“There have always been beggars at church doors,” says City Dean and Minster priest, Wilfried Schumacher. But an ever increasing number of church visitors had complained and some were afraid of going into the Minster. Those fighting are mainly previously unknown men on the Bonn beggars’ scene. Arguments arose over the position at the door with beggars who had provided the door service for many years. Some of them were also very drunk.

"Previously we had hardly any problems. The beggars provided a valuable service and we and Caritas were always talking to them,” said Sentis. Some even attended church services regularly. The Caritas streetworkers always kept a good eye on these beggars and offered them help. However, in spring the situation at the Minster suddenly changed. It is apparently predominantly beggars from Eastern Europe who then became aggressive.

On Tuesday lunchtime, a Kazakh man of around forty was standing with a paper up in his hand at the door of the Minster. The clearly severely intoxicated man said in broken German that he would not be prevented from begging. “We don’t know yet how long the ban will remain in place,” said Sentis. The City dean, church leaders and social workers are currently discussing how unhindered entry to the church and “organised” begging in the church entrance can be ensured in the future.

Apart from the incidences at the Minster, the Verein für Gefährtenhilfe (VfG) (a charity helping those in need) has also approached beggars in other parts of Bonn, who are increasingly aggressive to passersby. “You can’t tar them all with the same brush, but there are some black sheep,” says VfG managing director, Nelly Grunwald. “They then make life difficult for the other beggars. We tell people who beg that under no circumstances are they allowed to approach passersby directly.” The same applies to those selling the homeless newspaper “fifty-fifty”. Those who flout the rules have their license to sell the paper removed immediately.

As to the question of whether beggars should exist in this day and age, Grunwald says, “Homeless people from Eastern Europe have no right to social security benefits.” They are dependent on the support of charities and get some money from begging. Victor, aged 31 and from Slovakia, sits daily in the pedestrian zone with a cap in front of him. His story: he earns a living in the summer from playing the violin in German cities, because the money he makes as a construction worker in his own country is not enough for him and his five member family. His violin was stolen a few days ago and now he has to beg so he can pay for a ticket home. No one knows if his story is true. “He is young, he can work,” says a man passing by.

(Orig. text: Lisa Inhoffen; translated by Kate Carey.)