The Biermösl Blosn satirically sang about the threat situation in the seventies and eighties in their song “Da Russ”. There was a latent danger, a constant feeling that the Red Army might be invading. “At that time, the disaster control was fully up,” remembers Ottobrunn’s fire brigade commander Eduard Klas, while looking at the guard tower and the siren. In addition to the one in Neubiberg, it is one of only two systems that is technically capable of warning the population in an emergency. The Ottobrunners upgraded them themselves two years ago. In the vast majority of municipalities, however, they were dismantled at the end of the Cold War.
The fire brigade makes its way across the water, past flooded beer garden furniture.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
But how is the population warned today when extreme exceptional situations arise, which – as the devastating flash floods and floods in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia show – are becoming ever more frequent? And how is disaster control in the district prepared for this?
The classic, the siren, is still available in 24 of the 29 municipalities in the district, but only those in Ottobrunn and Neubiberg can send out the special warning signal, all others would have to be retrofitted. When an extreme event occurs, such as a flood on the Hachinger Bach or the Isar, a power failure that lasts for days, the escape of chemical substances or a reactor accident at the research reactor in Garching, all organizational threads come together in the district office on Mariahilfplatz in Munich. From there, the disaster is declared and every operation is coordinated.
A separate section in the district office
There is a separate “Disaster Protection” section in the District Office. If there is a large-scale situation, the responsible management group for disaster control, headed by District Administrator Christoph Göbel, gathers at Mariahilfplatz. From there, warnings are sent to cell phones, for example via the Katwarn app. Basically, the warning of major events is a matter of the country, in the event of severe weather it is the responsibility of the German Weather Service (DWD).
Nowhere else in Germany is the density of fire brigades as high as in the district of Munich: a total of 45 volunteers, seven works and three company fire brigades as well as the fire brigade of the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Neubiberg perform voluntary or voluntary service in the 29 cities and communities. This means that more than 4,000 people are involved in the fire services (Photo: Claus Schunk). In the municipality of Sauerlach alone – due to the regional reform of 1978 – there are three volunteer fire brigades: in Arget, Altkirchen and Sauerlach. The Ottobrunn fire brigade, one of the largest in the district, performs more than a thousand missions a year.
Image: Claus Schunk
The Technische Hilfswerk (THW) has been the federal civil and disaster protection organization subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior since 1950. In the event of a disaster – as happened in the corona pandemic – it is subordinated to the district office. More than 60 volunteers and numerous young helpers are involved at THW München-Land. Your tasks are diverse: you provide technical assistance in civil defense, but also abroad, and are always on site with your specialized units in major damage situations. During the Corona crisis, the THW in Garching organized the storage and distribution of protective equipment that was still inadequate at the time.
Image: Angelika Bardehle
When chemicals threatened to explode in the Pullach Rupert-Mayer-Gymnasium three years ago in October, the ABC-Zug München-Land was immediately on site and brought the substances into a gravel group and detonated them in a controlled manner. The unit based in Haar and assigned to civil protection is highly specialized and is deployed in the event of accidents involving chemical, biological or nuclear hazardous substances. Around 30 emergency services volunteer. But it’s not just about hazardous substances: When the Deininger Weiher was threatened with fish death in 2018, the ABC train with the THW successfully supplied the small lake with oxygen using pumps.
Image: Claus Schunk
Göbel says that in view of the increasing number of natural disasters that can also affect the Munich district, the precautions must be “stepped up”; that also applies to his own house, especially when it comes to modernization. The management group meets in the basement of the district office, it has always been like that. “But there is no cellular network down there,” said Göbel. “Today communication takes place via cell phones.”
The challenges and requirements for disaster control in a steadily growing district with 360,000 inhabitants meanwhile are different than they were 40 years ago, says Göbel. The fire brigades, the technical relief organization (THW) and the rescue services would have more to do today: More and more businesses, new research facilities such as in Martinsried, Taufkirchen or Ottobrunn also meant more potential for action. It is all the more important that the municipalities invest in their fire brigades.
Fire brigades, rescue services and other forces are alerted from the rescue control center in the district office on Mariahilfplatz in Munich. The management group, however, meets in the basement.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
If there is a “major situation”, as disaster relief workers call the emergency, the emergency services are also informed immediately. “The beeper goes off immediately for us. Disaster control is one of our main tasks,” says Gerhard Bieber from Johanniter Accident Aid. Around 200 volunteers are involved in the rescue service. During operations, regardless of whether it is an accident on the A 99, freezing rain, a fire in the nursing home or flooding, the Johannitern immediately start two “standardized units”, as Bieber puts it: ten rescue workers in the transport group and four in the treatment unit; but never alone and uncoordinated. “We are in contact with the other rescue workers and the management group at all times.” Bieber actually considers the ways of informing the population in the event of a disaster via warning apps and sirens to be sufficient, but additional options via SMS or push messages on the cell phone could be a good addition.
Trained in radiation defense
Claudia Köhler, member of the Landtag of the Greens and member of the Unterhaching volunteer fire brigade, also sees disaster control in the district as well positioned. Like Göbel, she also recognizes “the big pillar” in disaster control in the fire brigades – alongside the rescue services. “You can tell from Unterhaching what challenges the emergency services are facing,” says Köhler. “We have three autobahns, the Hachinger Bach, the forest outside and also radiological practices. The rescuers must therefore also be trained in radiation protection.”
Above all, the training of young people plays a decisive role – and is seriously neglected by the Free State, she criticizes. “The training is actually a government responsibility, but there are too few fire schools and too few offers.” Köhler also considers the construction of a district fire brigade training hall to be important. This is being planned for the northern district. For District Administrator Göbel, in addition to training and equipment, disaster control also includes discounted living space, as is currently being created for fire fighters in Putzbrunn.
According to Commander Klas from Ottobrunn, the two main pillars of preventive disaster control are “manpower” and equipment. The former is given by the widespread commitment of volunteers. For the Green Köhler, prevention also includes unsealing of surfaces.
Other once important building blocks of disaster control have long since been forgotten. The underground car park under the center of Ottobrunn was once the largest nuclear bunker in the district, designed for 3,000 people seeking protection. And that, although with the Garching reactor, as Köhler says, there is still an “acute threat situation”. But the Red Army just doesn’t exist anymore.