18 kilometers a day: man has been walking to work since 1997

Created: 09/26/2022, 16:41

By: Boris Naumann

They have to be waterproof, his hiking boots, and wide at the front.

But that's about all Helmut Sattler from Niestetal needs.

Niestetal – Helmut Sattler walks to his place of work in downtown Kassel.

He does this every working day, in any weather and at any time of the year, five times a week - and has been since 1997, as reported by hna.de.

"That's a total of 18 kilometers to Kassel and back to Niestetal-Heiligenrode," says Sattler, who works for DAK as a social security employee.

He knows his hobby is unusual.

And there will hardly be anyone who can hold a candle to him.

"I use up a pair of hiking boots every year," he says.

Already 100,000 kilometers on the “odometer”: For 25 years now, Helmut Sattler from Heiligenrode has been walking nine kilometers to his workplace in Kassel – and back again.

© Boris Naumann

Went from Kassel to Paris and also to Barcelona

At first he counted the kilometers run.

He had managed the distance from Kassel to Paris, around 700 kilometers, after around 38 working days.

Then Kassel to Barcelona – around 1500 kilometers.

"You can calculate that yourself," says Sattler.

Eventually he stopped counting the kilometers.

For a long time now, he has only been concerned with being outside.

He loves spring and autumn when temperatures are moderate.

“Heat or heavy rain combined with wind are really uncomfortable,” says Sattler.

Even with an umbrella, he gets to his destination soaking wet.

In black ice he puts on spikes.

But don't let that deter him.

Running is his passion.

Even when he's on vacation, he's drawn outside.

He now books outdoor adventure holidays up to four times a year, mostly with special providers.

He has the time, Sattler is single.

And so he got around a lot in the world.

In East Africa he has already walked the entire coast of Mozambique, he has toured from Cape Town through the Kalahari (savannah) via the Central African national parks to the Nile Falls and has also been to the coldest place in the world - in Oymyakon in the middle of Siberia at minus 56 Centigrade.

An hour and a half to go from Niestetal to Kassel

On December 23, 2018, his love of traveling almost came to an end.

"In Hong Kong, a full bus hit me," he says.

Broken bones throughout the body, ten days in a coma, various operations.

The convalescence lasted about half a year.

"On that day I died and was reborn," says Sattler.

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As a result, walking and hiking have become even more important to him – as an act of pure expression of life.

He doesn't mind getting up at 4 a.m. every morning, getting dressed, walking an hour and a half to Kassel and then being in the office at 6 a.m.

He likes to start his work when the alarm clocks haven't even rung elsewhere.

In the meantime, he's just happy that he simply forgot to buy a monthly ticket for the bus at Easter 1995.

"That's how it all started," says Sattler.

He walked to work and found he could do it.

"It wasn't until late autumn that I bought a monthly ticket again - and I bitterly regretted it."

Above all, the overcrowded buses at rush hour bothered him.

But he kept riding the bus until April 3, 1997. “It's my birthday.

And I never bought a monthly pass as a gift – ever again.”

Met people on the route from Niestetal to Kassel

In fact, over the years he has known almost every stone on his route.

"Actually boring," says Sattler.

But actually not.

So he has already met many people on his way, people whose names he often does not even know, but whom he sees and greets in the same places every morning - and who greet him.

He never wants to give up his strange hobby.

"I'll do it until I can't anymore."

He loves walking and exercise.

"For me there is nothing worse than a beach holiday - ten minutes on the beach is the maximum penalty for me".

(Boris Naummann)

Some go hiking, others prefer to devote themselves to their model railway instead: because model railways as a hobby are back in fashion.