The terrace and lawn that Eduard looks at from the window sill look a bit battered. But what does it matter, the building on Münchner Strasse with the garden is showing its age, and actually it should be demolished and a retirement home built in its place. Now Eduard is playing here on the windowsill – and the boy is safe with his family.
Michael Schwamberger, the owner of the house, offered it to the community to accommodate refugees from the Ukraine. The first ones moved in on Saturday, a mother with her two daughters. Now, little by little, more people are coming who have fled the war in their home country. Lisa, Nasty, Olga, the Khomenko family, they all now have a new temporary home.
New home: The first refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Feldkirchen.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
Volunteers from the Feldkirchen Volunteer Fire Department prepared the house. Water and electricity had to be turned on again, the gas tank was empty, and there weren’t any beds yet, but some have been delivered and set up in the meantime. Now groceries, bottles with apple juice, hygiene articles are piled up in the small pantry. “Now is the time to help,” says Feldkirchen Mayor Andreas Janson (UWV), and he is very grateful for Schwamberger’s offer.
The example of Feldkirchen shows that Russia’s war of aggression against the neighboring country also has noticeable effects on the district of Munich. The cities and communities are preparing to receive and accommodate Ukrainians seeking protection. And the wave of helpfulness is unbroken – it is a combination of the commitment of volunteers, private individuals and local politics that is currently creating the conditions for the district to be able to meet the challenge. Because the district office currently expects that up to 2,600 people seeking protection will have to be accommodated. Prime Minister Markus Söder said on Monday that more than 50,000 refugees are expected throughout Bavaria.
Eduard plays on the windowsill of the accommodation.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
Mayor Janson says he cannot say how many there will be in Feldkirchen in the end. But he was “overwhelmed” by the willingness to help in his community. The Hotel Bauer supplies the refugees in the new accommodation with a hot meal every day and has provided bed sheets and linen, a supermarket supplies them with groceries, a flower shop even brought flowers and plants to brighten up the new accommodation, and a toy manufacturer I made a donation for the children.
The district is setting up a first point of contact in the municipality of Haar
But other offers of help would also come from the population, as in all cities and communities in the district. So far, six people in Feldkirchen have signaled that they want to take refugees into their homes. And the community is responding too. “We have four former apartments in the VHS building in which asylum seekers also lived and which now serve as faction rooms,” says Janson, chief of the town hall. “I also offered that to the district office for Ukrainian refugees.”
The district office cannot quantify how many people have reached the district of Munich so far. So far, no people seeking protection from Ukraine have been officially assigned to the district by the government of Upper Bavaria. But the number of offers of help is impressive. So far, the authority has received more than 600 offers of “a wide variety of types”, accommodation options in the home you live in as well as offers for apartments or houses that are freely available. The willingness to help is enormous, says district office spokeswoman Franziska Herr. How many places could ultimately result from the offers is not yet foreseeable.
The willingness to help and donate in Feldkirchen is great. The pantry has also filled up.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
The district office of District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) is trying to adapt to the expected increase in people seeking protection. A decentralized first point of contact will be set up in the municipality of Haar, where the assigned asylum seekers will be admitted centrally for the district of Munich, and the prescribed corona tests will also be carried out here. “The people who arrive can rest here for a short time and are then distributed to other accommodations in the Munich district,” said spokeswoman Herr. Accommodation options are also available in Haar itself, but they are said to be used for short-term accommodation until further distribution to other accommodations. “The administration is currently working flat out to set up additional accommodation capacities,” said the spokeswoman. Some municipalities have already offered land or real estate.
On his home page (www.landkreis-muenchen.de) the district has now made all information from accommodation, registration, residence permit to corona vaccination available in Ukrainian. People from Ukraine who do not yet have accommodation must register at the arrival center of the government of Upper Bavaria on Maria-Probst Straße in the state capital, which is open around the clock. Refugees who have already found accommodation must report to the government of Upper Bavaria ([email protected]) or alternatively to the arrival center within the first 90 days of arrival. A visa or application for asylum are not required.