Mayor Frank Klingebiel is stunned and saddened by the news:

"The terrible news that our city councillor Dirk Härdrich died suddenly on the night of Christmas Eve has shaken my closest management team, myself and my wife to the core. We are still stunned and infinitely saddened. Dirk Härdrich, a dear person who always radiated joy ....... with his special laugh, his humor and his special personality; a very good manager who was highly valued by me, my closest management team and his employees and a highly respected personality in our city society. Even today, we cannot and do not want to understand or acknowledge that our City Councillor Dirk Härdrich is no longer with us. Dirk Härdrich and his wife Ina Härdrich, who only came into closer contact with our city through his election as City Councillor for Education, Social Affairs and Integration on 1 August 2019, have come to appreciate and love Salzgitter and its people. For Dirk Härdrich, managing his department and supporting me was not a job, but his calling.

He enriched my closest management team and his department enormously, both professionally and personally. I liked him very much as a person, respected him highly as an advisor and trusted him completely. His death, which is still incomprehensible and far too early, leaves a deep gap in his family and also in ours. We wish his wife and family much strength in these difficult days."