Robert Maier has worked for the same employer for over four decades: his home town of Sauerlach. Now an era is coming to an end.
Sauerlach - Robert Maier remembers his appointment in the Sauerlach town council very clearly. "Smoky atmosphere, beer glasses on the tables, nobody looked at me, not even Mayor Schürer," he says today of how he stood one day in 1977 with soft knees in front of the committee. When he then made himself noticeable, he only got a clear "Posh!". "I thought to myself: So, that's it!" Says the 63-year-old today. But it wasn't, on the contrary: of his 47 years of working life, Robert Maier has spent an incredible 42 years under the same roof: that of the Sauerlach town hall. The manager of the community has his last day of work there at the end of February. And that is the end of an era.
Over 400 sessions - and a lot of snippets
Robert Maier started at the Sauerlach town hall more than four decades ago - in 1977 as a 21-year-old. The picture from back then comes from his personal sheet.
© private
When it started in 1977, Maier had just passed the city inspector's exam in Munich. Because he lived in Sauerlach, however, a job advertisement from the municipality in the State Gazette came in handy. An officer was sought for the senior, non-technical administrative service. In spite of the difficult first appearance, everything was fine: The official start of the job, combined with the appointment as municipal inspector, followed on December 1, 1977. Today, various offices and five mayors - with Barbara Bogner a mayor - later, Robert Maier looks back on a fulfilling working life , Above all, that was one thing: never boring. Around 420 council meetings are held behind the board of directors, countless minutes, speeches, accounts and operations of all kinds.
Like the thing with the already printed community letter, edition of 4000 pieces. "Because we had no approval for a photo, we had to tear it out of every single issue," reports the head of administration. Everyone in the town hall got a cutter knife and got involved. Today this is called team building.
Mammoth task of regional reform as a test of the initial cost
Before that, however, the jump into freezing water for the young official: the organization of the municipal area reform on May 1, 1978 with the first municipal election of the future large community. Altkirchen, Eichenhausen, Arget and Lanzenhaar now belonged to Sauerlach. "If I had known then what was going to happen to me, I'm not sure whether I would have applied," he says mischievously today. At that time, around ten people worked in the town hall, now there are a good 45. Before the reform, Sauerlach was a comparative town with around 3000 inhabitants, an insignificant suburb of Munich. With its around 8,300 citizens, the pretty community would look very different today. Construction areas, facilities and infrastructure - Maier accompanied the entire development. "From the multi-purpose hall, the market place and Schützenheim to the daycare centers," he says.
What he helped shape is more than a job for him. It is home. Robert Maier, born in Holzkirchen, has lived in Sauerlach since he was three years old. His parents' house is still standing, the old station building on the S-Bahn now houses a Mexican restaurant. His father was a dispatcher on the train. The father's idea that his son Robert should do the same for him professionally was not fulfilled. A good thing, says Maier: "I have no doubt that I chose the right profession." And whoever you ask in the town hall - everyone there sees it that way. Mayor Barbara Bogner attests that she is conscientious, reliable, open-minded and "one hundred percent accurate in everything he does." Both of them often spent their lunch break on the bank at Bahnhofsplatz. The bike went to the office in all weathers.
The farewell is not final
Will not Maier miss that from March 1st? "Certainly not the work," he replies promptly. "But all the nice colleagues!" And what's next? "Until my regular retirement on August 1, 2022, i.e. after the free time of my partial retirement, I feel part of our administration and hope that I will be invited to community events until then," he says. But private life now has priority. Robert Maier is looking forward to spending many hours together with his wife Katja, a naturopath. On mountain hiking together, the three grown children, the theater group of the D'Römastoana - and on the UBV, for which he is listed as a candidate for the town council in March. He doesn't want to stop talking in Sauerlach.
