"It's madness to build this road"

Created: 09/11/2022, 16:00

If necessary, wants to complain: Stephan Goetz, here in front of his house in Kleinhartpenning, with the chapel in the background, will vote against the bypass plans.

Noise protection wall in front of the plague church?

By bike instead of by car © Thomas Plettenberg

On November 20, a referendum will be held on the bypass roads.

What do those directly affected say?

We spoke to two of them as an example.

Here: bypass opponent Stephan Goetz in Kleinhartpenning.

Kleinhartpenning

– It's quiet in Kleinhartpenning on this autumn evening, although there are still a few people on the streets shortly before sunset: joggers, mothers with their children, cyclists.

But the impression is deceptive.

The anger of the people is brewing around the pretty farmhouses: "We didn't move out of the city to have cars in front of us that speed past at 120 km/h," scolds Stephan Goetz.

The 66-year-old and his wife have been living in a rustic farm on the outskirts of the village for six years.

There is a wood oven in the garden where they sometimes bake pizza.

Goetz' Argentinian son-in-law likes to come to the barbecue.

In front of the garden fence: undeveloped grassland as far as the eye can see.

Only the chapel of St. Sebastian stretches towards the sky.

Goetz and his wife celebrated their silver wedding here.

"And now there is to be a meter-high noise protection wall, right next to this 17th-century plague church," Goetz complains.

But, he emphasizes, it's not about him.

"It's just crazy to seal the landscape for miles." The local recreation area would be destroyed if the bypass roads were built.

Goetz is a nature lover and is involved, among other things, in forest protection in Borneo.

And he loves to watch the birds of prey from the garden.

"I've counted 15 red kites on some days," he says.

"They'll all be gone when this bypass comes."

The entrepreneur and lawyer is not the only Kleinhartpenninger who senses a larger political plan behind the bypass plans for Holzkirchen and Hartpenning.

In Munich, strings would be pulled to connect the Tölzer Land and the Isarwinkel to the Salzburg autobahn.

They don't care that Hartpenninger, flora and fauna would have to bleed for it.

The street has become a prestige project for some politicians.

Goetz says: "In the federal traffic route plan, the project is called the connection of the Tölzer Land to the A 8. But it is sold to us as a bypass." He finds that manipulative.

However: The two bypass roads would be commissioned, planned and paid for by the federal government, not by the Free State.

It is clear to the lawyer that, depending on the outcome of the referendum on November 20th, he will continue to fight against the bypass plans.

But he wouldn't be the only one.

“There will be many neighborhood lawsuits,” predicts Kleinhartpenninger.

What Goetz stunned: the attitude of the CSU.

“This party has become so powerful because it portrayed the people of Bavaria.

But now she has lost all sense of people,” he says.

It was "complete nonsense" to build the route, and that for many millions of euros.

With regard to the expected cost increases, the current calculation is "window dressing".

On top of that, they do not relieve Holzkirchen to the extent claimed.

But above all: "It doesn't fit in with the times at all." The trend is towards sustainability.

“Young people no longer rely on cars.

They want local public transport.” People will continue to work from home in the future, and commuting will decrease.

"In 15 years everyone will say: What madness to build this road."

Goetz sometimes commuted to Munich himself.

A gain of a few minutes is not an argument for him.

“Whenever I can, I use the bike. Is that more strenuous?

Yes.

Do I get wet when it rains?

Yes.

but that is not the point.

I cycle because it makes sense.” You only have to look at the Ruhr area.

"They are doing exactly the opposite of what is happening here: they are renaturing, they are slowing down." The CSU in Bavaria was obviously "out of step".

Goetz hopes that she will find her way again.

also read

Fatal accident on a country road in Upper Bavaria: For motorcyclists (19), any help comes too late

Saving energy: Street lighting in Holzkirchen stays dark at night

Read here why a woman from Holzkirch, who lives on Tölzer Straße in Holzkirchen, would like a bypass.