During the 1972 Olympic torch relay, Franz Samuel stole a spark from the Olympic flame.
Since then there's been a fire in his hallway at home.
Continuously.
For almost half a century.
And neither travel, the appendix or the corona lockdown could extinguish the flame.
Hohenschäftlarn
- The eternal fire shines on a heating ledge in a hallway in Hohenschäftlarn.
The small light in a crystal vase flickers between an Olympic pennant and Waldi, the mascot dachshund.
Above that lies a somewhat sooty kitchen strainer to protect the flame from cheeky moths that sneak through the front door into the corridor.
"Assassins are lurking everywhere," says Franz Samuel and smiles.
But the 89-year-old is on the alert.
The wick has been burning in his hallway for almost 49 years.
Without interruption.
And Franz Samuel has no intention of ever letting the fire go out.
August 25, 1972. The opening of the Olympic Games in Munich is imminent.
Franz Samuel also got the Olympic fever.
When he learns that the torch change is taking place in his neighborhood in the Schäftlarn district of Ebenhausen, he makes the decision to become a rascal.
He wants to steal the Olympic flame.
While the choral society is serenading, Samuel and his son use the unobserved moment - and hold a piece of wood to one of the pylons in which the Olympic flame is flickering.
When his wife Inge sees the two of them come back with a thieving grin and a glowing lantern, she knows immediately: The plan has worked.
The corona lockdown almost put out the fire
Since then the fire has been burning in the Samuels' hallway.
Every eleven days, Franz Samuel refills the vase with eternal light oil.
In the Munich candle shop he trusts, his orders for the five-liter canisters have already become a habit.
However, after almost 49 years with the eternal light in the hallway, the corona lockdown almost blew out the flame.
Because like all shops, the candle shop had to close its doors to customers.
Not like that, thought Franz Samuel when his oil supplies recently ran out.
“After all, I went there and bumped at the door.” Fortunately, an employee was in the warehouse.
He put the rescue canister in front of the shop door for him.
Whenever Franz Samuel went on a trip with his wife - who prefers to keep her hands off the wick - he had to get creative.
At the son's wedding in Melbourne, Australia, for example.
Samuel, as a sacristan a candle professional anyway, simply tied two wicks together - and the fire survived the three-week journey to the other end of the world.
Franz Samuel couldn't stop even a ruptured appendix.
When the ambulance was already in front of the door, Samuel asked the paramedics calmly, but definitely for a little more patience.
“I still had to fill up my oil.” Ten days in the clinic and an emergency operation later, his Olympic flame was still burning nicely over the heating ledge.
Franz Samuel thinks the Tokyo Olympics should be postponed
In his function as guardian of the flame, Franz Samuel has achieved some fame over the years.
The newspaper, radio and television keep knocking on his door.
And with his background he was able to get to know well-known personalities such as torch-runner Günter Zahn or world-class swimmer Marc Spitz, whom Samuel had already met in 1972 in the Olympic Park.
“A great experience, even if I was more of a sprinter than a swimmer in my youth,” says Samuel and smiles.
But Samuel is not yet sure whether he will be able to follow the current world-class athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo planned for the summer.
The Olympic Committee is sticking to the plans.
But the criticism of it is getting louder because of the pandemic.
And noble Olympic fan Samuel also says: "If the world can't come to the games, that's just nothing." In his opinion, the games should be postponed.
“Just like at the Passion Play in Oberammergau.
They did it wisely and postponed it by two years. "
Next year the flame will burn for 50 years
In any case, Samuel's fire will continue to burn, regardless of whether the starting gun is fired in Tokyo this year or not.
And if a cheeky butterfly doesn't crawl under the kitchen strainer, it will burn for exactly 50 years without interruption for the next year.
But there are no plans for the anniversary yet.
“Maybe we'll light a pylon in the garden,” says Inge Samuel and laughs.
"But the only thing that really matters is that we stay healthy."
And if you take it exactly, then the upcoming anniversary for Franz Samuel is only a small intermediate step anyway.
Since he has always preferred to take the 11-seater tram to school in his childhood in the Bohemian town of Pilsen, eleven has been his favorite number.
So it is only logical that he would also like to be 111 years old.
And until then, a few liters of Eternal Light Oil will flow into his vase.