The 150 or so people in the Bayernhalle in Garmisch know very well what to expect at the end of June. The vast majority of them have already experienced a G-7 summit at Schloss Elmau in 2015, and at least a quarter of the listeners in Saal were professionally involved in some office or operations center at the time. There aren’t many questions anymore. Garmisch-Partenkirchen Mayor Elisabeth Koch (CSU) and District Administrator Anton Speer (FW) assure the public at this information event that they want to be a good host again this time.
According to his own words, only the person who is representing the Federal Chancellor that evening as the actual host of the summit is only in the area for the second time, and the first time he was there as a child, he was rather reluctant to go hiking with his parents. On the other hand, the Berlin government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit came under a large-scale check by the Bavarian police near Eschenlohne when he arrived. And that’s pretty much what’s in store for everyone here from June 26th to 28th.
For District Administrator Anton Speer (FW), the second German summit in a row is “an honor and a task at the same time”. He and the people in the region didn’t fight for either.
(Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa)
“An honor and a task at the same time” is the new summit, according to the words that the district administrator prepared for it a while ago, but Hebestreit has a hunch: “I assume there will be a bit of trouble there too.” In any case, the federal government is very aware that the decision made at very short notice in autumn to hold the German summit in Elmau for the second time in a row “not only triggered enthusiasm” in the region.
What triggered it are hectic activities in the authorities and planning staff, who pulled their 2015 concepts out of the drawer and adapted them to the new situation. According to District Administrator Speer, what is new compared to back then is the refugee crisis, the corona pandemic, the intensified climate protests and the war in Ukraine. All of this will not only shape the content of the summit, as Hebestreit explains. But also in the form of an additional security risk.
According to Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), the police want to meet this again with around 18,000 officers who will also come from other countries and from the federal police. Many will not work directly in the summit region, but rather at the large demonstration in Munich or at the airport, which is also expected again. From there, the most important guests are to be flown to Elmau by helicopter. If the weather doesn’t permit flights, it’s overland.
For this “protocol route”, the Rosenheim police chief Manfred Hauser announced a four-hour full closure on the first and last day of the summit. But while the G-6 meeting invented by Helmut Schmidt and Valéry Giscard D’Estaing in 1975 only got along with the heads of state and a few companions, according to Hebestreit, each individual G-7 delegation will now comprise several hundred people. Most will arrive by road. Nevertheless, all tourist and commercial destinations should always remain accessible.
Only the Elmauer valley is completely sealed off. Workers are currently completing the 16-kilometer fence that runs through the forest towards the Wettersteinwand. There is still snow in their gullies, the deciduous trees are just beginning to sprout here at 1000 meters above sea level. Instead, a lattice mast with radio antennas entwined with barbed wire protrudes between the spruce trees next to the road, and at the very back the hiking car park gleams black with fresh asphalt, on which several landing sites for helicopters are marked. The trees were dug up and repotted, after the summit the asphalt is to give way again.
As mayor of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Elisabeth Koch (CSU) is now used to seeing fences and containers. For the time being, she is satisfied with the result of her constant demands for state support.
(Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa)
Crane trucks are stacking containers at the parking lot by the castle. Small press rounds should be possible here, but the majority of the 3000 journalists expected will work in the media center at the parking lot of the Garmisch Hausbergbahn. Fences and containers also dominate here and at the local ski stadium, in which a makeshift justice center including detention containers is being built. The congress center and the Zugspitz Realschule, where the headquarters of the Bavarian police are quartered, are also fenced off.
The local people are now used to the sight of fences. Hebestreit, however, will not be the only one taking part in a summit in Elmau for the first time. In 2015, none of the current G-7 leaders were in office. The heads of government of India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa will expand the group of men as guests, and the only leading politician expected will be EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.