Without their courageous and courageous intervention, innkeeper Albert Neuner would no longer be alive.
Marcus Sperer, Richard Zahler and Thomas Sepp surpassed themselves at Walchensee and saved the drowning Wallgauer from certain death.
Prime Minister Markus Söder paid tribute to her heroic deed in Munich.
Oberes Isartal/Munich
– For Albert Neuner, August 19, 2021 ends at 7.15 a.m. – temporarily.
Suddenly the "new host" begins to convulse, faints and falls headfirst into the water.
In the evening, the Wallgauer opens his eyes again – pumped full of medication in the intensive care unit of the Murnau accident clinic.
"Somehow I'm missing a whole day," the 51-year-old looks back on the fateful hours in which Marcus Sperer, Richard Zahler and Thomas Sepp gave him a second life.
Prime Minister Markus Söder paid tribute to their heroic intervention at the reception in the Munich Residenz on Monday.
The head of government presented them with the Bavarian Rescue Medal (Sperer) and the Christophorus Medal (Payer and Sepp), while Albert Neuner followed this celebratory moment in the audience.
"Without her I wouldn't be alive anymore."
The dramatic seconds until the film breaks play out again in his mind's eye.
It is August 19, 2021, shortly after seven in the morning.
Albert Neuner and his Wallgauer Spezl Marcus Sperer sit in a boat and fish in the Walchensee.
It is heavenly quiet in the Einsiedler Bay - pure idyll.
Whoa, I was overboard
Albert Neuner
But Neuner somehow doesn't feel comfortable.
"I was curious as soon as I got up." For the sake of his friend, he goes fishing with him.
Then it becomes black before the eyes of the "new host".
"Butsch, I was overboard." The boat tilts.
Marcus Sperer remembers: "My friend fell like a stone." He dives after him in a flash and pulls him up.
Then he gets caught in the fishing lines - his legs almost unable to move.
Likewise, the master carpenter cannot hold on to the capsized boat.
Sperer keeps the unconscious Spezl afloat with one hand and himself with the other. "You just react and don't think about anything anymore."
Fortunately, Richard Zahler observed the tragedy from his boat about 20 meters away.
"It was pure coincidence," says the 41-year-old from Krün.
He calls over to another angler, Thomas Sepp from Eberfing, to inform the rescue services.
Meanwhile he rows straight to the two Wallgauers.
What literally complicates things for payers: the dropped anchor.
But a short time later, the Krüner reached the two.
He grabs the lifeless nine.
However, he does not succeed in hoisting him into the boat.
However, the completely exhausted Sperer manages to get in there.
"I was exhausted." But the Wallgauer still has a few reserves.
After Payer's boat has been hung on Thomas Sepp's, Sperer and Eberfinger row towards the shore with combined strength.
"I made sure that Albert's head stayed above water," reports Richard Zahler.
After what felt like an eternity – in retrospect this haunting of Lake Walchensee lasted around an hour – the four men reach the safe shore.
Completely hypothermic and turned blue
Albert Neuner is completely hypothermic and has already turned blue.
Zahler still hears a "slight wheezing" from him.
"At first I thought he was already dead." Then the rescue units arrive and bring Albert Neuner to the UKM.
More than 13 months have passed since those dramatic hours.
Marcus Sperer didn't let go of these traumatic moments for a long time.
"It was a near-death experience, I'm glad I got over it," says the family man.
Not for a second did he think of letting go of his motionless buddy in order to stay alive himself.
"If Marcus lets me out, then I'm furt," says Albert Sperer - forever and ever.
The doctors try several times to find out the cause of his seizures.
Inconclusive.
"I had nothing before and after." Somehow a guardian angel probably played along.
"I go fishing 100 times a year," says Neuner, "99 times alone." Marcus Sperer was on board only once - his rescuer.
That this heroic action reached the Munich State Chancellery at all
is thanks to Hans Baur.
Of course, the Wallgau municipal council heard about the story in the village and suggested the protagonists for the rescue medal.
The rest is history.
When Richard Zahler comes home on August 19, 2021, he says to his wife over a cup of coffee: "I didn't catch anything today."
