Tastes good with roast pork and dumplings: Bavarian coleslaw. © Imago/Bernd Juergens
Last year, contrary to the administration's proposal, the Murnau Main Administration Committee decided in favour of the Volksfest applicant Holger Regler. This was announced by Mayor Rolf Beuting. With the Fahrenschon company, a festival host will once again be in charge this year, which the market town actually no longer wanted.
Murnau – What the German judicial authorities have to deal with. In the decision of the Munich Administrative Court on the Murnau folk festival dispute, for example, the word "coleslaw" occurs. This is due to the fact that in the invitation to tender, both applicants – the company Fahrenschon and the company Regler Grillstation und Festbetriebe – differed only in one point as far as the fresh preparation of the food was concerned. According to the court order, regulators had been "deducted 15 points because the coleslaw was not freshly prepared". Fahrenschon had a bottom line of 628.75 points, Regler 613.75. So there are reasons why some in the village smugly christened the case "The Coleslaw Affair".
Decision per regulator
Despite the lower number of points, the main administrative committee decided in favor of regulators on December 8, 2022 - "contrary to the administration's proposal," as Mayor Rolf Beuting (ÖDP/Bürgerforum) reported on Thursday at the meeting of the municipal council.
The head of the town hall went into the trouble topic of the folk festival, because CSU local councillor Rudolf Utzschneider had submitted an emergency motion. He had emphasized: "It is important for me to note that the process of developing and checking the award criteria is an administrative act. The responsibility lies with the management of the administration." So Beuting. But the award to regulators was a matter for local politicians – criteria or not.
However, it is not only the members of the main committee who are critical of the long-standing Volksfest top dog Fahrenschon, but also Beuting. In the Tagblatt annual interview in February, the mayor had announced: "Mr. Fahrenschon should perhaps have been more non-public at times and should not immediately go to the newspaper transparently or express his opinion via social media."
Not adhered to specifications
The court order, with reference to an award notice dated December 9, 2022, mentions that the behavior of the Fahrenschon company towards the Murnau market "has not been characterized by good cooperation since the beginning of the Corona pandemic and the 2020 folk festival". The company "did not comply with the poster specifications in any year".
In any case, Fahrenschon demanded access to the files by lawyer. On January 12, according to Beuting, the main administrative committee decided to cancel the tender on the recommendation of the lawyer. "This was an attempt to remedy the award error." On 6 April, a law firm informed the Murnau market that the administrative court had issued a temporary injunction. This obliges the municipality to provisionally approve Fahrenschon for the implementation of the Murnau Volksfest and as a festival host for the year 2023. The Administrative Court assumes that the decision of the Murnau market in favour of the Regler company is "manifestly unlawful". The decision is final. "The hearing of the main case is expected to take place in the fall of 2023," Beuting said. In 2022, the market town of Murnau had publicly advertised the traditional event for the first time for five years, after decades of threads had come together among generations of the Fahrenschon family.
"The folk festival will take place as in previous years," Beuting announced. What he didn't mention, however, was that from 14 to 23 July, a festival host will be in charge, whom the Murnau market actually no longer wanted.
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