Court overturns "walk" ban in Starnberg district

Created: 01/19/2022 05:49 am

By: Andrea Graepel, Tobias Gmach

On Monday evening, 50 to 60 "Corona walkers" gathered on the Starnberg church square.

The police searched in vain for a leader of the meeting.

© Andrea Jaksch

The administrative court has overturned the ban on corona "walks" in Starnberg, Gauting, Gilching and Herrsching.

The district has lodged an appeal against the decision and is now examining how it can restrict the unannounced gatherings with milder means.

District – The police presence in Starnberg on Monday evening was impressive. Around ten team vans were positioned on and around the church square - well before 6 p.m., the usual start of the protests against the pandemic policy, also known as Corona "walks". "We want to make it clear that gatherings are prohibited here," said operations manager Kai Motschmann at 5:30 p.m. At that time he did not know about the short-term decision of the Bavarian Administrative Court (VG), which turned everything upside down. At the same time, the district office learned that the court had overturned the ban.

The district had banned the "walks" by general decree in Starnberg, Gauting, Gilching and Herrsching on Friday. On Sunday, a Herrschinger then submitted an urgent application to the administrative court, which is available to the Starnberger Merkur. "I feel that this ban on assembly has curtailed my fundamental right to freedom of expression, assembly and democracy," it says. The police are aware of the places and times of the meetings, a heated and emotional climate and a threat to third parties could not be seen in the past Mondays. Herrschinger referred to the decision of the Stuttgart administrative court, which overturned such a general decree by the city of Bad Mergentheim.

And that's how it happened in the district of Starnberg. Upon request, VG spokesman Dr. Matthias Prinzler that only a few hours were available for the decision. Therefore, "no in-depth legal examination" was carried out, but "initially only a brief judicial weighing of interests". According to Prinzler, the “actually imposed preventive ban on assembly” could be disproportionate. And vaguely further: “Compared to a complete ban on the assembly, there are likely to be milder means available, for example a mask requirement, the assignment of fixed assembly locations or, if necessary, the subsequent dissolution of the assemblies. A mere breach of the obligation to notify gatherings could probably not justify the preventive bans.”

The operations management: Kai Motschmann (in the car) and Oliver Jauch from the Starnberg inspection coordinated the police patrols.

© Andrea Jaksch

According to District Administrator Stefan Frey, the district is now examining those “milder means” for the coming week.

However, he also appealed against the decision.

The Bavarian Administrative Court will soon decide on them.

Frey: "You can't let it go on like this." So the minimum for him is that the "walkers" consistently wear masks and keep their distance.

Despite the defeat in court, there was also a positive aspect for the district administrator on Monday evening: "Many citizens saw that the events did not comply with the legal system.

Many didn't come."

That was true for Starnberg. The police estimated 50 to 60 people on the church square. One participant told Merkur: "I'm not against wearing a mask, I follow the rules. But I find some measures such as compulsory vaccination excessive.” She is stigmatized as a healthy and responsible person. Her family doctor did not advise her against the vaccination, but pointed out possible allergic reactions.

The police presence, which incidentally was also large in Gilching, Gauting and Herrsching, caused astonishment.

"How scared are our politicians?" a man in Starnberg called out to the police.

She later wanted to use the announcement to ask the leader of the meeting.

As expected, unsuccessful.

That person would have been charged with a misdemeanor.

After that, the walkers moved through the city in small groups, singing at the Schlossberghalle.

Starnberger AfD reserves the right to take legal action

There was a little more going on in Herrsching with an estimated 150 participants - which could be because the person whose objection to the general decree was successful lives there. On site, the "walkers" were happy, and many a straggler fell in line when the court decision had made the rounds. It was similar in Gilching, where an estimated 50 people “went for a walk”. There, a woman stepped onto her balcony on Pollinger Strasse and sang: "Go home." Mayor Manfred Walter was also a spectator. His comment: "I just wanted to see if the walkers are really as non-violent as they had written on our pavement." In front of the town hall was written with chalk at the weekend: "Mr. Walter, there are no Nazis here! See for yourself: Monday, 6 p.m.The mayor's impression in the evening: "Today everything is really harmless. You have the feeling that the group would like to see Gilching at night.” According to the police, there were around 70 people in Gauting and around 20 in Pöcking.

AfD district boss Prof. Ingo Hahn meanwhile criticized the actions of the district as arbitrary.

The party condemns the "criminalization of peaceful Monday strollers".

In a press release, before the general decree was overturned, he emphasized that the Starnberg AfD reserved the right to take legal action "to protect democracy and the rule of law from arbitrary government action".

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