Martin Englert has been reading "Holy Night" for 25 years: "I want to pass on culture"

Created: 12/22/2022, 11:00 am

By: Patrick Staar

Atmospheric: Martin Englert's performance in the Reutberg monastery church, together with the Gaißacher Zithermusi and the Piesenkamer singers.

© PATRICK STAAR

Martin Englert has been performing “Holy Night” for over 25 years.

For him, it's about contemplation and culture.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

- Martin Englert reads the "Holy Night by Ludwig Thoma": This message is as much a part of Advent as fragrant cookies, decorated fir branches and Christmas markets.

For more than 25 years, the Ellbacher has been performing during the Advent season and reciting the epic verse.

In an interview, Englert explains what makes the text so special for him.

Mr. Englert, do you know how often you have read “Holy Night”?

phew

I started around 1995 in the historic meeting room in the town hall when I was still the culture officer on the Tölz town council.

Since then I've been doing this once or twice a year in different places, mostly in churches in the area.

Do you know the text by heart now?

I already got the text, even if I was ill before the reading this year.

Does the text still have a special meaning for you?

Advent means arrival time, staade time, expectation - not halligalli.

For me, the reading is part of Advent, it's stylish.

During the readings, I notice how the listeners become calm and maybe a bit thoughtful.

Special memories of reading at mountain hut

How did you come to the "office"?

also read

Back to the beginning: Tölzer Eisstadion becomes the Hacker-Pschorr-Arena again

READ

Alpine festival hall and bistro: Lenggries municipality is looking for new tenants

READ

Five elements for a healthy diet

READ

Kochler children's carnival before the end: there are no helpers

READ

25-year-old wants to steal liquor and smashes a wine bottle on the road

READ

Fancy a voyage of discovery?

My space

(laughs) I took it.

I have always had a soft spot for culture and language.

When Gregor Dorfmeister was still the boss, I was a freelancer at the Tölzer Kurier.

I have also written nativity plays and plays.

When I was a cultural officer, something like that happened to me in Tölz.

I think reading is not a bad thing.

Is there a reading that awakens very special memories in you?

Not really – for that you would have to have an outside view of the reading.

But every now and then everything fits together, that's nice.

This year in Reutberg, for example, it was very nice with the zither music.

The soft tones are simply part of it.

When I think about it more closely: the performance in Bayrischzell was something very special.

What has happened there?

We drove with a vehicle suitable for winter, a tractor, to a mountain hut in the middle of the loneliness.

People crowded around the tiled stove because it was warmest there.

That was awesome.

Readings should remain something special

Do you get paid for your performances?

No, I've never asked for anything.

I want to pass culture on - not sell it.

If the audience thinks the reading is worth something, they can donate something.

I don't appear on every corner and I don't want an inflation of readings.

It should remain something special.

Has there ever been a reading that failed completely, for example because you forgot the book?

(laughs) Well, that doesn't happen to me.

In the beginning, however, I believed that you didn't need a microphone system.

But a larger room swallows up a lot, so people in the back rows don't hear anything.

That's how I felt in the early days in Reutberg Church.

You only learn from mistakes.

You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.