She is a little nervous, says Katinka Burz, because she was so new to politics. She is sitting very calmly and relaxed at the table at the Italian restaurant in the Räter shopping center in Kirchheim on this Sunday afternoon. The culture festival is currently taking place there, but at 2 p.m. most of the tables in front of the stage are still empty, although the band starts punctually with a boogie-woogie sound. Later, Luise Kinseher turns up, who won’t appear here until the evening. She sits in a small circle at a table, eats something, then drinks a cappuccino and smokes a cigarette. Just like Katinka Burz, Bundestag candidate for the Left in the Munich-Land constituency.
And that’s almost like a little magical sign. Because the cabaret artist played a small role in von Burz’s life. “When I wasn’t living in Munich, I was here once and in a small bar Kinseher was one of the guests. We talked and made small talk. At first I didn’t know who she was,” remembers the 40 -Year-olds. But Burz noticed immediately that Kinseher is a cool, strong woman. And that’s what she is herself.
Katinka Burz is a single mother. Her son is now 21, her daughter 14 years old. The small family has lived in the Munich area since 2015, initially for a year in Giesing, and since 2016 in Kirchheim, where they now feel “very rooted”, as Burz says. In the party for which Katinka Burz is now running, she has only been a member since 2018. “I was just too busy before, with child-rearing and work.” Burz is a nanny and works full-time in the “education service” for homeless families at a private agency in Obermenzing. This profession also contributed to the fact that she chose the left to get involved in politics, says Burz.
She has only been in the educational service since this year, before that she had already gained experience in hotspot schools. “That was when the educational inequality was noticed.” She doesn’t like the term “socially weak” for the students there. “They are structurally weak, at risk of poverty,” she finds this formulation more appropriate. And she is also at risk of poverty herself. “As a single parent, you can see poverty in old age!”
And how did the relatively late path into politics come about? “My partner, who unfortunately passed away in 2014, always said: Go into politics!” He knew his girlfriend as a committed campaigner for social justice. But at that time Burz still said no. “After his death, I decided to do it.” He left this legacy. “Of course there was grief first, it takes a long time,” says Burz. Therefore, she only joined the Left four years later and ended up in the local group Munich-East. “I don’t have the classic political career,” she says and means that in an absolutely positive way. “I know what work is like and how it is to raise children”, she is quite proud of that and she shows that she thinks it is far better than many other politicians, who basically have no idea about real life because they have no experience.
“I was never in the left bladder,” she adds, meaning that she simply led and leads a normal, average life. “I talk to everyone,” she emphasizes. Not least because there is only one comrade in Kirchheim. “Otherwise they are spread across the district.” There is still one in Aschheim. The good thing about it: “People know me”, so to speak as a completely normal woman from Kirchheim, with whom they come into conversation on the street.
Burz has only held a political office since the local elections in March 2020. At that time, she was the only leftist elected to the district assembly. A good year is not a long time, says Burz. “So far, I’m still getting used to politics.” She has not yet submitted her own motion to the district council, and due to a change in the rules of procedure she is not represented on any committee. According to the old one, she could have formed a committee community with a district council from another party, but that is no longer possible. She would be happy to work on the youth welfare or social welfare committee. After all, she is a deputy member of the latter. “But it is rare that the colleague is absent.”
And now, after such a short political experience, would you like to move straight to the Bundestag? “I see realistically where the left is,” says Burz, who was placed at number 21 on the state list and will probably not end up in the Bundestag. She still thinks it is important to run for a candidate for the leftist position. For this she wants to use the election campaign that she is preparing together with her team. She has already completed the photo session for the picture on her election poster, although it was not a professional session at all, as is important to her to emphasize. “The photo was taken by my girlfriend.” They made different versions, with different facial expressions of the candidate – whether she should look seriously or smile or look skeptical, Burz as a newcomer to politics was not at all sure. After all, it is the very first election poster with her likeness.
Which facial expression the election campaign team will choose is not yet clear this Sunday afternoon. In any case, it is certain that Katinka Burz will go out with her 19-year-old Ford Galaxy full of posters and glue buckets and hang it up herself. A good symbolic act for what the left wants to get across to the voters. Instead of the roads, one should rather develop local public transport, one should be exempt from taxes up to 1200 euros wages, the wealthy should pay far more taxes than the poor, no one should have to collect more bottles. And it would be better if all parties adhered to the principle of the left: “We are the only party that does not accept large donations.” So no money from big lobbyists who want to influence their politics. Lots of goals for which you need patience. “Sometimes I wish I could make the world a better place with a snap of my finger.”
But she wouldn’t even be able to do that as a member of the Bundestag. Despite all the attraction that Berlin exerts on her, she does not find it bad, presumably to stay in Kirchheim and only in the district council. “It would be very difficult as a single parent anyway,” she says and gives as a deterrent example that the co-boss of the Greens in Thuringia, Ann-Sophie Bohm, who brought her baby to the meeting of the Weimar city council, was reported anonymously for endangering the child’s welfare . In terms of mindfulness and women-friendliness – among other things – there is still a lot to be done in politics, according to Burz. Both in the district of Munich and in Berlin.