In Baden-Württemberg, the curfew in gastronomy falls on Friday. On the border with Bavaria near Ulm, in the Allgäu or on Lake Constance, it shows how fragile the implementation of the corona rules can be in the pandemic.
Munich/Allgäu/Lake Constance – It’s long, very long. The border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria is 860 kilometers long. There are plenty of examples of cities and regions that are in the immediate vicinity on both sides: Tauberbischofsheim and Würzburg, Heilbronn-Franconia and Rothenburg ob der Tauber*, Ostalb and Bavarian Swabia*, Ulm and Neu-Ulm*, Upper Swabia and Allgäu , Friedrichshafen and Lindau on Lake Constance are only mentioned as examples.
Corona rules: Gastronomy curfew falls in Württemberg – not in Bavaria
Perhaps Memmingen im Allgäu* symbolizes the local proximity most clearly. The small Bavarian town with around 44,000 inhabitants, whose airport is known internationally as “Munich South”, ends in its outskirts exactly on the border line between the two southern German states. Now none of this is new knowledge, but in the coronavirus pandemic *, this local proximity always causes a need for discussion. Because: While stricter corona rules apply on the one hand, measures are being lifted or relaxed on the other.
In the Corona crisis* this has happened in series so far. And this Friday (January 28th) it will be the case again when Baden-Württemberg will change its Corona Ordinance as a result of last Monday’s federal-state discussion. Striking: According to consistent media reports, the curfew in the catering trade (previously 10:30 p.m.) is to fall between Tauberbischofsheim, Ostalb, Ulm, Oberschwaben and Bodenseekreis, while between Würzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Neu-Ulm and Lindau (from 10 p.m.) continue to exist remains.
Corona rules in Germany: areas close to the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
| On the Baden-Württemberg side (examples): | On the side of Bavaria (examples): |
| Tauberbischofsheim (Main-Tauber district) | Würzburg (district-free city) |
| Heilbronn-Franconia region | Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Ansbach district) |
| Ostalb (Aalen and Heidenheim) | Bavarian Swabia (example Nördlingen) |
| Ulm | Neu-Ulm |
| Upper Swabia (districts of Biberach and Ravensburg) | Allgäu (e.g. Memmingen) |
| Friedrichshafen (Lake Constance district) | Lindau on Lake Constance |
You don’t have to be a psychic to predict that people will travel back and forth again. And rather eat and drink somewhere else and maybe celebrate a little without having to constantly check the clock. There have been enough comparisons in recent months.
In July 2021, for example, on the other side of the Free State’s border, Upper Austrian hosts from the night gastronomy sector described that people from Bavaria who wanted to party simply drove across the border to party there. “They celebrated their bachelorette party with us,” said Stefan Schneebauer from the “Stiegenwirt” in Schärding, for example, to the Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) : “Here you can move from gastro to gastro.” The neighbors from Bavaria also did one before Corona The majority of customers are off, Schneebauer continued at the time, up to 60 percent.
In the video: New Corona rules in Baden Württemberg – What is changing
And: Between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria there has only been a spark in the past few days because of different corona rules. As BR24 reports, representatives of the Baden-Württemberg trade association HBW complained last weekend that many customers from border areas would travel to Bavaria to shop there. The background: In the Free State, the 2G rule in retail was overturned by a court decision, only days later, on January 25, was the regulation also repealed in the south-west.
Another example: When the hardware stores in Bavaria reopened in lockdown at the beginning of March 2021, according to bw24.de *, Baden-Württembergers flocked to the Free State in droves. For example, rows of cars with license plates from Ulm or the Alb-Donau district could be seen in front of hardware stores in Neu-Ulm.
Corona rules: Again and again differences between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
And the gastronomy? In early and mid-December there was no curfew in BaWÜ, while in Bavaria it was from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.*. On New Year’s Eve, the Bavarian state government of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) suspended the curfew for a free night, while in Württemberg bars and restaurants had to close at 1 a.m. So in the middle of the New Year celebrations. So now the confusion in the border regions continues. The drawn lines on the map, on the other hand, should, figuratively speaking, not matter to the corona virus and its variant Omikron*. (pm) * Merkur.de and bw24.de are offers from IPPEN.MEDIA
