Welcome Veronika!

On Thursday, 14 January 2016, Veronika was born! She came into the world in Erlangen/ Bavaria and her full name is Veronika Lea Rosemary Hirmer. 



Relatives trying to figure out family relations

She is the first child to her parents Manuel and Jessica Hirmer (Schoser), the first grandchild to her grandparents Martin and Uta Schoser and the first great-grandchild to great-grandparents Franz and Edith Schoser. From her mother's side, she has three aunts and two uncles. Other relatives are still trying to figure out how they relate to the firstborn of the next generation, whether they are great-cousins, uncles or aunts of second or third degree or half-step-great-nephews or nieces...

Back in the Cologne City Council

In today's election for the City Council of Cologne, Martin managed to regain his seat as one of the 90 Council members. After having gained a seat also in the two previous Council elections, he had given up his seat in 2010 in favour of a seat in the regional Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia as his party's rules of association exclude holding seats in both Parliaments at the same time.

Today, Martin obtained almost 36% of the votes in the Lindenthal I voting district corresponding to 4,698 votes. Compared to the results of the previous elections in 2009, Martin increased the number of votes by about 600, translating into a one percentage point increase in voting shares. He is ahead of his closest contender by about 13.5 percentage points, compared to 10.5 percentage points five years ago.

Here we go again!

Martin Schoser running to renew his seat as Member of Parliament in the regional elections in North-Rhine Westphalia on 13 May 2012.

Kick it like Klose

With the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa approaching its climax, it seems fair to ask whether Schosers have only been watching football or whether they have got their act together and played some football themselves. The answer to this question rests with a small football club in Cologne: SC Borussia Hohenlind.

Three Schosers are active in this club. Konstantin Schoser plays for the bambini 2 team for those born in 2004. Last season his team played more than 20 matches against other club teams, the most remarkable being a 16:2 victory over RSV Urbach III.
One of his coaches is Alexander Schoser who at the same time plays in Hohenlind's A2 team for those under 19. Indeed, Alexander's A2 team finished the 2009/10 season as champions of their division!!
Finally, Borussia Hohenlind awarded in October 2009 a 'silver pin' to Martin Schoser for his 10-year membership. However rather than playing himself Martin seems to prefer watching football whether played by his sons or at the World Cup.

The Member of Parliament

Having been reelected to the City Council of Cologne in August 2009, Martin stood for yet another election on 9 May 2010. At stake was a seat in the regional Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia for which he needed to obtain a relative majority of votes in the Cologne II constituency. Martin succeeded by obtaining 38% of the personal votes (corresponding to 27 745 votes), 6.3 percentage points more than the second placed candidate.

Martin managed to gather more personal votes than there were votes for his party in the same constituency (23 831 votes corresponding to 32.6%). Martin will now be one of the 181 members of the North Rhine-Westphalia Parliament for the next five years.

The votes have been counted...

The municipality elections in Cologne/ Köln are over and Martin has indeed secured his seat in the city council. He obtained a relative majority in Cologne's Lindenthal I district with an impressive margin of 10.5% ahead of his closest contender. Martin scored 34.71% corresponding to a total of 4092 votes. His score is thus about seven percentage points higher than the average score for his party in Cologne.

Vote 'Schoser'!

30 August 2009 is the day to vote 'Schoser'! Martin is running for reelection to his mandate in the city council of Cologne/ Köln. It would be his third term. The streets in his election district in Cologne are covered with his campaign picture. How could it then possibly go wrong?