He actually wanted to go away with his wife. The hotel in the spa triangle near Passau was already booked. But because everything is different at the moment, Gerhard Landgraf spends his 80th birthday quietly at home.
Maisach - The planned celebrations with relatives, friends and his regulars have to wait until the corona restrictions are lifted.
The jubilee did not want a big official fancy anyway. "I have been recognized when he was appointed mayor and when the Federal Cross of Merit was awarded," he says. "That has to be enough." He received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2019, he has been the mayor for twelve years - three times as long he controlled the fortunes of the Maisach community. "Only a few full-time mayors manage to stay in office for 36 years," says Landgraf with pride.
The way to old Bavaria
In 1972 he won his first choice. The administrative officer lived in the village for nine years. He had turned his back on his hometown Bamberg after being verbatim there. Landgraf had gone to the Bundeswehr after completing his training at the Landratsamt and was to be taken on immediately afterwards - that is the promise. But when he got back, it was said that transportation might be considered in a few years. "So I went to Old Bavaria," says the father of two. "I like the blow here. The old Bavarians are direct. "
In the town hall in Maisach he was initially an administrative assistant and in 1967 passed the examination to become a graduate in administration. In 1970 he became an executive officer. In the village, he was also known as a mighty striker for SC Maisach. Thanks to the round leather, the franc was quickly integrated, even if a local predicted that he would not get far in the village ("You drank ned").
But people trusted him the mayor. "I had learned administration and I am a friendly person." He also had a saying in his mother's ear. “She always said: the stupid and the cheeky are lucky. Now you can think about where I belong. "
Some of the things that Landgraf accomplished as mayor are still thanked to him in the community today. He prevented civil aviators from going to the air base, conducted twelve trials for it and won them all - it went to the administrative court. "We lost the 13th trial, but it was already clear that the airfield would be closed."
The incorporation of the districts
Three years before the regional reform, Landgraf brought the present districts under one roof. He secured building land for locals with the help of a basic decision: The municipality would buy cheap agricultural land and in return create building rights, 40 percent for the municipality, 60 percent for the farmers. At a citizens' meeting, the peasants demonstrated resistance to these plans - they would never agree to them. "At eleven at night, the first called whether you could talk," recalls Landgraf.
During his tenure, the new building of the secondary school and swimming pool as well as the construction of the Gernlinden community center. Landgraf founded the Maisach brass band and the local association of the AWO, whose second chairman he is still today. He has been organizing trips and trips for members for decades. This year it should go to Rhodes, Porto and Lisbon, that is now on the brink. But Hamburg and the North Sea Islands next year in May - that should work.
"Something has to move for me," says Landgraf. At the moment the corona restrictions are slowing down his zest for action, but he is still not bored. In the morning, old documents are worked up in the study, in the afternoon you go out for a walk in the moss. The fit and vital jubilee has long since recovered from a few operations in recent years. "I'm really well." Os
