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Expensive rent in Munich: How Ms. Jünke lost her home

2021-11-07T15:55:21.351Z


Karin Jünke lived in Munich-Schwabing for 70 years until the new home owner doubled the rent. Now she lives on the outskirts and misses life. And she's angry.


Read the video transcript here

Karin Jünke, pensioner

"I miss people, I miss cars, I miss life out here ... that I see people, they see it for themselves, dead pants, nothing more."

Karin Jünke lived her entire life in one and the same house in Munich-Schwabing for 71 years.

But in 2014 the widow had to vacate her apartment after the rent had almost doubled within a few months.


Today the 78-year-old lives on the outskirts of Munich in a residential complex for senior citizens.

Karin Jünke


"Sure you see people here too, they say:" Good morning "and walk past, but otherwise ... this is part of it, I don't have that here, I don't get that either."

She is almost never in her old quarter, the memories are too painful.

But on this day Jünke meets with his girlfriend Sabine Roth.

For 50 years they were neighbors in a house in Schwabing, and Roth also had to vacate their apartment.

They want to know: What happened to their former home?

Karin Jünke


"Hi, haven't seen you in a long time"

Karin Jünke


"Over there lies my Klausi, in the cemetery ... that's where my parents and grandparents are buried, but we don't even look over there, I don't like ..."


Reporter: "Ms. Jünke, the closer you get to your home ... «


Jünke:» ... the calmer my stomach feels is very strange.

So, now we come to Alt-Schwabing, that back there is all Alt-Schwabing, now take a look at all the beautiful houses. "

Karin Jünke


»So now go right, then left to the third traffic light, then we're there«

As a young woman, Karin Jünke married in this building….

Karin Jünke


"I don't know if that ... is no longer a panther, no, Levante, no idea, I don't know ..."

Jünke walked past this intersection all her life, today she hardly recognizes the surroundings: boutiques, regular bars, neighbors.

Nobody seems to be there anymore.

Karin Jünke realizes that her quarter of the past no longer seems to exist.

Karin Jünke


"There's another jeweler who must have regular customers, or homeowners who don't increase endlessly, but I think the others ... they all break the small shops ..."

Only a few meters away from their old home, Jünke and her family lived here for four generations under one roof.

Karin Jünke


"

That was my children's room, next to it was a chamber, and next to it was the apartment of my parents and grandparents ...

"

In 2014 the landlord's grandson took over the house, a few months later Jünke had to vacate her apartment.

Reporter: "When you look at the doorbell, do you still know names?"


Jünke: "There is only himself, so he lives there himself, the house owner ... but otherwise everyone is outside."

Karin Jünke


"You can film it ... I'll go over ... No, I don't want to go in there anymore."

Not even finally confronting the homeowner?

Karin Jünke


"I don't want to confront him, I would just be afraid that I would do something that I would regret afterwards."

Sabine Roth, pensioner


"I'm glad I don't have a friend or anyone in there that I have to visit, that I also have to go in ..."

Karin Jünke


"You just have to finish with it, otherwise you will go nuts."

Karin Jünke has seen enough, she just wants to get away from here.

But she cannot finish.

The anger is too present: a rent increase of almost 100 percent - how did that happen?

Munich has held a sad record for many years; in no other city in Germany do you live so dearly for rent.

Not only retirees like Karin Jünke are displaced as a result.

Young people are also affected.

Like Kevin Martin.

He is an employee of the municipal utilities.

Martin works for the city, but she doesn't have affordable housing for him.

Kevin Martin, employee of the city of Munich


»I lived up there, on the right, that's the kitchen window, on the right that's my room, and yes I don't live there anymore… it's a shame because it's a very nice area, but at some point there is no longer any point in doing that to yourself. "

Martin is visiting his old flat share in the Berg am Laim district.

His friends still live here, but he could no longer afford the rent.

Kevin Martin


»We had the problem that the rental price brake didn't apply at the time, that is, he could call up the price as he was funny, and accordingly he took 1500 € for 59 square meters ... yes, that's 23 € per square meter, roughly ... and then there is also a graduated lease, ie every year in April the rent is three percent more expensive. "

Kevin Martin has lived in Munich since 2013.

He has moved a total of six times since then: sometimes due to termination for personal use, sometimes because rents were too high.

In the meantime he has moved to the country in Weilheim with his girlfriend: there he pays less rent for more space, but what does he think about the city he works for?

Kevin Martin


»You can't afford Munich, although you help keep the city running and functioning.

And I think it's not just me, but a lot of other people who the city also needs, yes, the hairdresser around the corner or the salesman in the supermarket, they need it too.

And if they can no longer afford Munich, then at some point Munich will have a big problem. "

He has to go, catch his train, again.

Because Kevin Martin now commutes two and a half to three hours every day.

The 27-year-old takes it with gallows humor.

Kevin Martin


"Ah yes, that's always useful if the ad fails ..."

And seems irritated by daily train travel.

Kevin Martin


"To have some honking boobies standing next to me, and that every day!"

Kevin Martin's way to work got longer and longer.

However, considering the rental prices, he will not return to Munich.

Back on the outskirts of Munich in Jünke's apartment.

In this folder she has documented how she lost her home in a few weeks.

The new homeowner is modernizing: new stairs, new windows, new heating.

A new letter comes with every measure.

Karin Jünke, pensioner


"Well, there is a new total rent: 1752 euros and 250 euros for the lift."

Karin Jünke


"I was good at € 1250 rent, and all the modernization measures would have made me easily at € 2000"

It is made possible by a law that allows landlords to pass 11 percent of the modernization costs on to tenants.

The law was changed in 2019, but for Jünke it cost her home.

Karin Jünke


»I just miss it, that sounds stupid, but I miss my home.

My beautiful life actually ended there. "

Karin Jünke feels stolen - from politics, but above all from the homeowner, she already knew him when he was a child.

Karin Jünke


»And then you will be treated like the last shit, so I don't wish him any good, I wish him exactly the same good old age as I have, I wish him exactly the same.

Maybe he has to walk on a rollator from time to time, maybe someone will throw him out ... so we older people have lost a huge amount of quality of life. "

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-11-07

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