Mikhail Gorbachev is fondly remembered at Tegernsee: "He always greeted me in a friendly way"

Created: 08/31/2022Updated: 08/31/2022 8:48 p.m

Mikhail Gorbachev visited the bistro at the Aquadom in Bad Wiessee with his family.

© Klaus Wiendl

The Tegernsee valley was a retreat for Mikhail Gorbachev.

He liked to visit his daughter Irina, who lived in the Hubertus-Schlössl in Rottach-Egern.

The memory of him is alive.

Rottach-Egern – The Rottach innkeeper Franz Josef Maier would have liked to speak to Mikhail Gorbachev again.

Asked how he is now in his home country.

"Unfortunately, we were no longer in contact," Maier regrets.

The death of the former Soviet President makes him sad: "It's a bitter loss.

He had such wonderful thoughts.” Maier has very personal memories of Mikhail Gorbachev, who has passed away at the age of 91 after a long illness.

The family liked to eat at Maier's Hotel-Gasthof Maier zum Kirschner.

Frequent guest at the Maier zum Kirschner

"They were there for the last time in 2017," reports Maier.

Gorbachev's daughter Irina Virganskaya had set up a second home in Rottach-Egern, and her father was a frequent guest.

In Maier zum Kirschner he usually ordered fish soup.

And he was approachable, liked to talk to the innkeepers.

"There were very emotional moments with him that we will remember forever," says Maier.

The contact with Gorbachev's daughter Irina, which Maier maintained for a long time, has since broken off.

Franz Josef Maier cherishes the souvenir photos with Mikhail Gorbachev.

© THOMAS PLETTENBERG

Hubertus-Schlössl as a family home

Irina Virganskaya bought the Hubertus-Schlössl in Rottach-Egern in 2005.

The family often met here.

After his wife Raissa died in 1999, the Rottacher Schlössl was a popular retreat for Mikhail Gorbachev.

It was the memories of his mountainous homeland, the Caucasus, that prompted the Nobel Peace Prize winner Gorbachev to travel to Lake Tegernsee again and again.

The Schlössl offered plenty of space for comfortable stays: 17 rooms on 570 square meters of living space.

According to his daughter, Gorbachev loved the peace and quiet at Lake Tegernsee.

Cozy meals and walks

In January 2014, the author of these lines met him with his family at the Aquadom in Bad Wiessee.

Guarded only by a bodyguard, Gorbachev walked along the waterfront and then to the "Bistro" to eat.

He sat with daughter Irina and granddaughter Anastasia among other guests.

At the beginning there was a soup with local fish – his favorite dish.

Gorbachev stayed at Tegernsee for a few more days in 2014, which he wanted to spend exclusively with his family.

But Gorbachev and his daughter also dined at Hotel Überfahrt, as Oligarch Alisher Usmanow reported.

In 2011 he met Gorbachev in the Hotel Überfahrt, "he had dinner there with his daughter Irina".

In 2007 it was probably roast pork with bread dumplings that appealed to the former Soviet head of state and party

wrote Der Spiegel about his visit to the “Gasthaus am Hirschberg”.

Gorbachev got out of a horse-drawn sleigh.

Hubertus-Schlössl sold in 2019

Later, the idyll at Tegernsee was over.

Daughter Irina separated from her Bavarian holiday home in 2019.

One reason was that the health of the head of the family no longer made it possible to travel.

In 2016 he was awarded the Media Freedom Prize at the Ludwig Erhard Summit.

Because he could no longer travel to the valley, the summit organizers, the Tegernsee publisher couple Weimer, presented Gorbachev with the prize in Moscow.

The prominent part-time citizen will not be forgotten in Rottach-Egern.

His tireless commitment to peace and freedom was rightly underpinned by the Nobel Peace Prize, Mayor Christian Köck paid tribute to the deceased.

"I met him a few times while walking in Rottach-Egern because he lived in the immediate vicinity of my parents' house for a while," says Köck: "He always greeted me in a friendly way and will remain in my personal fond memory."