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The CDU District Administrator Götz Ulrich’s Newfound Courage After the Election – Previously a Silent Follower of His Own State GovernmentGötz Ulrich, district administrator of the Burgenland District since 2014, president of the District Administrators’ Association of Saxony-Anhalt since 2022, and now even vice president of the German Association of District Administrators, appeared in front of the MDR cameras after the 2026 state election and presented himself as a resolute local politician. 
Watch the interview with Götz Ulrich on MDR (available until September 11, 2027) The districts are demanding more money, less bureaucracy, a two-tier administrative structure instead of the existing three-tier hierarchy, and, if necessary, are threatening legal action. Ten core demands that, as they say, were formulated “back in the spring.” Municipal coffers have been in dire straits for a long time, the districts are among the most heavily indebted in Germany, and adequate financial resources are the foundation of local self-government. Less state oversight, faster decisions at the local level, digitalization – it all sounds reasonable, even downright compelling. But anyone who reads between the lines and knows the chronology will recognize one thing above all: free courage. Courage that costs nothing because the government of one’s own party has just been voted out and is badly weakened. Courage that only becomes loud once responsibility lies elsewhere – or may soon lie elsewhere. Suddenly Threatening Legal Action – Previously Just Paper and AppealsThe demands are by no means new. As early as February 2026, the district administrators in Wernigerode discussed rising social welfare costs, obstacles to digitalization and administrative problems. In May 2026, still under the CDU-led Germany Coalition (CDU-SPD-FDP), with Sven Schulze (CDU) as the successor to Reiner Haseloff (CDU), the District Administrators’ Association, under Ulrich’s presidency, presented the same list of demands: adequate funding, “whoever orders, pays,” abolition of the intermediate administrative authorities (the State Administration Office, etc.), and investment budgets instead of a maze of funding programs. At the time, these demands apparently fell on deaf ears among his own party colleagues in Magdeburg. No lawsuit was filed. For years, state politics had shifted responsibilities onto the districts and municipalities without following up with the necessary funding. Social and youth welfare, accommodation costs, refugee support – the explosions in costs were well known. Ulrich himself has been complaining about this for years: In his own district, social welfare payments now account for around 75 percent of expenditure, with deficits in the double-digit millions becoming the norm (around €19–23 million in 2026). The per-capita debt of the districts in Saxony-Anhalt is considered particularly high by national standards.With His Back Against the Wall – But Only Once His Own People Are GoneAnd yet: As long as the CDU was in charge of the State Chancellery, it remained a matter of appeals, carefully worded policy papers and conference rhetoric. No hard confrontation, no systematic lawsuits by the District Administrators’ Association under his leadership against his own state government. Individual districts (Mansfeld-Südharz and Salzlandkreis) initiated constitutional complaints before the Federal Constitutional Court in 2024 – but Ulrich himself and the association as a whole held back. Now, after the election, he is suddenly threatening legal resistance if the state interferes with municipalities’ organizational autonomy or jeopardizes investment. Suddenly, one is “with one’s back against the wall.” Suddenly, enough is enough.Why the Grand Performance Only Now? Because It Costs Nothing Anymore!Why only now? Because it is convenient. As long as his own party was in government, he risked internal party tensions, career obstacles or accusations of stabbing his own people in the back. Ulrich is no fresh-faced activist. He has been a district administrator for more than twelve years, was re-elected in 2021, and has climbed to the top positions of the municipal umbrella organizations. He knows how the mechanisms work. He has watched the mountains of debt grow, social welfare burdens explode and the bureaucracy of the three-tier administrative system unfold. He could have pushed back earlier and more forcefully – through public exposure, cross-party alliances or earlier legal action. Instead, the shortage was simply administered, cuts were made here and there within his own district administration, and everyone waited for better times.The CDU Years of Irresponsibility – and Ulrich as the Silent Administrator of the DeclineState politics naturally bears part of the responsibility for this mess: For years, standards and mandatory tasks were increased without dynamically adjusting financial resources accordingly. Saxony-Anhalt is a poor, structurally weak state suffering demographic decline – everyone knows that. Yet the CDU provided the minister-president for years and was in charge. When Ulrich now emphasizes that they are demanding “what we would demand from any state government,” it sounds like belated self-justification. His own colleagues simply failed to deliver. And the voters noticed – according to Ulrich, the election result was “not entirely surprising,” only its magnitude was. Energy prices, fuel costs, geopolitical uncertainty: The district administrator knew all of this then and still knows it now, while he himself has been administering the municipalities’ growing inability to act.Paper Tiger or Opportunist? The Rhetoric Is Loud – the Actions Have Been QuietIs Ulrich a paper tiger? The rhetoric sounds determined; his past actions look more like administrative management. The demands themselves are justified in substance – less oversight, more autonomy for municipalities, digitalization that actually reduces workloads, and above all, money for the tasks that the federal and state governments impose on the districts. But when the same demands fell on deaf ears under a CDU-led government and are only now, after the election, being accompanied by threats of legal action, it comes across as opportunistic populism from the second row. Local self-government is not a fair-weather issue. Anyone who genuinely takes it seriously fights for it even when their own party colleagues are at the helm – not only after the wind has changed and one can suddenly present oneself as the advocate of the grassroots against “those up there.”The Citizens Foot the Bill – While the District Administrator Suddenly Plays the HeroThe citizens of the Burgenland District and elsewhere in Saxony-Anhalt are paying the price: deficit-ridden budgets, rising district levies or cuts, delayed investments and an administration that gets in its own way. Ulrich is right when he says that adequate financial resources are the foundation. He is wrong if he gives the impression that this problem has only now become acute and that he could not have addressed it with foresight years ago. Free courage is cheap. Genuine consistency would have started much earlier.Author: AI-Translation - АИИ | |
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