Golf GTI at a presentation at the 2012 Paris Motor Show
Photo: Uli Deck/ dpa
Since the 1980s, the 1,600-inhabitant community of Maria Wörth on the southern shore of Lake Wörthersee has been a Mecca of a special kind: declared fans of the Golf GTI make the pilgrimage here once a year to exchange ideas and devote themselves to their passion.
But that should now finally be the end of it.
In the past three years, the meeting of Volkswagen lovers has been canceled due to corona.
Nevertheless, according to officials, around 5,000 vehicles came to an unofficial meeting at Lake Wörthersee in 2022.
The police issued 3,700 reports and took away more than 400 license plates.
Now the traditional GTI meet is to go to the hunting grounds forever.
The event, which is also popular with German car fans, has taken the place to the limits of its resilience and provoked "increasing criticism and decreasing acceptance", the municipality in the southern federal state of Carinthia announced on Monday.
As reasons for their decision, the municipality cited "the effects of climate change, the responsibility of political decision-makers for the preservation of ecosystems and the need to align actions at all levels with the principles of sustainability".
It is true that the event "brought the community many encounters, great fame and, last but not least, economic impulses".
But now a comprehensive transformation process has been initiated.
ala/dpa