There are supposedly around 300 normal benches and 200 motif benches in Aschau im Chiemgau, which advertises itself as a “banker’s village” to day trippers and tourists. The motif bench no. 88 was set up in 2016 and was immediately known as the “Wampenbankerl”. The Wampenbankerl is also made for sitting on and not primarily for resting your stomach, whatever something like that would have to look like. But the backrest is adorned with the Bavarian rhyme that has been the best advertising slogan for generations for the much larger Aschau tourist attraction: “I love going up the Kampenwand when I know my waist,” is what it says It would also be clear to all Aschau authorities how exactly this should be shaken. So please first say “Kampenwand” and then “Wampen knows”, and not the other way around according to the also quite common version “If I know my Wampen, then gangad I” and so on.
But nobody actually has to go up the Kampenwand, there is a cable car, and nobody will be so upset that a four-person cabin wouldn’t be enough. The train operators even want to replace these with aft cabins and rebuild the entire train if the administrative court hadn’t recently revoked the approval. But it has, and that’s exactly why it could be difficult on New Year’s Eve for all Wamperten in the sense of that shaking rhyme and in general for all those who celebrate the turn of the year up on the Sonnenalm but then want to go down again.
The court based its judgment on a rather formal error in the approval and left most of the substantive questions to the next instance. But there was clear language about the night-time trips, of which there should have been more than 80 a year in the future. Accordingly, such special trips require express permission. The fact that approval simply says nothing, as before, does not mean that everything is permitted. This threatens, among other things, the usual New Year’s Eve party on the Sonnenalm plus the evening uphill and nightly descent, which have long been bookable with the operator. For this reason alone he may have to apply for an appeal in good time. Otherwise everything remains unrealistic: If I don’t get the license, I’ll ride up the Kampenwand late.