Starnberg bows to a great man

Created: 12/19/2022, 5:55 p.m

By: Peter Schiebel

This is how people remember him: A large portrait of Prof. Helmut Lydtin stood in front of the lectern on the stage in the Marstall.

© Peter Schiebel

Around 120 family members, relatives, friends and companions paid tribute to Prof. Helmut Lydtin with an “Evening of Memories” on Friday.

The Starnberg honorary citizen died in early November at the age of 86.

Starnberg/Berg – Not a syllable was mentioned in the speeches on Friday evening about the famous blue “Bavarian Cookbook”.

It may have made his co-author and editor Prof. Helmut Lydtin so well-known over generations, but his work as a doctor, as medical director of the Starnberg District Hospital and as a driving force behind the Ilse Kubaschewski Foundation have left more lasting marks.

For this work he was made an honorary citizen of Starnberg in April 2014.

On November 3, Helmut Lydtin died at the age of 86. On Friday, his widow Dianne Lydtin and his children Anna and Paul invited relatives, friends and companions to an "evening of memories" in the Marstall in Berg.

Around 120 came in the dense snow flurry.

One wants to think of him and celebrate his life, said Anna Lydtin.

And that was tough: Graduated from high school at 17, studied medicine with stays in Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, professor at 37, senior consultant at 38, medical director at 40. Her husband was a brilliant doctor and had a complex character , said Dianne Lydtin, who dated him for 43 years.

"The name Lydtin was often mentioned in our house," said Mayor Patrick Janik, recalling the advice of the family doctor, which often began with the introduction "Lydtin always said".

He was not only an exceptional doctor, but also a man with humor and a sense of responsibility.

With the founding of the Ilse Kubachewski Foundation in 1994, in which he was significantly involved, he left his mark in Starnberg for the second time alongside his work in the clinic, said Janik.

The city has "lost a highly respected personality".

Former District Administrator Karl Roth called Lydtin "a great doctor and a highly valued citizen".

After he became medical director of the district hospital in 1976 - and remained so for more than 25 years - he was the most important contact not only for the patients, but also for the district.

Lydtin was largely responsible for the medical and economic success of the clinic and had improved its reputation in the long term, said Roth, speaking of an "extraordinary lifetime achievement".

On behalf of the Ilse Kubaschewski Foundation, its honorary chairman Dr.

Hellmuth Schmid to a "very special person".

Lydtin's motto was "to be human and act human".

Not least for this reason, the goal of humane care in old age was also included as a foundation purpose in the foundation's statutes.

Schmid described it as a stroke of luck that the property at Hanfelder Straße 10 could ultimately be acquired and built on - "without the commitment and dedication of Helmut Lydtin, the Ilse-Kubaschewski-Haus in the center of Starnberg would not exist".

Lydtin found his professional fulfillment in Starnberg, explained Dr.

Georg Lohmöller, who was his doctoral student in 1967.

"He was brilliant," he said.

"He could understand the patients factually and he could empathize." Prof. Peter Trenkwalder, who was also the medical director of the clinic for many years, expressed a very similar opinion.

Lydtin was a "passionate doctor" who was always interested in people.

"The basis of every treatment was always a detailed discussion." Lydtin was a perfectionist who read doctor's letters and manuscripts meticulously - but also a self-doubter who repeatedly checked and questioned diagnoses.

"And despite all his love for medicine, he has always remained a human being."

"We as assistants looked up to him in admiration," said Dr.

Barbara Kieslich, long-standing head of the Ilse Kubaschewski House, and went into detail about the later years of his work.

"His great concern was the dignified care of people suffering from dementia," she said, and read out the text with Grimm's fairy tale "The Old Grandfather and the Grandson", which Lydtin had "held in front of people over and over again".

Paul Lydtin found very moving words at the end.

He had a strict father who always demanded a diagnosis from his children when there were problems, he said.

But his father kept something childish until the end.

And so he remembers above all "not the omniscient medicus, not the mountaineering adventurer and not the best driver, but the boy who wants to be loved".