As sleepy as the municipality of Baierbrunn may appear in some areas, the residents are just as bright when it comes to politics.
Once again, more of them cast their votes in the federal election in autumn 2021 than anywhere else in Germany.
Baierbrunn
- The turnout was a proud 90.8 percent. For this, Mayor Patrick Ott from the ÜWG was able to receive a prize from the association “Demokratieverliebt”. The thing should stay there, Mayor Ott has already proudly announced that he will not give up the trophy anytime soon. "We will certainly defend it again." In the form of an oversized ballot box that has been in the town hall foyer since then.
The question of why the voter turnout is traditionally particularly high in Baierbrunn of all places is quite exciting.
After all, the small community on the left bank of the Isar does not have a particularly large number of places where people can come together and discuss politics, for example.
In addition to the Aldi in the industrial area, there are only two small shops in the municipality, a stationery shop that also sells fruit, and a bakery.
The “Zur Post” inn also closed some time ago and will no longer open.
The dry spell is over
At the same time, the highly idyllic community in the foothills of the Alps with its many young families has been through a dry spell, also when it comes to local politics.
Much was left behind under Mayor Eugen Kramer from the CSU, followed by the generally difficult Angermaier era from May 2014;
From autumn 2017 Wolfgang Jirschik from the ÜWG had to do with getting the administration in the town hall up and running again.
A doer in the executive chair
Thanks to the preparatory work he did, the municipality, in which some projects got stuck like a cracked record, was able to pick up speed again.
It has recently become clear that the school will get a new building at the old location, at the same time the very active association “Mittendrin in Baierbrunn” has brought life to the place, it operated an ice cream truck in the summer and plans to open a bistro soon.
With Mayor Patrick Ott from the ÜWG, a real doer has been sitting in the executive chair in the town hall between Schäftlarn and Pullach since May 2020.
Education is insufficient as a reason
But Baierbrunn, that's the amazing thing, was already making choices when there was absolute calm in front of the front door. In the last local elections, 63.7 (2014) to 77.7 percent (2002) of the citizens found their way to the ballot box, the district average was a mere 59.7 percent. And in 2019 in Baierbrunn, 36.5 percent of the population, as many people entered the signature lists for the referendum “Save the bees” as in any other municipality in the district (district average: 26.5 percent). The fact that there are also educated people living in the rich Isar Valley who want to help shape what happens around them is an argument that is only partially convincing, because in Ottobrunn, which boasts the highest proportion of academics in the district,voter turnout in the federal elections in September 2021 was “only” 84.4 percent, compared to just 54 percent in the local elections the year before.
Share of postal voters large
"From my point of view, the political commitment here is related to our island location and the natural beauties that surround us," said Richard Händl, director of the Trachtler, these days. Many people from Baierbrunn are members of many associations at the same time, and people are open-minded here on the left bank of the Isar. “The newcomers are also down-to-earth and have multiple interests.” Stefan Erbacher, co-founder of “Mittendrin”, says in turn that he used to think that voting in the community would simply be perceived as a “folkloric event” where one would like to be dressed in traditional costume. want to participate. “But we also had a large percentage of postal voters in the last election, so the idea is now falling flat,” he says. Perhaps the many parents who moved here with their children simply wanted to be good role models for the children,he says.
Award proudly received
In any case, Mayor Patrick Ott proudly accepted the unusual award.
It was a “special honor” for him, he said, “to be the mayor of such a democratically active community”.
At Christmas he wrote to his citizens on the website: "We are the community with the highest voter turnout in all of Germany: Let us therefore also put ourselves at the forefront of the movement to preserve our democracy."
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A huge ballot box as a cup: Patrick Ott receives the award from the board members Timo Albeshausen and Steven Tümler who are in love with democracy.
© Andrea Kästle