At the end of October, the "Icebreakers" are to perform in the MHP Arena, a multifunctional hall in downtown Ludwigsburg.

But if Vladimir Putin Germany should actually turn off gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 in mid-July, then it will be cold in Germany, and within a day the event hall will become a warming hall for people who cannot afford a quadrupling of the gas price.

At a concert, up to 6200 visitors can be seated in the hall.

If the emergency level is declared, there could be 500 to 800 camp beds in the hall within a very short time.

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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The district of Ludwigsburg – located north of Stuttgart – is one of the first in Germany to prepare for the crisis situation.

About 540,000 people live in the district, for 5000 citizens there should be sleeping places in temporary warming halls.

“We want to be prepared.

5,000 beds, that is 5,000 sleeping bags, 5,000 beds and 5,000 hygiene sets," says Andy Dorroch, District Fire Chief and Head of Civil Protection at the District Office.

Disaster control is like life insurance.

"We are planning something that we hope will not happen, in the first case the catastrophe and in the second case death." Dorroch and his colleagues have never dealt with a gas shortage before, now the question has to be asked what happens to the residents of a retirement home if there is no longer heating, how accommodation and communication must be prepared if the gas supply fails completely in some streets.

Gas shortage emergency plan

In such a case, the Federal Network Agency calls out the emergency level and informs the state ministries for the environment.

The coordination of the crisis then passes to the Ministry of the Interior, which has a "Critical Infrastructure Coordination Office" (KoStKRITIS) and an interministerial administrative staff.

State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) says that the interior ministries with their situation centers are the places where task forces, blue light units, leadership skills and resource management are located.

Civil protection is a matter for the federal states, the state disaster protection law obliges the ministries and the lower civil protection authorities to take “preparatory measures”.

"You have to take the measures that appear necessary according to your best judgment," says the law.

The district of Ludwigsburg has drawn up its own “gas shortage emergency plan”.

"The tasks for civil protection in the district of Ludwigsburg are mainly to limit the consequences of a possible failure of the gas supply," it says.

In an emergency, all 400 fire stations should serve as contact points for citizens who face problems due to the lack of gas and who may also have to be protected from freezing to death.

"Our plans, even now with the gas shortage, are always based on the worst scenario, that is the power failure, because then almost nothing works anymore," says Dorroch.

In addition to overnight accommodation in public halls, there should be help for those living alone, heat buses and soup kitchens.

The green-black state government is also preparing to declare the emergency level.

Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) is planning a government declaration that all departments should submit savings plans and proposals for measures in the next few weeks.

Before the emergency plan comes into effect, Kretschmann wants to make "normative suggestions for saving energy" to the citizens, which should be coordinated with all political levels.

The City Council is planning the campaign: "Baden-Württemberg slows down!".

Suggestions for saving gas are to be bundled there for municipalities, administrations and citizens.

Each municipality is currently preparing individually, and around 45 municipalities are considering closing outdoor and indoor pools.

There are discussions about limiting the opening hours of sports halls and switching off air conditioning and cooling systems.

There may be a top-level discussion between the state government and the energy suppliers before the parliamentary summer break.

The state government recently had to work with the federal government to find a solution for the gas importer VNG;

The subsidiary of the energy supplier ENBW, in which the state has a stake, is also threatened with gas supply failures and high financial losses.

Apparently, Berlin is willing to provide replacement deliveries in this case.