The voice of the peasant women has fallen silent: mourning for Erna Lechner

Created: 2022-11-24 09:34

By: Josef Ametsbichler

Erna Lechner, a former district farmer, has retained happiness well into old age – here during a two-year visit to the youth center in Niclasreuth.

© sro

Erna Lechner from Niclasreuth near Aßling loved her guest children and, as a district farmer, was the voice of rural women.

Niclasreuth

– For many years, Erna Lechner was the energetic and at the same time warm voice of rural women.

First as a district farmer in the district of Ebersberg, then from 1997 to 2002 as an Upper Bavarian district farmer.

Now this voice, which has moved a lot for her cause, has been silenced forever.

After a long illness, the Niclasreuther (municipality of Aßling) has now died at the age of 82.

"Everything she tackled worked," says her daughter Margit Schwarz.

"She was very committed to her causes." The family, agriculture and the youth center - these were the three poles around which Erna Lechner's life revolved.

Together with her husband Sepp, who died three years ago, she built up the youth center near Aßling in the 1970s.

School classes, confirmation groups, holiday children: the youngest could get a taste of country air and enjoy the cooking skills of the certified master of housekeeping.

"I was happy every day when I went to cook," she once said about everyday life in the midst of the hordes of children.

Standing still was never Lechner's thing.

Until the last week of her life, when her physical strength was almost exhausted, the passionate EZ reader followed the news closely and was happy when visitors from her four grandchildren twirled around at her sickbed, the daughter says: "She was spiritual to the end with us.

We all got to say goodbye to her.”

A personality in the Bavarian Farmers' Association

Erna Lechner took care of her last things from the hospital bed herself - composed and result-oriented.

These strengths made her a great asset in her voluntary work for the Bavarian Farmers' Association.

"She was very popular with everyone," says her current successor as district farmer, Christine Singer from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district, who is also a state farmer.

Making women in agriculture visible – that was Lechner's goal.

She organized events to make the work of rural women accessible to a wide audience and opened up new perspectives for farmers with travel offers.

Lifelong learning was a matter of course for Erna Lechner, who had worked in Sweden and England when she was young.

For her pioneering work in public relations for rural women, she was made an honorary district farmer and received high awards, such as the Federal Cross of Merit.

She never carried these honors in front of her.

The highest award, you could tell by looking at her when she received it, was always a child's laughter for Erna Lechner.

You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.