreation axis,” and there is also no rainwater sewer system, reports the Kieler Nachrichten.

New houses that involve car traffic and soil sealing are therefore undesirable from Preetz's point of view. The city even banned construction vehicles from entering the area. And she is suing the Plön district, which approved the construction, in the administrative court. Steffen Kaczmarczyk sees himself as a victim: “It is more important to the city of Preetz to harm us than to pursue the proceedings,” he told the Kieler Nachrichten. Nobody can have anything against new apartments.

The decision in this case is now pending, and Birger Bastian fears that the court will retroactively approve the almost finished apartment buildings. “But if things like this come through, at some point we can forget about building law,” says Bastian.

The Kaczmarczyk couple are forcing the city of Preetz to develop the road for their benefit and at the expense of taxpayers. He suspects that the Schellhorn local council would not have been aware of this background when they voted. That's why he's doing everything he can to make the case known.

He didn't get his questions through to the Schellhorn local council. Instead of addressing the allegations, the group stoically worked through the agenda at their meeting at the end of September, discussing ashtray attachments on public trash cans and expanding the fire station.

In retrospect, Thomas Schult believes it was right that he did not allow the allegations to be discussed at the meeting: "Mr. Bastian speaks of coercion of the community representative - but doesn't he also exert pressure when he asks such questions publicly?" They would be answered at the next meeting, as required by municipal regulations.

The municipal supervisory authority, which is part of the Plön district, has now also become involved. The investigation is still ongoing, says district spokeswoman Nicole Heyck. The authority checks whether everything went correctly when the construction project was approved. The email from Kaczmarczyk to the local councilor requires “an independent assessment”.

It is currently unclear whether Kaczmarczyk wants and can remain in his office. Just like the question of whether peace will return to Schellhorn. Mayor Schult believes in this: "I'm an optimist. I want to look into the future together with everyone."

Peter Krebs, the head of the local administration, has no real idea how this could be achieved. “It always depends on the people involved.” He admires everyone who volunteers in local politics.

Birger Bastian also remains committed, just outside of the committee. “I don’t want people to advance their own interests with false promises and bypassing the rules.” He wants to keep looking closely.