District of Munich – Arm in the bacon belt – District of Munich

You have to find the “Klawotte” first. The thrift store is in a backyard across from an auto repair shop. Only a faded roadside sign indicates the shop, which is located on the lower ground floor at Alte Landstrasse 5 in Ottobrunn. Such a situation would be ruin for a boutique, but Klawotte’s customers find their way. On a Tuesday morning, the small shop is jam-packed: around 15 customers check whether they can get as much as possible for little money. A woman is just coming out of the changing room, one is standing by the jeans, others are busy with the household goods. Four customers are queuing at the checkout. “A bag for you?” asks the friendly saleswoman in a dirndl at the checkout. For 34 euros there is a whole mountain of clothing. Saving and shopping cheaply – that’s popular with many in the looming crisis, even in the wealthy Munich commuter belt.

A look at the Ottobrunn second-hand goods store is a snapshot and not necessarily proof of a crisis situation. Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) was already touting the six shops it operates in the Munich district as “successful projects” before inflation and skyrocketing energy prices increased the pressure on many. Ulrike Konrads runs the Klawotte in Ottobrunn and says there is always a lot going on after the closing time during the summer break. “It’s not just the socially disadvantaged who come to us.” There are also regular customers who see the store as a flea market and are looking for bargains and beautiful, unusual goods. Vintage is also hip. And it doesn’t always have to be the cool second-hand shop in Schwabing. But the need of many people is of course a big topic in the Klawotte. A six-euro pair of jeans can be purchased for three euros if the need is proven with the Klawotte card.

Mayors set up aid funds: those who do not need the energy money themselves should donate it

The low price should soon lure even more. Because inflation is becoming increasingly noticeable: when buying food, when buying clothes, but above all when it comes to energy. In Ismaning, for example, the local gas supplier has just doubled the price per kilowatt hour. The managing director of the municipal utilities, Franz-Josef Loscar, fears hardship for many, even if the levy is now in question again and the billing for the past year due at the end of September will still be moderate. There were still the old, cheap supply contracts. But: “The problem is that we don’t even know where it’s going,” says Loscar. Only the coming months and the final accounts in 2023 would show the true extent of the gas price explosion. Many are already calling the municipal works in concern and need to be reassured somehow. “My employees are also aware of the issue,” says Loscar. These are all socially adjusted, says the boss, who primarily has to keep an eye on the economic situation of the municipal utilities.

Mayors and local councils in the district see the emergency on both sides. They cannot get into the pricing of the municipal or municipal utilities. They rely on direct help for those citizens who urgently need it. Kirchheim’s mayor Maximilian Böltl (CSU), for example, set up the “Citizens help citizens” fund at the beginning of September, which he says has received a six-figure sum in just a few weeks. Böltl assures that nobody will be left behind in the crisis. “Let’s stick together tightly!” The municipality administers the fund, assesses the neediness of applicants and pays out on a case-by-case basis. And “quickly, pragmatically, unbureaucratically,” as the mayor promises.

Even in the rich district of Munich there are people who had to fight or were in need before the current crisis. If the full Klawotte shop is not enough as an indication of this, you can study the 2021 social report, which was only presented in May. Based on data from 2019, it shows 12,000 people in the Munich district who were dependent on Hartz IV or basic security in old age. That is the size of a community like Oberschleißheim or Grünwald, although the social administration in the district office assumes that the number of unreported cases is high. In 2019, almost 2300 children and young people lived in the district in so-called communities of need at the subsistence level, which also had to be enough for almost 1600 seniors over 65 years of age. And that in a high-price district in which the middle class also has to struggle to maintain their standard of living.

Threatened are now also those who previously managed just barely without social benefits. Annegret Harms (SPD) is the third mayor in Unterschleißheim and is known for her social commitment. She is approached on the street, on the phone, or at workers’ welfare seniors’ outings if someone gets into trouble. Calls for help have increased, especially in the last few weeks and months, says Harms. “Sometimes it’s very banal things.” But sometimes it’s also about real existential worries and the fear of no longer being able to hold onto one’s own apartment. Again and again it is seniors or single mothers, especially women. She talks about seniors “who go cleaning” and mothers who couldn’t pay for the basic equipment for their child when they start school. Many others would “just barely make ends meet.” She doesn’t take responsibility from the people who turn to her, says Harms. In most cases, it is only about specific individual cases. In return, she continues to mediate for those in need. It’s about helping people to help themselves.

