The city of Erding mourns the loss of a great man.
Josef Gotz was a successful entrepreneur, politician, athlete - and a family man.
Erding
– And suddenly everyone stopped working because Josef Gotz was in the editorial office.
One hand clutched a cane that had made it easier for him to walk since his stroke.
In the other he held his handwritten article about the Erdinger weightlifters.
He allowed himself a short breather - the stairs to our second floor are not without their problems - and then he talked about the past, today, and what the future will bring.
Actually it was a dialogue with the editor, but the colleagues listened - because it was never boastful, often amusing, sometimes wise and always interesting.
We remember these regular visits with some wistfulness.
Josef Gotz died on Saturday at the age of 88.
The last year had taken a toll on his health, reports his son, Erding's Mayor Max Gotz.
After a stay at the Wartenberg Clinic, his father was allowed to go home for a few weeks and say goodbye to his family – his wife Krista, their children Max, Eva and Josef and his five grandchildren – before he fell asleep peacefully in the Heiliggeist-Stift in Erding.
The story from the editors does not surprise Max Gotz: "My father didn't even notice how many people valued and respected him." Because of his life's work, and above all for the straightforward way in which he managed it.
Josef Gotz, the family man, "an enormously generous, caring and good-natured father", as his son Max says.
"He always supported us, but also demanded it." Dropping out of school, for example, would not have been possible.
He himself had to leave high school in eighth grade to go into the tanning business.
Josef Gotz grew up as an only child.
Around him are uncles and aunts and his parents.
The tanning business has to feed everyone.
And while others in the industry are giving up, he expands the business, which he manages independently from 1960.
This year he also marries his Krista.
A family break: on New Year's Eve 1962, his mother dies during a mass.
"It hit him hard.
To the very end he was always in church on New Year's Eve when his mother died," says Max Gotz, whose grandfather was able to follow how the tannery thrived until 1988.
"My father had many interests, but leather was his greatest passion," says the son.
"For him, the Golden Master's Certificate after 40 years was the highest award of all." He was deeply affected by the Chamber of Crafts' decision to deprive tanners of their master's status.
That was in 1994, the year Josef Gotz handed his business over to his son Max.
Was your father still in the business after that?
"Every day, but he never interfered with any decision."
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As head of the Erdinger Weightlifters, Josef Gotz promoted youth work.
In the picture he secures for Florian Held.
Son Josef (right) observes the scene.
Today he heads the TSV department.
© Konrad Kressierer
He doesn't do that either in 1996, when his son decides to run against Erding's mayor Karl Heinz Bauernfeind.
However, Max Gotz knows that he didn't like to see it, but he also comforted him after the first defeat: "You dared, respect!"
Because Josef Gotz knows the political business, and how!
He was 20 years old when his own father wanted to become mayor, as a candidate for the Bürgerverein Erding (BVE), a predecessor of the UWE.
He loses against the SPD man Hans Schmidmayer, for whom the CSU is also drumming.
Ironically, Josef Gotz enters this CSU.
In 1960 he was elected to the city council and remained there until he voluntarily resigned in 1990.
The political business, the work, the rhetoric, he acquires in courses.
In the 1970s he promoted the merger of the town of Erding with Langengeisling and Altenerding.
"He benefited from the fact that everyone already knew and respected him." Because "da Gotz Sepp" is known like a sore thumb.
Which brings us to the next passion.
Shortly after the war, TSV Erding set up a wrestling and weightlifting relay.
Right in the middle: the young Sepp, who quickly concentrates entirely on the weights.
Gotz is not a top athlete, but a solid one who breaks over 130 kilos.
But he does a lot more.
When department manager Hans Lechner died in a gas accident in 1969, the master tanner took over the division and developed it into a stronghold of weightlifting.
"We've been promoted eight times in a row," says Max Gotz.
"But that wasn't so important to my father." On the contrary: The fact that the idea of success tempts athletes to doping "made my father really angry".
He always rejected that, as well as the payment of athletes.
"Whether it's the 2nd league or the district league - it was important to him that we could field a squadron with our own people.
That's why youth work was the most important task for him.” He also carried this message to the clubs for decades as a sports officer.
After retiring from politics and professional life, Josef Gotz at least stayed in sports.
From football to motor sports to table tennis - everything interests him.
He left the weightlifters in the hands of his son Joseph.
But in the comparison fights at the autumn festival, he is still involved until the corona break, continues to write for the local newspaper and also follows our reporting with interest.
Unforgotten is his call to a special page about his companion Alex Pietrowski: "I have to commend you.
There wasn't any rubbish in it at all.” Calls like that, his conversations – we will miss them.
The funeral service
will take place on Friday, December 2nd at 2 p.m. in the parish church of St. John.
Afterwards, Josef Gotz is buried in the St. Paul Cemetery.
