Everything was actually already finished, says Georg Schmid, 67, on the phone and puts the receiver aside. You can hear him rustling in his apartment in Neunburg, where he is a city councilor and has been in charge of the fire brigade for 30 years. Now he has it. A loose-leaf folder, quite thick, inscription: “Neunburger Wiesn 2023”. Schmid reads: On May 18, the town band should open the “Wiesn” – shooting gallery, bumper cars, cheers. The normal folk festival fun, on Saturday they would have snot spoon played and on Sunday the children were amazed at the fashion show. The handball players would have mixed the drinks, the footballers would have served the beer and they would have sold coffee and cake from the fire brigade, of course baked it themselves. They had expected around a thousand visitors a day.
But now, from May 18th to 21st, there will be nothing going on at the Volksfestplatz in Neunburg vorm Wald in Upper Palatinate. No snot spoon, no beer, no children’s laughter. “It was difficult for all of us,” says Georg Schmid, but it cannot be changed. After all, who would help with the dishes, who would give out the knuckle of pork and who would clean up? They wrote to hundreds of clubs asking if they would help, ten replied, and in the end there were only four left. Far too little, says Schmid.
And also what he thinks is why it was so difficult to motivate people to tackle things this year: “The standstill caused by Corona.” For almost three years there was almost no club life. And if you don’t play football or join a choir for three years, think to yourself: “That’s okay, ah.” The fact that members ran away in droves was not the case. But the active people who raise their hands when it comes to helping out have become fewer. And: The clubs are currently concentrating more on themselves in order to get their own structures up and running again and to strengthen the bond with the members. There would be no time.
It’s crazy: First they weren’t allowed to celebrate their “Wiesn” in Neunburg because the Corona measures didn’t allow it, and now they can’t celebrate because there are too few volunteers due to the long Corona break. But it’s not just about folk festivals. It’s also about volunteers who drive ambulances, give swimming lessons, visit lonely people in homes or set up tents for refugees. Many clubs have recently had trouble finding enough volunteers for all these tasks.
Some organizations are feeling the consequences of Corona twice over. The Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, for example, was no longer able to offer numerous services during the pandemic – from visiting the nursing home to the paramedic tent at the rock concert. Some of the helpers looked for a new job. In Munich, 100 of the approximately 400 volunteers who are involved in medical services and civil protection there have been lost, reports Tobias Gocke, head of the medical services department. It would also be difficult to win people back. At the same time, everyone wanted to catch up on their festivals and concerts. The organizers were desperately looking for their support. However, his organization is only very cautious about accepting new orders. “The work is currently on fewer shoulders,” says Gocke.
The sports clubs also had difficulties, with thousands of members running away from them during the pandemic.
(Photo: Johannes Simon)
Things were better for the Technisches Hilfswerk (THW), which was allowed and had to continue to operate many operations even in the lockdown. That tied the helpers to the THW and even strengthened the connection. Thousands of members ran away from the sports clubs. However, membership has since recovered.
And then there are the organizations that even gained members during the crisis. Last year, 13,000 active volunteers joined the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), more than ever before, reports its press spokesman. A total of 200,000 people are involved there across Bavaria. The BRK benefited from the wave of helpfulness triggered by Corona. People went shopping for their complete strangers neighbors. And more than 4000 current or former healthcare professionals voluntarily entered the care pool in Bavariato support the overburdened homes and clinics. Formally, these people were also members of the BRK, under whose roof the care pool was hung.
So Corona has had a different impact on the clubs. But they all know the worries of young people. This is because the willingness to commit to an organization in the long term is decreasing. “People are no less committed today, on the contrary, but cooperation has become more individual and situational,” says Birthe Tahmaz from the Stifterverband, who regularly asks about the commitment of Germans. So there are volunteers who spontaneously cook soup for arriving Ukrainians at the main train station. For the club chairmanship, however, you sometimes have to search a long time.
Volunteering is important for many areas in society – for example in the rescue services that look after dog teams or drive ambulances.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
For the seven aid and emergency organizations in Bavaria that are involved in civil protection, is this a problem. They invest in the training of their helpers, who then act as paramedics in ambulances or take care of festivals, search for missing people with dog teams or accompany people at the end of their lives in the hospice service. You need people who will stay with you for a few years. In the past, the relief services recruited many volunteers from the pool of people doing community service. Today they have to advertise themselves much more actively. In autumn, for example, they started one together with Bavaria’s Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann poster campaign. Whether old or young, everyone can take part, everyone is needed, so the message.
Back to Neunburg in front of the forest and to Georg Schmid, who is just telling you about the past, at the beginning of the two-thousanders, what they had set up there. The beach parties, for example in the outdoor pool. Ameno Signum, the fire-eaters from the medieval association, took care of the grill, they from the fire brigade set up a climbing park for the children. The clubs with the city fed and entertained up to 7,000 people. Earlier.
Now he packs away his loose-leaf binder. But he wants to get him out again next year for “Wiesn 2024”. Hopefully the clubs would have recovered by then, says Schmid. He will then write his letter again and ask who can help. And maybe, he hopes, more than four out of a hundred clubs will sign up.