Pedagogue, municipal councilor, Africa expert: Gertrud Gräbner turns 90

Created: 02/15/2022, 09:00

Well travelled: Gertrud Gräbner (center) on her 90th birthday with District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (right) and Mayor Dieter Neumaier, himself a native of Arndorf Exciting time with Holzland-Texan Many years on the farm in Namibia © private

Gertrud Gräbner from Arndorf is celebrating her 90th birthday.

She was the first woman on the Kirchberg municipal council - and has a deep connection to Africa.

Arndorf

– Is that conceivable?

Do you want to “puzzle” into your own 90th birthday with your daughter and two grandchildren until 2 a.m.?

In Arndorf, this is not only imaginable, but reality: Gertrud Gräbner and her loved ones spent half the night building a 1,500-piece jigsaw puzzle until her milestone birthday.

She then spent the day of honor with many calls from relatives, friends and acquaintances as well as visits from neighbors in Arndorf.

Born in Stuttgart in 1932, Gräbner studied at the universities of Marburg and Frankfurt to become a secondary school teacher.

When she taught at the German School in Ethiopia in the early 1960s, she met her future husband Karl-Erich Gräbner, who also worked there as a teacher.

Back in Germany they got married in 1969 and with the children Peter and Anna the family happiness was perfect.

For professional reasons - the husband had left school and started a job at ZDF - the family first moved to Erding.

In the early 1980s, the Graebners were looking for a house with a large garden and finally found what they were looking for in Arndorf, where they acquired the small agricultural property "beim Lohhans".

The jubilarian taught in Bavaria, initially in Burgau (Günzburg district), later at the elementary school in Reichenkirchen and then for many years at the secondary school in Wartenberg.

As an experienced educator, towards the end of her teaching career she was assigned to work as a mobile reserve and came to the Schröding elementary school as a maternity cover, where she retired in 1989.

In 1990, the citizens immediately elected Gertrud Gräbner as the first woman to the Kirchberg municipal council.

During this time, for example, the decision and preparation for the new school building in Schröding and the development plans for Burgharting-West and Kirchberg-Einfeld were made.

When asked what was the most exciting thing about her time on the municipal council, Gräbner replies with a mischievous smile: “The mayor!” What is meant here is Kirchberg’s former municipal leader Georg Strohmaier senior, who was also known as the “Holzland-Texan” at the time.

The love for Africa prompted Gertrud Gräbner.

to buy a farm in Namibia for her husband in 1994 for his 70th birthday and to give it to him.

As a result, both of them spent a lot of time together in South West Africa, and after the death of their husband in 2000 Gertrud Gräbner alone.

That was also the reason why Gräbner did not run for a second term as a municipal councilor.

However, she regularly returned to Germany to check on things in Arndorf and to support her son Peter, who had meanwhile taken over the local property.

Some Kirchbergers took the opportunity to visit the farm in the former German colony and still report today about the impressive Namib Desert.

Although Gertrud Gräbner is in good health and mentally fit, such travel strains are no longer conceivable.

In her "second retirement" with her son Peter, she once again enjoys the large natural garden, which has always been her hobby.

She reads a lot, likes to solve sudokus and – if the weather permits – goes for a walk every day to the water house, about half a kilometer away, where she rests on a specially set up bench before heading home again.

At home, she enjoys the fact that her granddaughter Jana has been living with her for a short time and is always there to help.

What Gertrud Gräbner appreciates most about Arndorf is the good neighborhood.

And the jigsaw puzzles – even if it sometimes takes half the night.