Wartenberg - Market Wartenberg said goodbye to former mayor Manfred Ranft and the six municipal councilors who retired in 2020 with a dignified evening.
Special attention was paid to Manfred Ranft, who is leaving after 24 years of local politics and who has already been appointed former mayor.
“It was a good time,” said the honoree.
The laudatory speech was held by Ulrike Scharf, member of the state parliament, who certified him with "thirst for action, great commitment and assertiveness".
"You always knew how to bring the different opinions together."
Even greater praise came from his successor in office, Christian Pröbst: “I learned a lot from you.” What caught the eye was the calm with which Ranft was able to react even when things got rough around him. Of course, the dispute over the old schoolhouse, which had dominated local politics, could not be left out. The present from Markt Wartenberg were two paintings by the Wartenberg painter Karl Schußmann, one of which shows the view from the mayor's office onto the market square. Heike Kronseder presented this.
The retired municipal councilors were also adopted, although one of them could not be there: Sebastian Baumann. The suddenly deceased councilor, who was active in local politics for 23 years, put up the picture that had already stood in the council chamber when the shocked citizen representatives had to work through a severely shortened agenda. His wife Monika and daughter Simone accepted the posthumously awarded citizen medal. "He would have been proud of himself," said Monika Baumann.
It was happier with the other resigned citizens' representatives: the team around Christian Pröbst had worked out what they had achieved for everyone, for example with Hermann Zoglauer, who had only been on the committee for three years but had earned merits as a youth officer and with the badge of honor of the market Wartenberg was awarded. Walter Gebhart's list had been around for a long time: from 2008 to 2020 he was on the municipal council and above all contributed his knowledge as an architect. "You never got grumpy, I still don't understand that today," admitted Pröbst. He also received the citizen's medal. August Groh is and will remain an original. Anecdotes about him fill a book, and Michael Paulini and Michael Gruber had nothing less with them. For six years Groh was also second mayor and received the citizen medal,just like Peter Schickinger, also a former second mayor and senior representative.
“It got serious in 2019,” recalled Pröbst.
“Manfred Ranft fell ill.” The situation worsened when Schickinger also fell ill.
Ranft and Schickinger received special applause from those present for being able to conquer the insidious disease in question.
Everyone went over to the cozy part and enjoyed the fact that Ulrike Scharf's sentence “There's nothing like personal encounters” is simply true.
KLAUS KUHN (klk)
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The resigned councilors with Mayor Christian Pröbst (back, right): (back, from left) Walter Gebhart and Hermann Zoglauer as well as (front, from left) August Groh, Peter Schickinger and Monika and Simone Baumann.
© Klaus Kuhn
