Hilmar Kneisl, a former chocolate manufacturer, dies at the age of 79 after a long illness.
Geretsried - The former Geretsried chocolate manufacturer Hilmar Kneisl died at the age of 79 after a serious illness. He lived with his wife Marianne in Seeshaupt and died on February 12th in the Wolfratshausen hospital. Last week he was buried in the Geretsried forest cemetery.
The history of the Kneisl confectionery factory is typical for the settlement of industry in Geretsried. In 1948, the brothers Wilfried and Walter Kneisl, who came from Holleschau in Moravia (now Holesov, Czech Republic) as displaced persons, rebuilt the Kneisl company, founded in 1863, from scratch in a former armaments factory on Buchenweg. Four years later, they relocated production to the former welfare building on the western side of Adalbert-Stifter-Strasse. Since raw materials were scarce at the beginning, the brothers used a trick, for example, to produce marzipan. In the absence of almonds, they used potatoes as a raw mass, which they mixed with sugar and almond oil. These “marzipan balls” were extremely popular with the Geretsrieders. Kneisl produced more and more chocolate products over the years; the dried fruits and nuts covered with chocolate were famous. The son of Walter Kneisl, Hilmar, a graduate food chemist, ran the factory together with his cousin Michael in the fourth generation.
“There was a great atmosphere of optimism at that time in Geretsried. We industrial pioneers, which included the Füger and Lorenz families, held together, ”recalls Hilmar Kneisl's widow Marianne. The two had been married since 1968. Hilmar Kneisl was involved in the Geretsried industrial community and in the Rotary Club. When larger economic and commercial units emerged in the European Union in the early 1990s as a result of the opening of the markets, family businesses such as Kneisl were no longer competitive. In February 1996 the company came into the possession of the Gubor company, which gave up the production of chocolate fruit in Geretsried just six months later and relocated it at its headquarters to Müllheim in the Black Forest. Today the "gingerbread house" on Sudetenstrasse reminds of the Kneisls. Their treats were previously sold on Buchenweg under the same name. Hilmar Kneisl's attempt to locate a medical center on the 3400 square meter plot failed years ago. Today there are houses.
In addition to his wife, the deceased leaves behind daughters Katarina and Barbara and a total of five grandchildren. “The family was his everything,” says Marianne Kneisl. In his free time, the sporty chocolate maker liked to go skiing and mountaineering. He was also a passionate sailor and aviator. He started his beloved excursions high above the clouds from the Königsdorf gliding center. He was also socially involved, among other things at the Penzberger Tafel.
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