Christmas wish: future in the Würmtal

Created: 12/23/2022, 6:39 p.m

By: Nicole Kalenda

The Wöhrles and their guests (from left): Jakob (18), Johannes (17) and Rainer Wöhrle (54), Liudmyla Hubina (38), Nodaro Bagrationi (38) and Natalie Wöhrle (54).

Four and a half year old Lissi preferred to watch from the next room.

Finding an apartment that offers real prospects of staying, that would be it.

Rainer Wöhrle © Dagmar Rutt

They fled twice, now they want to stay: Georgian Nodari Bagrationi, his Ukrainian wife Liudmyla Hubina and daughter Elisabed (4) are building a new life for themselves in Krailling.

They found shelter at Wöhrles.

They have long since grown into a family.

They also celebrate Christmas together.

Krailling

- When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, Nodari Bagrationi and Liudmyla Hubina packed up and fled to Ukraine, Hubina's homeland.

They settled in the Donbass in the east of the country.

They stayed there when separatists declared part of the region independent in 2014 and from then on the front line ran near the 10,000-inhabitant town of Rodynske, where they lived.

But on February 24 of this year, Russia also invaded Ukraine.

The couple went on the run again.

It was a six-day journey with Elisabed to the Hungarian border.

"By train, by car, on foot, under bombs, shelling, tears, blood," says Bagrationi.

"We didn't decide to come to Germany.

We just wanted to get away.”

They fled twice from the Russians, now they want to stay in the Würmtal

They ended up in Krailling and found shelter with the Wöhrle family.

Rainer Wöhrle is a doctor with his own practice in Neuried.

The family lives in his parents' house in Krailling.

She has experience with refugees.

In 2015, the Wöhrles took in a young Afghan from Kabul.

Most recently, the small two-room apartment on the top floor was converted into a lounge.

When war came to Europe in February and Wöhrles saw the pictures of the refugees arriving in Munich, "we said we had to help," says Rainer Wöhrle.

Coincidence brought Wöhrles, Elisabed and their parents together.

Natalie Wöhrle works as a radiologist at the Asklepios Clinic in Gauting.

There, on March 12, the refugees, who had been accommodated in a collective accommodation in Gauting, had to undergo a tuberculosis screening, including the small family from Rodynske.

While Bagrationi, who studied German and speaks German, was waiting for a computer tomography, he sat next to the registration.

There Jakob Wöhrle helped to receive the refugees and looked out for a family of three for the top floor apartment.

"Whenever there was a problem, Nodo would jump up and translate," he says.

The families from the Ukraine and Krailling met each other by chance in Gauting

They struck up a conversation and exchanged cell phone numbers that same day.

A week later the family moved in with Wöhrles.

Nodaro quickly became Nodo, Liudmyla Myla and Elisabed Lissi.

"We benefit from the fact that Nodo can speak German very well," says Rainer Wöhrle.

"We initially spoke to Myla in English, but now we can also do it in German." They see each other almost every day, but because the apartment on the top floor offers a place to retreat, "it's more relaxed than in a shared apartment," says Rainer Wöhrle.

"We like to eat together in the evenings." Sometimes one family cooks, sometimes the other, sometimes all together.

The Wöhrles and the pancakes from Bagrationi's Georgian homeland appreciate borscht.

Mondays, Fridays and often also at the weekend, the common meal is set at the large round table of the Wöhrles.

Bragationi and his family are Orthodox Christians.

They don't celebrate Christmas until January 7th.

New Year's is the bigger celebration, he says.

A tree will also be put up at Christmas, in her case made of plastic.

This year things are different.

On the third Sunday in Advent, the Wöhrles set out to cut down their Christmas tree themselves, as they do every year.

They took their new housemates with them.

On the 23rd the tree was decorated in the evening, on the 24th Natalie Wöhrle's parents will arrive at noon.

After the service there are sausages with potato salad, Christmas carols with piano accompaniment and presents.

If you like, you can go to Christmas mass at night.

On the 25th, everyone attends the festival service in the forest church, where Jakob sings in the choir.

After that, the table in the restaurant is reserved for twelve: Wöhrles, their younger sons Jakob and Johannes,

the eldest Philipp with his girlfriend, who no longer lives in the house, Natalie Wöhrle's parents, Bagrationi, Hubina and Lissi, as well as the Afghan foster son who comes from Germering.

"We're lucky: we celebrate Christmas twice," says Bagrationi.

Because on January 7th he is visiting Ukrainian friends who have found a home in Bayreuth with Hubina and Lissi.

Christmas party on January 7th

The three new Kraillingers also want a home.

"We like it here," says Hubina.

The Wöhrles know that the two-room apartment under the roof is too small in the long run.

"It would be to find an apartment that offers real prospects of staying," says Rainer Wöhrle.

And jobs that match the training.

Bagrationi has a contract with the municipality of Planegg as an interpreter until the end of the year, while Hubina, an economist, is an assistant in a flower wholesaler in Munich.

Natalie Wöhrle says: "Lissi has developed very delicate little roots." The girl prefers to sit on her lap than in the high chair and snuggles up to her.

"You can't transplant a child like that all the time.

She should stay in Krailling, that's our Christmas wish."