For almost 30 years, church music in the evangelical community of Weilheim has been closely associated with one man: Walter Erdt.
As a cantor of the Apostle Church and the dean's office in Weilheim, the 64-year-old has dealt with hundreds of singers and musicians since 1992.
Now he's retired - but “retirement” is actually not the right word.
Weilheim
- He still has to "get used to it a bit", says Walter Erdt in an interview with the local newspaper that he is now called "KMD i.
R. “, which means retired church music director.
After such a long time working for church music, this is not surprising either.
However, Erdt will not completely withdraw from his previous duties.
It was not until March that he was re-elected as Vice President of the Association of Protestant Choirs in Bavaria for six years.
“I like to do that,” he says of this office, in which he is involved, for example, with the organization of the national choir conference organized by the association.
He is also a bell expert for two years.
In this function, for example, some time ago he was in charge of the renovation of the bells in the Protestant church in Schongau.
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Acknowledgment of the longstanding commitment: Walter Erdt saying goodbye with Dean Jörg Hammerbacher (left) and Pastor Sabine Nagel.
© private
The evangelical parish of Weilheim will not have to do without him in the future either: Erdt would like to make up for the corona-related trip to Russia with the project choir “Neue Kantorei”, which he founded and leads, in 2022 - including the six rehearsals in advance.
And already this month, the city of Weilheim's cultural award winner will be playing four-handed organ again with Gundula Kretschmar (Sunday, June 27th, from 6 p.m.).
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Kretschmar has shared the cantor position with Erdt since 2013 and had already represented him before when he was on parental leave.
Now she is the sole cantor.
"We got along well from the start," says Erdt about his positive relationship with Kretschmar.
Even after the job was split, Erdt usually had a 40-hour week
The fact that he gave up half of his position a few years ago was due to the high workload.
“You should actually practice playing the organ for two hours a day,” says Erdt.
In addition, he was on duty every public holiday.
Before he was given the job, he worked around 60 hours a week.
After that, however, he did not have a real part-time job, as he says, because he usually managed around 40 hours a week.
But then he was able to take on some things more calmly.
When Erdt was officially retired at a musical evening prayer - and more than half a year late due to the corona - he was the second longest employee in the parish.
He was presented as former pastors remembered him: as “musically highly competent” as well as “unpretentious” and “very humorous”, as Erdt reports.
It was "very moving" to hear the memories of former companions.
Erdt's services were also recognized by regional church music director Ulrich Knörr, Weilheim's third mayor, Alfred Honisch, and by Gundula Kretschmar.
The newly retired man played the organ with this at the devotional.
Working with the choir children was what Erdt enjoyed most
In his job as cantor, he enjoyed everything, says Erdt at the end of the conversation with the local newspaper.
But what he enjoyed most was working with the choir children.
It was nice when they came to the rehearsal full of joy.
But he also liked it when they made it bluntly clear that they were getting bored.
Over the years, as Erdt has calculated, around 150 children have sung in the two choirs he oversees.
The cantor also directed a youth choir.
“Now and then,” the 64-year-old says, sounding amused, “I meet young women today who greet me.” He doesn't know them, but assumes that they used to sing in one of the two children's choirs .
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