The homeless Helmut T. was once known in Bad Tölz under his nickname “Bottle Helmut”. Until he suddenly disappeared from the scene years ago. Now he has returned - and is again looking for the freedom of life on the street.
- Until a few years ago, the homeless Helmut T., known as "Bottle Helmut", was part of the townscape of Tölz
- Then he disappeared from the scene for a few years
- Now the 54-year-old is back in Bad Tölz
Bad Tölz - "Aren't you Helmut in the bottle?" This is how a woman addressed him a few days ago in Tölzer Marktstrasse, and then, as Helmut T. reports, the woman added: "We heard that you had died . “In fact, the native Austrian disappeared from the scene for a long time. In the past, he was a noticeable figure in Bad Tölz, almost part of the cityscape - whether positive or negative, opinions were divided.
The bottle collector waded bare legs through the Isar in wintry temperatures, pushed a shopping cart with a self-cobbled Altar of Mary through the city, fervently sang Christmas carols in Tölz shops in December. At some point you couldn't see him anymore. Well, “Bottle Helmut”, his nickname, did not die: the 54-year-old has recently returned to town.
2008 was a turning point for the "bottle Helmut"
Where was the "bottle Helmut" all these years? What is certain is that 2008 was a turning point for him: After a violent argument with punks in the ruins of the "Haus Bruckfeld" building, he was sentenced to one year imprisonment, suspended for three years. One of the conditions was that he should take up permanent residence.
He reports that he last had it in the St. Franziskus retirement home in Kolbermoor, where he also looked after an old woman. He wasn't happy. He also mentions alcohol withdrawal. He broke off one of them in Kiefersfelden after three months. He speaks of alcoholism as an “occupational disease” that he “contracted” as a bottle collector. "That is loneliness."
He improves his income by collecting bottles, he does not want a permanent seat
Today Helmut T. no longer sees himself as a dependent. “Back then, alcohol controlled me, now I control alcohol.” He describes himself as a “passionate tea drinker”. The life of Helmut T. has also changed in other ways. A legal guardian helped him to apply for a disability pension in his native Austria - after all, he worked there for 25 years as a butcher and paid into the social security. He continues to improve his income by collecting bottles. He likes to use the money to go to the cinema on Sundays. Like when I was a child.
Today he is also insured. Just a permanent place of residence - Helmut T. doesn't need or want that. He loves the freedom of life on the street and, after all, has no obligations, no wife and no children, he says. He didn't want to start a family. "If so, the circumstances have to be 100 percent right."
His parents, they had "made four children and given them to the home". As a toddler, he was separated from his three siblings and came to a foster mother. “She was nice - even if she had to have a hard hand.” Helmut T. would like to know whether she is still alive. And where. "Then I would write to her." Helmut T. received the message from his supervisor in Kolbermoor that his biological father had died a long time ago. He never got to know him. He also never heard from his mother again. "I don't think she's alive anymore."
Helmut T. dreams of a pilgrimage to Medjugorje
At the moment, says Helmut T., he sleeps “sometimes here, sometimes there”, apparently with friends. He's actually looking for a garage or something like that to spend the night there on the ground. He would like to prepare himself mentally, emotionally and physically for a long pilgrimage. He wants to walk to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1981 there is said to have been an apparition of Mary there. “Anyone can do a pilgrimage by train or bus.” Helmut T. wants to walk from church to church, from monastery to monastery, to work on the side streets, sleep in caves and empty huts on the way. He also bought a tent. The cold doesn't bother him. "You only have to protect yourself from the wind and moisture."
Before he leaves, Helmut T. wants to have a necessary operation behind him and "wait until it's 100 percent healed, I don't take any risks". Meanwhile he is getting fit for the big hike. He walks 20 kilometers a day, says the 54-year-old. The most important thing for him is the way to the train station, “because it's uphill there”.
In Tölz, I became someone: the bottle Helmut.
Helmut T.Many more plans are gushing out of Helmut T. He wants to found a “street kung fu dance school”, he says with childlike enthusiasm, to set up a theater group and to write a modern version of the apparition of Mary from Lourdes as a drama, his memoirs under the title “Ten years on the street with the Virgin Mary and the Devil ”, and and and. The Caritas homeless assistance gave him nice notebooks that he carries with him in a small plastic bag.
He came back to Bad Tölz because he felt comfortable here. “And in Tölz I became someone: the bottle Helmut.” Later, after his two-year pilgrimage, he wanted to live in a wooden hut, with a small garden, without a TV, without a mobile phone. In the here and now, says Helmut T., there is one thing above all else: "Satisfied."
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