Martha Hermansdorfer: Research with a heart of gold
Created: 07/10/2022, 11:00 am
By: Markus Ostermaier
Grandparent-Child Day in the day care center with a refugee girl from Martha Hermansdorfer's neighborhood.
Martha is their new German "grandma".
© private
The 73-year-old Martha Hermansdorfer from Eicherloh has been socially involved for decades - whether in the parish council or in refugee aid.
In her own life she had to cope with some strokes of fate.
Eicherloh
- Friendly, cheerful and bubbly with energy - you immediately get this positive first impression of Martha Hermansdorfer.
She has been socially committed and helpful all her life.
After 24 years, she is now withdrawing from the Eicherloher parish council (PGR), at least for the most part.
However, behind the sunny disposition of the 73-year-old there are also dark life events, above all the accidental death of her son 30 years ago.
Nevertheless, she can laugh again today and has become the beloved grandmother for the refugee children from the neighborhood.
Talking to Martha Hermansdorfer is anything but difficult.
In a good mood and full of euphoria, she talks about various stages of her eventful life.
So it's not surprising that she approached newcomers to the town without hesitation.
"I talk to people, even if I don't know them at all," says Hermansdorfer about himself. Ingrid Ilse is one who can confirm this.
The 52-year-old has lived in Eicherloh since 2010 and met Hermansdorfer two years later at the PGR.
“Martha is so open and really talks to everyone.
Someone like that makes it easy when you're new in the village.”
She has always lived in the municipality of Finsing
Martha Hermansdorfer is very familiar with her surroundings because she has always lived in the municipality of Finsing.
She was born with the maiden name Steinhart in September 1948 in the Erdinger hospital as the illegitimate child of a maid.
Her mother Maria did not have it easy in life.
As a result of polio, she struggled with motor deficits and had suffered from spherical cell anemia since Martha was born.
She always had to work hard to support her daughter in order to create a small livelihood.
That is why a foster family supported her in the first two years of her life until Maria Steinhart was able to afford a small railway carriage in Hinterer Finsingermoos.
"I had a nice childhood, even though we were so poor," Martha Hermansdorfer looks back today.
Because of the always tight money, the mother often gave up her food for her child, but Martha also remained a very slim girl.
"I was so skinny that I was even sent to a cure."
Martha Hermansdorfer received her first doll when she was five years old.
© Private
Martha attended a boarding school with nuns near Moosburg.
"They always wanted me to go to the monastery myself, but that just wouldn't have worked," she was sure from a young age.
She then learned the trade of housekeeper.
After that, she worked in various jobs and often supported at events.
Karl Hermansdorfer already knew Martha at the time.
He lived in Vorderer Finsingermoos.
Martha's interest in him wasn't particularly great at first.
"I never thought I'd marry him," she recalls with a laugh.
But things turned out differently: after two years of relationship, the couple said yes in June 1968.
Martha was 19 at the time and took Karl's surname.
Together they built their own home in Eicherloh, where they still live today.
also read
Suitcase chaos at the airport: In Munich, pieces of luggage are stacked up – flights are drastically more expensive
"I'm just unlucky": Young mother suffers from aggressive multiple sclerosis - and has last hope
Martha Hermansdorfer was already pregnant when they got married, and her son Thomas was born that same year.
In 1975 their daughter Kathrin was born.
From now on, Martha took care of her children and pets.
And her own mother was soon dependent on help.
Maria Steinhart needed blood transfusions and was also in a wheelchair until she died in October 2006 shortly before her 95th birthday.
Her son died in an accident at the age of 23
A few years earlier, however, Martha Hermansdorfer had to cope with another terrible stroke of fate.
Her son Thomas died in a traffic accident through no fault of her own in June 1992 – at the age of just 23.
At that time he was out and about at the Sylvenstein reservoir, on one of his beloved motorbike tours.
He swerved off the road to avoid steer- ing into a crowd and hit a car head-on.
The sudden loss of the son, who wanted to marry soon, was incredibly bad for the mother.
"It was such a big shock.
I always thought, it can't be that Thomas won't come back." A few weeks ago, it was the 30th anniversary of his death, and the pain is still deep.
"It's been so long, but I still can't place it.
For me, Thomas will always be 23 years old.” Hermansdorfer feels a very special connection to her son and prays to him frequently.
