<nettime> Alleged Annexation to Poland Creates Confusion in Zittau

[Alain Kessi <kessi@bitex.com>]

Zittau, 26 July (AFP) - Pranksters have created confusion in Zittau by
announcing the imminent annexation of the Saxon border town to Poland. 
According to an announcement by the police headquarters in Görlitz on
Monday, a couple aged about 25 on Sunday distributed faked leaflets with
the letterhead of the Ministry of Interior of Dresden. These announced to
the citizens that this town of 27,800 inhabitants would be part of the
neighboring country starting in 2002. Following the "renewed request of
the organizations of deported Germans in the German parliament", the
German eastern border had been re-measured and established to run 5.24
kilometers West of the town, the leaflet explained. 

Monday, 26.07.1999 - Top-News: politics

Zittau (dpa) 

Faked official announcements of an alleged annexation of the town of
Zittau to Poland yesterday have created unrest. The fakers distributed the
papers as preliminary information from the Ministry of Interior of Saxony,
the police reports. According to them, the town, which is near the border,
is to be excluded of Germany in 2002. After the annexation to Poland the
inhabitants would have to apply for the new citizenship and learn Polish,
the distributed material announced. A 25-year-old couple is suspected to
be the originators. 

Mainpost

Monday, 26 July 1999, 3:44 pm

Fake letter creates a fuss in Zittau

Görlitz/Zittau (AP) A fake letter of the Saxon Ministry of Interior has
created great agitation in the town of Zittau. Unknown individuals
announced in a letter to the inhabitants that they would be annexed to
Poland in 2002. The Police in Görlitz revealed on Monday that the letter
had been distributed in the mailboxes of houses in the South of the town
on Sunday. Eyewitnesses reported having observed a couple of about 25
years distributing the letters. 

Zittau lies at the meeting point of the borders between Germany, the Czech
Republic and Poland. The letter states that the city will be part of
Polish state territory starting 1 January 2002 due to a renewed measuring
of the border. The deadline for applying for Polish citizenship is
indicated as 1 March 2001. However, knowledge of the Polish language is
required. The Ministry of Interior would provide language classes at no
cost. The letter bears a faked official stamp of the Ministry and is
signed by a certain Secretary of State Peter Schaubert, who does not
exist, however. 

The mayor of Zittau, Jürgen Kloß, speaks of a malicious fake and says all
the information in the letter is freely invented. The police started an
investigation on the suspicion of forgery. 






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