This summer, the heads of state and government of the G7 will meet for the second time in Elmau, Upper Bavaria. How are the affected communities, the police and hotel owners preparing for the major event?
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Matthias Köpf and Nadja Tausche
The navel of the world is at the back of the snowy valley, and on the way there, just behind the toll hut, a fox stalks across the road as if to say good morning to the hare over there. It still only takes five euros for a day ticket to get to the castle via the five-kilometer road. But by mid-June at the latest, the municipality of Krün will be able to send its Mautner on vacation for two weeks. Then the police will take over here, and the fox and the rabbit will have to stay on the side of the fence that they are on. In 2015, this 14-kilometer fence alone, which the police had pulled through the mountain forest, cost more than two million euros. After all, all the police officers and state foresters who are standing together in a large circle at the back of the hiking car park these days still have the plans from back then in the drawer. There is not even half a year left before Schloss Elmau will once again become the hub of the world – at least from June 26th to 28th and for that part of the world that really cares about the meeting of the heads of state and government of the seven most important industrial nations turns.