No general decree against "walks": District Office sees itself confirmed by case law

Created: 01/25/2022, 17:45

By: Christopher Peters

On Monday evening, 375 participants took part in the "walk" in Schongau in the old town.

© Hans-Helmut Herold

The district office sees itself confirmed on the basis of the current case law, in the case of the so-called "walks" in the Weilheim-Schongau district, not to issue a general decree to restrict these gatherings.

The agency announced this in a press release on Tuesday.

District - The district office gives several reasons.

Freedom of assembly is a high good, which is enshrined in Article 8 of the Basic Law.

This is to be respected.

Therefore, there can be no talk of "toleration" in the sense of accepting illegal behavior.

The authority emphasizes that a restriction of freedom of assembly by means of a general decree is not easily possible.

For this, there would have to be an actual, factually proven increased risk situation or an increased risk of infection or an extraordinary occurrence of infection.

However, this is not the case in the district.

All events went peacefully, the distances between the participants outdoors were maintained after assessment, according to the authority.

Representatives of the Office for Public Safety and Order in the Weilheim-Schongau District Office took several “walks” to get an idea of ​​the situation on site in several municipalities (Weilheim, Penzberg, Schongau, Huglfing) last week and this week.

According to the district office, they exchanged information "intensively" with representatives of the responsible police departments.

"It was unanimously determined that the gatherings were peaceful and orderly and that there is currently no need for action for security reasons."

District Office refers to the obligation to register for meetings

However, the district office points out that public gatherings in the open air must be reported to the district authority.

There were also isolated events of this type in the Weilheim-Schongau district that were not registered.

"According to current case law, the mere violation of the duty to report does not justify the categorical ban on a meeting," said the district office, referring to the decisions of the Munich Administrative Court to lift the general decrees of the neighboring districts of Landsberg am Lech and Starnberg.

However, it has been proven that there can also be a risk of infection from constitutionally protected assemblies, the district office states in its communication.

"Therefore, the meeting authority is permitted to issue binding regulations for meetings such as the obligation to wear masks, the requirement to keep distance, the upper limit for participants, the hygiene concept and other measures serving to protect against infection." Registered meetings may therefore receive a corresponding notification of conditions.

In the case of unannounced gatherings, the police take over the tasks of order to avert dangers to public safety.

1100 participants at "walk" on Monday evening in Penzberg

Yesterday, Monday, numerous people took to the streets again in the district for “walks”.

There is still a division in the district: while the demonstrations in Schongau, Peißenberg and Penzberg were registered as always, this was not the case in Weilheim and Peiting again.

According to Deputy Police Chief Armin Ritterswürden, around 1,100 participants were present in Penzberg on Monday evening, slightly fewer than the week before.

Everything went smoothly - if it stays that way, the police don't think the event should be relocated, he said.

According to Deputy Police Chief Toni Müller, there were 375 participants in Schongau and 150 to 200 in Peiting. Even if the latter was not registered, "there was no reason to intervene because regulations were being observed".

There were around 500 participants in Peißenberg, according to Deputy Police Chief Boris Nechayev, everything went smoothly.

According to Netschajew, in Weilheim, where the demo was almost traditionally not announced, for the first time there was no one at the event who wanted to take over the leadership of the meeting.

Nevertheless, the "walk" went well, according to Nechayev.