Outsiders are often of the erroneous view that Freising and Erding somehow belong together. Two neighboring towns, one with 50,000 and the other with almost 40,000 inhabitants, which have the same dominating neighbor in the moss and are annoyed by noisy silver birds, who must have the same interests, it is speculated. But far from it, everyone prefers to stir their own soup. The cathedral city and the old ducal city are two independent structures that hardly have anything in common, apart from the fact that both the Freisinger and the Erdinger – as far as their shopping behavior is concerned – orient themselves towards Munich or Landshut. The neighboring town and its offers are only attractive in exceptional cases. The thermal baths, for example, are visited from time to time by Freisingers who want to afford the expensive slide fun.
Some, like the two Lord Mayors, may also be tempted to visit the other folk festival, with significantly more Freisingers going to Erding than vice versa. Because the Erdingers start earlier and after ten days most of them have had enough of the humba, humba, perpetrators. Then there are two cultural festivals, Uferlos in Freising and Sinnflut in Erding, which encourage music lovers to drive from the Isar to the Sempt or vice versa. But otherwise?
The beer could be a connection between the cities. But it isn’t really either. There are large breweries in both Freising and Erding. But people from Freising value their Huber or Weihenstephaner and only drink an Erdinger wheat beer in an emergency. There are historical reasons why the two cities have so little to do with each other. Freising was ruled by a bishop for centuries and was an independent prince-bishopric with possessions extending into the mountains and into Austria, while Erding belonged to the Duchy of Bavaria. Anyone who wanted to travel from Erding to Freising had to cross a border and pay a toll. In addition, there was a swamp area between the towns with the Erdinger Moos that was difficult to pass.
Today there is a fairly well developed road, but the connection with public transport is poor. Just eleven buses a day, which take a good 40 minutes, run between the cities. In Freising, the first starts at 6:12 a.m. and the last at 7:34 p.m. After or before that there is the S-Bahn, which makes a detour via Munich and takes a good one and a half hours. But there is hope that everything will change for the better. There should be a ring closure between Erding and Freising. It has been talked about for decades, parts are already being built, so from 2025 it should go from Freising to Schwaigerloh, into no man’s land. When it goes from there towards Erding is open, a planning approval process is in progress.
So it will be some time before the Erdinger and Freisinger can fraternize in a common S-Bahn. It remains to be seen whether such a public transport connection will also increase interest in the other city. Probably not.