She is still in contact with many of his friends to this day.
The tragic family event is also known to Eicherloherin's circle of acquaintances.
The people around her appreciate all the more that Hermansdorfer has found his way back to such a positive attitude to life.
"Martha has never let herself be defeated, has never stood still and has always developed further," says her PGR companion Ingrid Ilse.
Husband and garden will be the focus of Martha Hermansdorfer in the future.
© Markus Ostermaier
Hermansdorfer has always been socially inclined.
She herself suspects that her helper syndrome goes back to her own childhood in poor circumstances.
Among other things, she has already been involved in the parents' councils of schools and daycare centers, in the Eicherloher mothers' association and to this day on the board of the gardening association.
A very honest person
Martha Hermansdorfer describes herself as a very honest person.
As a result, she is repeatedly offended in her parish council activity, which does not bother the 73-year-old.
"What am I for in such an office, if one is then only supposed to agree?" The pensioner also maintains critical views in relation to the Catholic Church.
She was particularly bothered by an e-mail from the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising some time ago, stating that parish council members should not make uncoordinated statements in public about cases of abuse in the church.
"It can't be that something is being covered up here," says Hermansdorfer.
The pensioner is against celibacy.
"It's not up to date at all.
Women should generally be allowed to have a much more say in the church,” she says, referring to the high level of commitment of women in her church community.
Hermansdorfer's commitment and honesty were well received in the PGR.
"She speaks up when she doesn't like something.
Martha has a heart of gold and such a fresh, youthful manner,” says Ingrid Ilse.
She was particularly impressed that the 73-year-old supported older neighbors or visited them in the hospital if they did not receive the appropriate help from their own relatives.
No fear of contact with other cultures
Three years ago, the pensioner showed that she has no fear of contact with other cultures.
Refugees were accommodated in the immediate vicinity.
That also moved Martha Hermansdorfer at first, Ilse remembers and adds with a grin: "In the end, she was the first to be there to help." Two families from Tanzania, four adults and now five children, live in Eicherloh.
Communication was difficult at first because Hermansdorfer doesn't speak English.
Hermansdorfer recalls that they communicated with hands and feet and with a translation app with voice recognition.
The 73-year-old has supported the refugees extensively in recent years: with job interviews, appointments at the district office, visits to the doctor or even with childbirth preparation.
In return, she was helped with trips to the recycling center, for example.
"I couldn't wish for better neighbors," says Hermansdorfer.
She is the only one left from the Eicherloher circle of helpers, but the senior also says that the Tanzanians are now fully integrated.
Hermansdorfer explains why she was so committed to helping her new fellow citizens: “If I were to come to a foreign country, I would be very happy if someone would help me.” Her neighbors reward her with a lot of love for her commitment - especially from the offspring.
For the five African children, she has become the grandmother and is also called that.
That's why Martha Hermansdorfer is always in the thick of things at birthday parties or grandparent-child days in kindergarten.
You can see how happy that makes her.
The 73-year-old, who has no grandchildren of her own, hopes that the two African families can stay in Eicherloh, because the fathers have already received deportation notices.
In the 2022 PGR election, Ingrid Ilse and the other members initially hoped that Hermansdorfer would run again, but their decision was made.
Even if you don't notice it at first glance: the 73-year-old is now in poor health.
For several years she has been suffering from fibromyalgia, a chronic disease that causes episodic pain.
She also has asthma, migraines and got seriously ill with Corona in November despite vaccination.
To this day, she doesn't feel as fit as before.
However, the pensioner emphasizes: "Corona took a lot of vitality from me, but not my zest for life." Health is also not the only reason why she wanted to leave the PGR.
"24 years are enough and younger people have to come in again," says Hermansdorfer.
She will continue to support the work with the elderly
She hasn't quite realized the end of her voluntary work yet, but that doesn't have to be the case.
The 73-year-old would like to continue to support the municipal senior citizens' work.
Immediately after the conversation, Hermansdorfer would like to celebrate the 91st birthday of an Eicherloher.
The pensioner, who is very attached to her homeland, will certainly not get bored in other ways either.
Once a week she goes to Qi Gong.
In the future, Martha Hermansdorfer wants to concentrate more on her 80-year-old husband and the garden she loves.
By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Erding newsletter.