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Villages in revolt: Herberhausen and Roringen defend themselves against constituency changes!
Two Göttingen villages are resisting the constituency reform. Local mayors are calling for the city to remain in the Göttingen constituency.
Villages in revolt: Herberhausen and Roringen defend themselves against constituency changes!
In Göttingen, the planned changes to the constituencies are causing quite an uproar. The local mayor of Roringen, Marion Stadlhuber, and her colleague from Herberhausen, Volker Grothey, have openly expressed their horror at the proposed change to the Duderstadt constituency. This step is seen as necessary to remedy a democratic deficit in Lower Saxony, but the city's easternmost villages in particular do not want to be part of this plan. Their concerns are great: the Herberhausen local council has already sent an appeal to the city administration to demand that they remain in the Göttingen constituency. “We just don’t feel like we’re in good hands here,” said Grothey reported the Göttinger Tageblatt.
The background is not irrelevant. The Göttingen constituency has an abnormal size of 10.96% above average, while Duderstadt is 18.37% below average. To ensure that the constituency reform remains legally justifiable, a maximum deviation of 15% is stipulated by law. But many citizens in Herberhausen and Roringen agree: the change would make them “second-class voters” and would not adequately represent their voice in the state parliament. “There is something to it,” says state parliament member Karola Margraf, who criticizes the state government’s proposal confirmed the city of Göttingen.
Local council meetings as a platform for dialogue
There will be several local council meetings in the second week of November 2025, where the change of constituency will also be on the agenda. On Tuesday, November 11th, the Herberhausen local council will meet in the community center and will also discuss the statement on the constituency reform. The meeting starts at 8:00 p.m. and everyone has the opportunity to ask questions and contribute their opinions.
In addition to the central point of constituency reform, other topics such as subsidies to clubs and institutions and fiber optic expansion are also on the agenda informed the city of Göttingen.
In addition, the local councils of Elliehausen/Esebeck and Weende/Deppoldshausen as well as Groß Ellershausen/Hetjershausen/Knutbühren are active and have important topics such as the local transport plan and traffic calming to discuss at their meetings. In the representative setting of these meetings, it becomes clear how important the opinions of citizens in the different districts are, even when it comes to such a controversial topic as constituency reform.