Munich bell dispute: residents completely annoyed, the city sends them experts

Created: 01/14/2023 08:34

By: Carmen Ick-Dietl

Too loud and too often?

Resident Peter Friedrich is annoyed by the ringing of the Maria Ramersdorf pilgrimage church.

© Goetzfried

In Ramersdorf, the bells are allowed to continue ringing.

The city examined the immission load and found that the limit value was not exceeded.

Munich – The chiming of the time in the Maria Ramersdorf pilgrimage church does not exceed the permissible immission guideline values ​​during the day.

Thus, there will be no noise reduction measures.

This is the result of measurements by the municipal department for climate and environmental protection.

Too loud bell ringing in Ramersdorf?

Complaint came from the neighborhood

They were triggered by a neighbor's complaint at last year's Ramersdorf citizens' meeting about the noise pollution of residents caused by the excessive and loud ringing of the church bells.

In some cases, the bell rang continuously for up to 15 minutes, only interrupted by short breaks.

The local resident described this as a health hazard and had suggested doing without the big bell at least at the hourly chime and only using the small bell.

The city can only influence the operation of the tower clock with the hourly chime, because only this falls under the immission control.

The ringing of church bells for liturgical reasons is part of the practice of religion and is therefore particularly protected by religious freedom and is expressly excluded from the rules on noise protection.

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At night the bells in Ramersdorf are silent

The measurements of the environmental department in the apartment of the neighbor across from the church resulted in a value of 46.7 decibels.

This corresponds to a radio set to medium volume and is well below the daytime permitted level of 60 decibels in the mixed-use area.

At night you would lie above it, but then the bells are silent.

The pastor had already reacted angrily to the public complaint after the citizens' meeting, which was confirmed by other residents.

In his statement to the city of Munich, he also insisted that the ringing of the bells was an expression of the exercise of religious freedom laid down in the Basic Law.

In addition, the Maria Ramersdorf church is a cultural asset that is particularly worthy of protection.

Before every full hour, the bells would not be rung for five, but for a maximum of four minutes at a time.

In addition, the ringing intensity has already been reduced over the years.

For example, there is no more conversion ringing.