Once a year, Mery Teshome takes her children to a Chinese restaurant. There is a buffet with baked banana, fried noodles and Peking soup. The children, says Teshome, have been looking forward to it all year. She works 30 hours a week as a kitchen assistant in an inn and is a single parent with her two daughters. Money is tight and going to restaurants is usually not possible. But Teshome lives in Burghausen, and there is something there that is generally no longer available in the rest of the republic: a state Christmas bonus for people in need.