What a spectacle it was that Wednesday, October 11, 2006 in the small community of Aying. The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the entire village upside down. Flagpoles, floodlights, press stands, police on every corner and a crowd of countless people shaped the picture in the center of the town. Snipers had posted themselves in the church tower, the Russian secret service had installed a tap-proof telephone line in the Inselkammer inn, where a large banquet was held with plenty of Ayinger beer, chamois and veal sausages, and the pretty village was a high-security idyll for a day. Firecrackers and a trellis of traditional costumes greeted the high-ranking guest, for whom the then mayor Johann Eichler also had the red carpet rolled out – and had bought a golden book especially for this day. Since then, the signatures of Putin and the then Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber have emblazoned on the first page.
The community basked in the splendor of this epoch-making event. Today, as the Russian ruler bombs his neighbor Ukraine, a great black shadow hangs over it. Putin’s signature, once seen as a magnificent entry into the community’s golden book, is now viewed more as an eyesore. Eichler’s successor Peter Wagner (CSU) is anything but proud of Putin’s handwritten entry, but he won’t tear out the first page. “I’m really not happy about it,” says the mayor. But the reception of the Russian President was not reprehensible at the time and this event is simply part of Aying’s history, and the community must stand by it. “The community chronicle also contains things that are no longer funny today,” says the mayor. In addition, Edmund Stoiber had also immortalized himself in the Golden Book alongside Putin and his signature would also end up in the wastepaper basket. There are still people alive today who had Adolf Hitler as godparents, “they don’t throw away their baptismal certificates either,” said Wagner, speaking of a document that shouldn’t be destroyed.
Aying’s Mayor Peter Wagner says Vladimir Putin is no longer a welcome man in his community.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Peter Wagner leaves no doubt that Vladimir Putin would no longer be a welcome guest in Aying as he is now a warmonger who is banned worldwide. “This person who was with us at the time can no longer be compared with the crazy and inhumane man who started a war now,” says the mayor, who was 21 at the time and can still clearly remember that Because of Putin’s visit, he and his shooting comrades had to forgo a shooting competition scheduled for this day on the first floor of the Bräustüberl and had to host the competition with the visiting team. Incidentally, his predecessor Hans Eichler also shared his decision to keep the first page of the Golden Book. “It’s just history, and it often looks different in the present than in the future, and time just can’t be turned back,” says Eichler.
On Friday, Peter Wagner received a visit from Radio Gong in the town hall. The day before, a radio reporter had called him and asked what he thought of simply covering Putin’s signet with a picture drawn by a Ukrainian child who had arrived in Munich with his parents the same day, instead of tearing out the first page. Wagner agreed.