Dispute with the Free Evangelical Church in Schongau: Peace festival for refugees culminates in a house ban

Created: 01/11/2023 08:01

By: Andreas Jäger

The visitors of the festival were mainly refugee families from Ukraine © Andreas Jäger

It was supposed to be a peace festival, but the planned event culminated in a dispute between a refugee helper and the Free Evangelical Church in Schongau.

There was a party anyway.

Schongau – Last January 6th, in countries with orthodox beliefs like Ukraine, Christmas was celebrated.

On this occasion, a Schongau refugee helper (name should not be mentioned) planned to organize a Christmas party for the Ukrainians who had fled to Schongau.

According to her own statements, the refugee helper, herself a member of the Free Evangelical Church in Schongau, asked the parish in mid-December whether the event could take place on their premises.

“After brief discussions, we were unanimous and happy to comply with this request.

We would like to support and appreciate the initiative in this direction," the Free Evangelical Congregation replied to the organizer of the festival by email, which is available to the editors.

Refugees of different nationalities were invited to the Christmas party

In an integration course she led, the refugee helper then invited the Ukrainian refugees and their families who were present to come to Christmas.

"The course not only includes Ukrainians, but also people of other nationalities such as Eritreans or Somalis," says the refugee helper.

“They asked me if they could come to the festival.

I spontaneously answered “yes” and thus invited them as well.” The Christmas festival for Ukrainians was then to become a general celebration of peace.

Refugees of many other nationalities and the Turkish-Islamic community in Schongau were now part of the party.

At the end of December, the Free Evangelical Church finally contacted the organizer of the festival and told her that they had concerns and worries about the feasibility of the peace festival on their premises due to the changed event.

In order to clarify the question of the safety of the visitors and to look for viable joint solutions, the church congregation invited the organizer to a discussion.

Free Evangelical Church had concerns about security

However, there was absolutely no common denominator, and according to the refugee helper, the dispute eventually escalated.

"Since, in our view, the safety of the festival is in no way guaranteed and we have seen no willingness to cooperate, we revoke the promise to use our rooms on January 6th," the Free Evangelical Church finally announced in writing at the beginning of January.

The Schongau town band attended the Peace Festival and performed a number of pieces © Andreas Jäger

However, the organizer sees another reason for the cancellation: “They didn’t want a multicultural event.

I should cancel the Peace Festival because the community doesn't want to make a political statement," she says.

Shortly thereafter, the organizer turned to our newspaper and announced a peace festival "in the area in front of the Free Evangelical Church".

The congregation, however, saw this as an "unacceptable provocation" and subsequently banned the organizer from the entire premises of the congregation.

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The Peace Festival ultimately took place on the neighboring company premises

In the end, the peace festival took place last Friday evening on the premises of a neighboring electrician on Franz-Rupp-Strasse in Schongau-West.

Mainly refugees from Ukraine were present.

In addition to the Schongau town band and the Altenstadt carol singers, who wanted to bring joy to those present with musical performances, the Schongau town councilor Gregor Schuppe (ALS) also attended the event.

He addressed a few words to the guests and wished them one thing above all: "A more peaceful New Year."

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In this context, the Heimatzeitung naturally asked Pastor Benjamin Spring from the Free Evangelical Church in Schongau for a statement.

But he has not answered despite repeated requests in the past few days.

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