Trouble over rooms in the Protestant church: no apartment for refugees in the Tölz community center

Created: 06/13/2022 05:04

By: Felicitas Bogner

In the evangelical parish there is a dispute about the use of the upper rooms of the parish hall.

Does Dean get too little involved in refugee aid?

© arp

A helper initiative by members of the Protestant church community wants to create housing for refugees in the community center in Bad Tölz.

The church board, however, rejects it.

Bad Tölz –

There are disagreements among the Tölz Protestants about the use of rooms in the Evangelical parish hall.

While some church members want to create housing for Ukrainian refugees here, the dean does not want to change the current use by various groups.

In an open record of the church council meeting, the listeners Sabine Rest, Anna Zorawski and Wiebke Mauksch vent their anger.

Dean Heinrich Soffel cannot understand the resentment.

Apple of discord are the two upper rooms in the parish hall of the evangelical church.

School child care takes place there – currently still – in the afternoons.

In addition, the rooms are used for courses and groups.

A group of around 40 church members would now like to provide shelter for one or two families from the Ukraine.

However, the dean rejected the proposal.

Ultimately, the decision not to change anything in the current use of the space was made at the most recent meeting of the church council.

In the open protocol, the undersigned are annoyed that the board of directors has always given different arguments as to why it is not possible to use the living space here.

"First it was said that less protection could not be enough and that one had to do greater things as a church, then legal questions about the suitability and approval of the rooms were raised," it says.

The women at the meeting reported that concerns were also raised about the lack of fire protection.

District Administrator Niedermaier: "The social aspect of the group rooms predominates"

In an interview with our newspaper, Soffel also expresses doubts as to whether the rooms are suitable as an apartment.

"There is a sloping roof, then there is a long staircase that leads to the attic, and our caretaker has to go there often, the kitchenette is small, there isn't even a dishwasher," he lists arguments against it.

However, when asked, Sabine Rest emphasized that she had made it clear several times that the group of helpers would take care of equipping the rooms.

"With a dishwasher, washing machine, etc. I would have even bought something new," she says.

Soffel explains: “The main reason for the decision is that the district administrator also thinks that the social aspects of the group room are more important.

And that's how I communicated it." District office spokeswoman Marlis Peischer confirms: "A few weeks ago there was personal contact between the dean and Josef Niedermaier." The district administrator describes the conversation as follows: "It was discussed whether the social Purpose-used area should be rededicated as living space and existing groups should give way.

I pointed out that these long-term care offers are still urgently needed - also for refugees - and as long as housing can be found elsewhere, I see no need to makeshift or completely suspend these important offers for children and families in favor of apartments. After this conversation

Does Dean get too little involved in refugee aid?

The criticism is not only about the rooms, but also about the general accusation that Soffel would not get involved in refugee aid: When asked whether the church community would offer anything on the subject of Ukraine, the dean replied "no", it says in the letter.

Soffel says: “In the first days of the war I organized an ecumenical prayer.

After all, that's my job.” He would like to emphasize “that we are currently preparing to take Ukrainian children to the day care center” and that he is therefore very much concerned with helping refugees.

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Basically, the complainants criticize a non-transparent work within the church council.

For example, as a member of the Protestant church community, you are not informed about the dates of public meetings of the board of directors.

"We've never done that with a notice or anything like that.

But if you call, you will find out the dates," says Soffel, but when asked, he admits that "we could talk about making this more transparent in the future."

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