Krün is in debt, yes. The community is still paying off loans from 2015, says Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger (CSU). But he really can’t and doesn’t want to complain about it. Because back then, for the first G-7 summit at Schloss Elmau, the 2,000-inhabitant community put a lot of money into new water pipes, canals and roads, and they got most of it back through government grants. But even then it was the same as always: “You have to buy every subsidy,” says Schwarzenberger, and the municipality took out loans for its own share so that the big money from the G-7 pot doesn’t slip through its fingers. It was similar at the second Elmauer summit exactly a year ago. Several million euros have got stuck in the region in the form of all kinds of subsidies and new vehicles for the fire brigades.
According to the district office in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the volunteer fire brigades in Krün, Mittenwald, Murnau, Ohlstadt and Wallgau alone now have brand new and well-equipped HLF20s in their garages at a price of 350,000 euros each. The municipality only had to pay around a quarter of this instead of the usual three quarters.
In addition to all these “assistance fire-fighting vehicles” there is also a high-performance charger in this fire department and a supply truck in that one and completely different equipment in the next one. The total value of all these vehicles is 3.2 million euros, according to the district office, which will soon be able to purchase a pick-up for civil protection.
HLF20 are available from the catalogue, they can be ordered quickly and, exceptionally, they were delivered quickly before the summit, at least in Krün. In addition, however, the federal government has put double pressure on the region with its decision, which was only announced in mid-December 2021, to hold the summit in Elmau a second time in June for the sake of simplicity. Not only did the communities have to quickly pull out their 2015 policies and update them, but they also had to rush to identify projects that they could get rewarded for funding.
In Krün, for example, the redesign of the church square and the fire protection renovation of the spa building have not yet begun, but the municipality is certain of the support. And the half million that could just be put into the maintenance of the water and sewage supply, which was expanded in 2015, should have been added to the fees without a second peak, says Mayor Schwarzenberger. District Administrator Anton Speer (FW) put the amount of government money that flowed into the region as a result of the summit at 22 million euros.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which has a population of 28,000, bore the brunt of both peaks. There, Mayor Elisabeth Koch (CSU) had firmly resolved to get more out of the second summit than her predecessor had once managed to do. That was a success, says Koch, who puts the added value for her market town at 12.4 million euros – “pain and pain”, as she calls it. As in Krün, the total consists mainly of all kinds of grants. Koch is particularly pleased about the 3.2 million euros that the community can freely dispose of because they took the money as a lease for the congress center, the ice rink and other properties. All sorts of authorities and strong police forces were accommodated there.
The police set up their operations center for the G-7 summit in the ice sports center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The market town has taken quite a bit of rent for this and for all sorts of other properties.
(Photo: Matthias Köpf)
According to the mayor, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was “in a state of siege” during the summit. At the peak of June 26-28, 18,000 police officers secured the G-7 meeting – and, according to some critics, downright suppressed justified protest. From the point of view of the police and state government, on the other hand, the summit remained practically free of disruptions and incidents for this very reason. Almost a third of the many police officers came from other federal states and from the federal government, but the vast majority were Bavarian police officers. In November 2021, i.e. before the start of all summit activities, they were already putting in a good 2.4 million overtime hours, arithmetically around 73 per capita. A year later there were 98 or more than 3.8 million in total.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann announced in February that this increase of a good third was mainly due to the G-7 summit. According to current information from his ministry, the number can no longer be broken down more precisely. Because so many officials were seconded to the G-7 mission, their colleagues who stayed at home would have had to work overtime to keep up normal business operations.
As part of this, overtime is to be reduced – the ministry has set up a working group for this purpose. According to the ministry, they have already made suggestions, which still have to be coordinated and cannot be made public for as long as possible. However, new hires also contribute to the relief. 500 additional jobs in 2023 would bring around one million additional working hours per year. Minister Herrmann put the total cost of the summit for the Free State at 145 million euros. After lengthy negotiations with the Free State and to its declared satisfaction, the federal government took over a flat rate of 80 million euros.