Shortly after Sauerlach’s third mayor, Wolfgang Büsch, slipped the word he actually wanted to avoid, applause erupted in the meeting room in Sauerlach’s multi-purpose hall on Otterloher Feld. “I would ask everyone that we bury it completely,” Green Büsch appealed to his colleagues on the municipal council at the microphone. And that is exactly what the committee did and on Tuesday evening unanimously stopped the planned construction of a crematorium at the eastern entrance to the town on Hofoldinger Straße.
It was a memorable meeting in many respects, not only because of the 200 or so citizens who found their way into the meeting room and mostly caused a stir against the crematorium; but also because of the volte that the panel did. In October, the municipal council passed a resolution for the project with a large majority and thus gave its agreement in principle.
On Tuesday evening, however, there was again strong criticism of the project by an entrepreneur from the Eichstätt district. During the citizens’ question time, Alexander Eichner and Ralf Sattelberger complained about the lack of transparency, they only found out about it from the press. Above all, they were bothered by the fact that the crematorium was to be built in the immediate vicinity of the new district of Sauerlach-Ost, where the new high school, a day-care center for children and a sports field are to be built in the coming years. And they pointed out what they believed to be the high level of fine dust pollution from a crematorium.
Mayor Barbara Bogner (UBV) justified the submission of the building application and also the decision of the municipal council as a normal legal process. The interested parties had spoken to the town hall and had also been invited several times to the municipal council, where all relevant questions could have been asked, according to the town hall chief, and the majority of the municipal council had said that they could imagine a crematorium at this location. “That’s the state of affairs and the decision-making process,” said Bogner. At least until Tuesday evening.
The capacities at the Munich Ostfriedhof are sufficient
Because from October to November a rethinking began in Sauerlach. The deciding factor was a visit by several local councilors and the mayor to the ultra-modern crematorium at Munich’s Ostfriedhof, which had just opened in September and which Büsch had organized at the invitation of a Munich city council colleague. According to Büsch, many questions could be clarified during this visit. Whether people would be turned away who wanted to cremate relatives there. “It will not be rejected,” said Büsch.
Three ovens are currently in operation in the new crematorium at Ostfriedhof, and a fourth can be installed at any time if necessary, the Munich health department said on request. In the past, according to the department, the capacity was sufficient to allow citizens from the district of Munich to be cremated within three days. The department therefore sees “currently no further need for additional capacities”. With the new cremation facility, up to 11,000 cremations a year are possible at the Ostfriedhof.
The third mayor’s conclusion: “We have been completely misinformed.” The company from Eichstätt had always maintained that a crematorium was urgently needed in the Munich district, also to avoid long distances. The Sauerlach municipal council accordingly voted to reverse its own resolutions to build a crematorium. However, the building application itself is still with the district office and is being processed there. However, it is unlikely that he will receive a positive decision, said Sauerlach’s head of construction, Jeanette Schaffert, with a view to the decision. The district office will take into account “the strong signal” from Sauerlach. The newly founded citizens’ initiative, which had been fighting against the crematorium for the past few weeks, celebrated on Wednesday that it had achieved its goal. The applicant was advised on the homepage: “Go home!”