Open detailed view

There is also a municipal fund in Unterschleißheim, like in Kirchheim. Harms reports cases to the “Unterschleißheim hilft” association, which the Advisory Board for Social Affairs set up years ago. The Protestant church is on board as a partner, so that money flows to the right people. In Haar, the community foundation is responsible for this. Its chairman Jürgen Partenheimer, a former head of the bank, says: “We get a wide variety of inquiries.” One is well connected with the town hall, the churches and in the community. Only recently, at the tip of the Catholic parish, a family was helped “that was doing very badly,” says Partenheimer. Above all, donations would be passed on, that was 60,000 euros in 2021. The foundation manages 3.5 million euros, although only the meager interest income of late is available for social concerns such as the educational project “Give Children Opportunities”. In this case, Partenheimer will benefit from the rising interest rates due to the crisis. He’s hoping for more money soon.

The social report for the district sees a particularly large number of people with a tight income in Taufkirchen with its large housing estate “Am Wald”. Garching, Ottobrunn, Unterhaching, Haar as well as Oberschleißheim and Unterschleißheim are not the only places where the well-to-do live. “Unterschleißheim actually has a very mixed population structure,” says the third mayor, Harms. According to the social report, 19.6 percent of Unterschleißheimers have to make do with less than 1,500 euros net per month. How does that work? “I really think about it a lot,” says Harms. But there is also need in the rich Hachinger valley and in the Isar valley. In Grünwald, which thanks to the bubbling trade tax has a large sum in the millions on the high edge, the proportion of seniors who need basic security to live is 2.6 percent, even higher than in Unterschleißheim (2.4 percent). Only in Garching, Oberschleißheim, Haar and Taufkirchen is their share even higher at 3.5 percent. In Grünwald, the Greens have now also called for an aid fund to help people in hardship cases.

No scaremongering, but the number of customers at the Isartaler Tisch has already doubled

In relation to poorer regions of Germany, however, the absolute numbers are low. Oberhaching’s Mayor Stefan Schelle (CSU) therefore warns against scaremongering. Nevertheless, he sees a need for action. He used the community reception to call for solidarity and suggested that everyone who does not necessarily need it should donate their state energy money of 300 euros. A week later, Schelle says the response to it was great. Together with the local neighborhood help, he now wants to clarify how such an emergency budget could be designed and managed.

This is not entirely trivial, as can be heard from Ismaning, among others. Because: There must be no arbitrariness, the need must be examined. But Schelle says it is important now to think of those who do not want to admit their need. Many long-established people in particular were ashamed and dreaded going to the office. Or the way to the klawotte or to one of the many food banks in the district of Munich, where the number of customers has recently risen sharply because of the refugees from the Ukraine. At the Isartaler Tisch it has simply doubled by 200, says its chairman Johannes Schuster. He sees the facility not only as a place to serve food, but as a social contact point for all matters.

Open detailed view

Schuster has created a close-knit network that should actually catch everyone, right down to social counseling with Caritas and an expert from the Lions Club. The wave of people in need of help due to inflation and energy shortages that many feared has not yet reached him, but he is counting on it: “All my life experience tells me: something is going to happen.” He assumes that many are still sitting at home and hoping and worried.

Schuster supports the idea of ​​an aid fund from citizens for citizens, which Schelle also has in mind. He experiences solidarity in Pullach and the surrounding area and is convinced that the financially well off in the Isar Valley are willing to give. They would even do it gladly if they were convinced of something. Oberhaching’s Mayor Schelle not only wants to collect money for the needy, but also wants neighbors to look out for each other to make ends meet. Annegret Harms from Unterschleißheim also says that it is now important “that there is a neighborhood again”.