Anyone who, like Thea Zimmer, leaves the board of the local association of the workers' welfare organization Dachau after 38 years as chairwoman (report follows), could expect more than a bouquet of flowers.
For almost four decades, the 86-year-old has worked tirelessly for the well-being of others and campaigned for those who are hardly heard in society: the weak, the old, the sick - simply for everyone she heard from and who needed help.
BY SIMONE WESTER
Dachau
- someone like Thea Zimmer is given an expensive watch with an engraving, something else of value, isn't it? Anyone who thinks this way has not understood the work of Thea Zimmer and Awo. Because the woman from Dachau always puts the well-being of others in the foreground, never herself. No matter how many medals and other honorary awards she has already received at city, state or federal level - she has her job to get gifts or praise never done. “It was always about help where help is needed,” emphasized the outgoing Awo chairwoman. And don't forget to thank your executive team and everyone who has always supported you. "It would not have been possible without the help of the city and the district," emphasizes the former city and district councilor.
And the district of Upper Bavaria has always been one of Zimmer's contacts and will remain so. Because the 86-year-old will stop as chairwoman, but will continue as a patient advocate and member of the advisory board of the Helios Amper Clinic and as a senior adviser in the social policy committee of the Free State of Bavaria.
District assembly president Josef Mederer, who has been Thea Zimmer's companion for 50 years, summed it up in his laudation at the annual meeting (report to follow) of the Awo local association: “It's something wonderful when you help people, take them by the hand and get them together Can find tears ”, says Mederer, who lives and acts according to this principle himself and, as President of the district of Upper Bavaria, repeatedly emphasizes the important cooperation with local aid organizations, clubs and associations. “We need the actors on site,” says Josef Mederer, who was elected to the district council together with Thea Zimmer in 1990 and has since worked with her in various functions.
Mederer also praised Zimmer's “love, joy and commitment, even with rough edges,” as he emphasized with a wink. Zimmer's “Sepp, listen?” Was never just a question for her, but a demand. And when he heard “Josef, listen” he always knew that this was an “increase” in their demand. Because Thea Zimmer is by no means just a committed woman who works quietly in the background and doesn't dare to say anything. In all its functions, it always opens its mouth when it is necessary, and cannot be fobbed off with hollow promises. She persists and in her role as Awo boss has also become uncomfortable for some when she tried to achieve her goals. And always when it came to getting help for thosewho are not on the sunny side of life and whose voice is not heard.
For example, she succeeded in founding the Awo women's refuge in the early 1990s. For two years she fought for it with her friend, political comrade and Awo colleague Paula Herzinger in the district council. Herzinger founded an Awo local association 30 years ago in her home town of Röhrmoos. She was nudged and supported by Thea Zimmer as a “midwife”, says Herzinger.
Zimmer, who was born in Wilhelmshaven and moved to Dachau 50 years ago with her husband Lothar and their two daughters because her husband had been transferred to Munich, also sat on various committees and working groups up to the European level. She made herself available as a lay judge at the court and from 1982 was chairwoman of the Awo local association in Dachau. At that time she was still relatively new to Dachau and had to work hard. "Rudi Schmidt, Erna Dürrschmidt, Gabriel Schaller, Barbara Frisch and Rosa Rühl supported me a lot at the time," the 86-year-old remembers.
It will not be quiet for rooms in the future.
Their offices will keep them busy.
In addition, she can look forward to a wonderful family.
Her two daughters Anke and Svenja gave her five grandchildren (Franziska, Justus, Philippa, Constanze and Felix) who are there for her even more after the death of her husband Lothar in 2015, who always supported his wife in everything.
Granddaughter Philippa even accompanied her grandmother to her last annual meeting as the first chairwoman.
And Thea Zimmer is "happy that I have such a perfect successor".
With the new chairman Renate Kiermair and a younger board member, Zimmer is certain that the Awo local association Dachau will continue to run smoothly without her.