Today in Rhein-Main: The "normal madness"

Good evening,

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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Happy New Year to you!

One that promises to be exciting in the Rhine-Main region: in just a few weeks there will be mayoral elections

, Mainz and Darmstadt, and later, in autumn,

.

All this against the background of the ongoing challenges - the war in Ukraine with all its consequences right into this metropolitan area, the continued high number of corona infections, inflation, the new wave of refugees.

It can get really dizzy.

But let's start with 2023:

In his New Year's speech on Hessischer Rundfunk, the Hessian Prime Minister

Boris Rhein (CDU) felt compelled to recall the importance of democracy.

Rhein also made a second statement this weekend, on the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Rhein described him as a brilliant theologian.

The President of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, Volker Jung, even spoke of a

.

Above all, of course, there were numerous statements from the Catholic Church.

Limburg bishop Georg Bätzing, who is also chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, called Benedict an impressive theologian and experienced shepherd.

"Pope Benedict made the voice of the gospel - whether convenient or not - audible."

There were numerous police and fire brigade operations in the region

But all in all "normal madness", as a spokesman for the Wiesbaden police put it.

Since the terrible incidents on New Year's Eve 2015/2016, one always pays attention when there are sexually motivated attacks on women, and

An uninvolved helper was also attacked.

Attention will be paid to whether there are further reports of sexual harassment in the next few days.

Even seven years ago, the truth only gradually came to light.

As his lawyers had already announced,

that was pronounced against him the day before Christmas Eve.

Feldmann had been sentenced to a fine for accepting an advantage – a verdict, as he now writes, that was based solely on “hearsay”.

He trusts the rule of law.

And in addition

, Petra Kirchhoff from the business editorial department reviews the year 2022 from a consumer

more and more wood is being stolen from Hessian forests, as Kim Maurus reports

Katharina Deschka visited the room in the Wiesbaden Museum that is dedicated to Maria Sibylla Merian .

I wish you a pleasant evening

Yours, Manfred Koehler

You can also read current reports from the region in Skyline-Blick, our live news blog for the Rhine-Main region, and on the Rhein-Main-Zeitung website.

The

for Monday

Some sun in the morning, then changing to very cloudy with occasional rain or drizzle.

Highs around 13 to 15 degrees.

have a birthday

on

Hermann Avenarius

, lawyer, professor emeritus at the German Institute for International Educational Research, Frankfurt (85);

, longtime director of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach (67);

, managing director and artistic director of the Heussenstamm Foundation, Frankfurt (57);

(The Greens), State Secretary in the Hessian Ministry of Economics (57);

(CDU), Prime Minister of the State of Hesse, State Chairman of his party, from 2019 to May 2022 President of the Hessian State Parliament, Wiesbaden (51).

You can find information about events online.