Corona hotspot Berchtesgadener Land: “Gentlemen, perhaps some were too careless”

The house where the bad news came from is right at the entrance to Bad Reichenhall, a two-story building with a green metal facade just off the busy Main Street. District offices look equally functional in many places in Germany, the one in Berchtesgadener Land currently being the most prominent.

At the entrance you can read “Entry only on request”. Citizens queuing there want to get a new badge, ID, or just the right garbage bags. A security employee receives the concerns at an outdoor table and calls the responsible employee. Every now and then a soldier in camouflage comes out to smoke a cigarette, he’s very orderly.

The drama, the uncertainty, the stress of the authorities: they are mainly reflected in the numbers. The latest corona incidence value for Berchtesgadener Land is 278.49 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants, currently the lonely peak in Germany. 64 confirmed cases have been added. Currently, 13 patients with Covid must be treated in the hospital, one in the intensive care unit. The 55 tracking followers of the health department have the support of 40 soldiers, these are the inhabitants of Flecktarn.

“The events are spread out across the district,” explains district administrator Bernhard Kern over the phone, “it can’t be reduced.” When determining the contacts, you could simply find out, “It’s not like anything was left behind.” For the strict general decree issued by him, the following applies: “The figures prove us right.”

At the moment, until November 2, particularly strict crown rules apply in Berchtesgadener Land: citizens can only leave their apartments for good reason. Vacation guests had to leave, a long outbound traffic jam formed on the federal highway. Since then, some returning travelers have tested positive in their places of origin.

Restaurants can only offer take away food, toilets and cable cars are closed. Kindergarten students and children should only return after fall break. Businesses are also hit hard: the Fischer furniture store at the junction with the district office, for example, lacks customers from Austria. A total of three customers were there in the morning, says branch manager Alexander Eisenmann. “We are preparing for a very quiet time.”

Antipole to Berlin-Neukölln

Quiet, clean, orderly: Berchtesgadener Land is the antithesis of lively districts like Berlin-Neukölln. Only 105,000 people live in the district, 126 per square kilometer. Around snow, rocks, forests. Older people, in particular, appreciate the alpine atmosphere. Many barrier-free condominiums are currently under construction in the region. Climatic spas announce to relaxation seekers with respiratory illnesses and a large-scale smoking ban in front of the rehabilitation clinic in the Bad Reichenhall spa park.

And now this: Corona hotspot. Statistically, status is paradoxically a consequence of emptiness. Because in Berchtesgadener Land, a few medium-sized clusters are enough to push the district up the scale, one of the weaknesses when incidence values ​​alone are used as a reference.

And what else is Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) named the parties as a starting point. Rumors and indications of infections circulate in the district at various celebrations, including at an alpine hut, a shisha bar, a garage party. Officials are also said to have celebrated. Little can be proved. “The main event of the outbreak began with a private celebration,” says the district office.

Another theory: proximity to Austria. The local hotspot Kuchl is nearby, the people of Berchtesgadener Land like to go out in Salzburg, but it is not clear which viruses were introduced.

Too lax to mask morality?

Lukas Harkotte has another explanation: the decline in discipline. The 22-year-old bookseller with curly blonde hair is sitting in a park in the center of Bad Reichenhall, on his lunch break. “The increase in the number of cases also has to do with the fact that the measures were not implemented,” says Harkotte. “Especially when there is a fuzzy occurrence, then you have to control everything.”

But there was not much to do with the controls before the strict general decree. The morale of the mask has become increasingly lax. “I kept having to argue with clients who refused to cover their mouth and nose.” It’s not really his job: “I’m a retailer, I’m for people, not against them.”

Harkotte: “Now that exponential growth is there, it could have been avoided.” Some time ago he wrote to the district administrator: “I imagine you do not want to scare tourists with controls, but a second closure would probably damage the tourism of the city more.” Harkotte received a response from the health department, he was thanked for the “frank words”, it was important “that we all comply with the legal requirements.” The local newspaper ran an article titled “We’re being insulted like masked Nazis” about Harkotte, who wants to keep campaigning for more discipline.

A very good summer

The region has had a very good summer in terms of tourism and many people followed Söder’s call to go on vacation to Bavaria. In photogenic locations, visitors stood up, hoteliers and restaurateurs were booming, with low infection rates. Now the relationship has been reversed, after overcrowding, the problem is once again the absence of tourists. Souvenir shops in Königssee are closed due to a lack of customers, as is the Romy Schneider exhibition, and some mountain bikers are practicing in the huge empty parking lot.

“The locals don’t buy souvenirs,” says Brigitte Schlögl. She is the Managing Director of Berchtesgadener Land Tourismus GmbH. From his bright new office in the center of Berchtesgaden, Schlögl overlooks a main, almost pedestrianized shopping street. The restrictions affect all tourism. “The industry is not the cause, now it is a blow to the stomach for them.”

She is reluctant to criticize the measures. “Now is an opportunity for all: Gentlemen, some of them may have been too careless,” says the tourism manager. Their hope: “That we won’t become a permanent hotspot, but that people will be back soon.”