Bürgerversammlung:

All Burgers were invited by the parish mayor to the annual parish meeting, an information event rather than a forum for concerns. I haven't been for the last few years and as I from time to time question certain things that go on, thought it was also my duty to show up and take part in this very primary step in the democratic process of the country I currently live in.

As an EU Burger, I have the right to vote in local parish and county elections but not in the Bavarian state or German national elections.

And so it was. Held at the large old pub, The Adler, in the middle of our parish capital Sontheim. Entered just as the mayor said the first greeting word and hurried to the first free space at the back of the long narrow room to join around 150 others. Beer ordered from the waitress and then with squinted eyes,  40 minutes or so of trying to read the statistics on all the graphs.

Couldn't read a word or number but I did hear each of the 1000 odd households have a debt of around 600 Euros, if we had to wind up the parish. Apparently we are thus very well off. I think I saw some huge numbers with 10 million at the top which suggested that was the annual parish income which seems massive to me given we have only 2,600 inhabitants (1,900 Sontheim, 700 Attenhausen). However the parish income system is quite complicated and involves everything from getting part of the residents normal income tax to part of the beer tax. Well it is Germany: very detailed, very complicated and involves beer.

Largest concern for the mayor and 15 councillors is keeping the residents and attracting young families to the parish against the nationwide trend for the young to move to the urban areas. We even all stood to hear the names of the 13 parishioners who died last year, read out and a moments silence.

A large part was used to show the new parish web site due to go live soon. I did get up and make a suggestion. Not too sure it was fully understood but will see.

I doubt more than 10 questions were asked during the evening so I suspect it must have been the beer that got me to stand up. One pint of "Radler" (50/50 Beer and Lemonade) is enough to knock me over at lunchtime. This evening, I  had two and drove home!

When the mayor ended, I paid my beer debts, willingly knowing a % of the 5.00 Euros would be used to pay for the street lighting while trying to find the car. Quick look around the tables to see who I knew and a quick chat with farmer Josef who hosts our village young farmers bash this weekend.

Hope the weather improves for them as the event starts with a motor-cross race tomorrow afternoon and I would like to blip it. I certainly won't be at the disco that follows but perhaps a short visit on Saturday for the oldies night. Today we lit the sitting room wood fire at midday!