The number of people leaving the church in the Würmtal has increased dramatically.
The Catholic Church is losing significantly more followers than the Protestant.
Würmtal
– The first quarter is not over yet, and the registry offices in the Würmtal have already registered half as many people leaving the church as in the whole of last year.
Above all, the Catholic parishes in the Würmtal are currently losing hundreds of members.
"It can be assumed that by April 2022 at the latest we will have registered as many church exits as in the whole of 2021," says the spokeswoman for the Neuried community, Inke Franzen.
It's not quite as dramatic in the other Würmtal communities.
But even there, the numbers speak for themselves: In Graefelfing, in the first few months of this year, 55 Catholics left and ten Protestants left.
In Krailling the ratio is 37:3, in Gauting 107:26 and in Neuried 64:6.
The big push came in February
The big push came in Neuried in February of this year - after the publication of the latest report on abuse by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising.
In January, two citizens left the Protestant Church and ten left the Catholic Church. In February, four Protestants and 54 Catholics said goodbye to their church.
A total of 70 people from Neuried have left the churches this year, and the municipal administration registered 81 people leaving the church in 2021.
Franzen: "So it can be said that we had significantly more people leaving the church in the first two months of this year than in the previous year."
In Gauting, too, the big wave of departures came in February.
In January, 41 people left the churches there, in February there were 71. In March there were 21 so far, making a total of 133 people leaving the church.
A year ago, the situation for the churches in the Gauting community looked a little rosier: between January and March 2021, 65 people left the churches.
"So this year there are already more than twice as many in the same period," said the spokeswoman for the community, Charlotte Rieboldt.
A total of 246 people from Gautingen left the churches last year, and even then most of the losses hit the Catholic parishes in the community (around 60 percent).
75 exit in Planegg
In Planegg there have already been 75 church exits this year.
In the same period last year, there were just two.
By the end of the year, the number had risen to 86. Normally, 100 to 120 people per year leave the church in Planegg, according to registrar Manuela Fischer-Blache.
"Due to the closure of the town hall at the "Corona peak times", there have been slightly fewer in the last two years," she says.
Now the closure doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.
In Krailling, too, the number of people leaving the church has increased significantly.
In 2021, 104 citizens left their church there.
In January and February this year, there were already 40 altogether. "In January and February, many people left compared to the years before," says Krailling's registrar, Bettina Regensburger.
And again it hits, especially the Catholic Church.
"In 2021, the number of people leaving the Catholic Church has already increased slightly compared to previous years," explains Regensburger.
In Graefelfing, on the other hand, the situation at the beginning of 2021 was relatively calm.
Back in January, not a single finger turned away from the Vatican.
In February it was nine.
A year later the situation is different: 33 Catholics left in January, 22 in February.
The Protestants were able to keep their level at a low level.