On 10 April 2025, representatives of the Oberallgäu municipalities came together at the Sonthofen District Office for the event ‘Rat und Tat - als Gemeinde schrittweise zur Handlungssicherheit in der Krise’. OTH Regensburg provided expert input and moderation for the meeting as part of the project ‘Strengthening the resilience of a rural region in the foothills of the Alps’ under the direction of Prof Dr Bresinsky.
The first part of the event, ‘Learning from each other’, focussed on the exchange of experiences between the municipalities and the district administration. Herbert Fackler, Head of Safety Law, Fire and Disaster Protection at the Oberallgäu District Office, reported on current developments - e.g. the development of a concept for so-called emergency meeting points. (The municipalities then exchanged views on their existing crisis precautions such as flood protection plans and measures, emergency meeting points and basic technical equipment. At the same time, it became clear that there is a great desire for further networking and targeted expansion of existing measures.
In the second part of the ‘Growing together’ event, Hans Ellmayer, former ministerial councillor and long-standing deputy head of the department responsible for disaster control at the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, gave impulses on the responsibility and role of municipalities in major emergencies. Especially in situations without contact to the district office, municipalities take on the tasks of the disaster control authority on their own. In a subsequent workshop entitled ‘Step-by-step to confidence in action in a crisis’, the municipalities belonging to the district worked on the three topics of ‘crisis management team’, ‘crisis communication’ and ‘emergency meeting points’ after receiving technical introductions from OTH Regensburg. The municipalities exchanged views on the status quo, shared their challenges, tried and tested approaches and jointly developed initial solutions.
Herbert Fackler emphasised: ‘The risk dialogue and the networking of our municipalities in crisis prevention are decisive pillars for effective municipal crisis management and effective certainty of action in the event of an emergency.’
