Mourning for Georg Eberl from Bad Tölz: A fighter on the ice and in the city council

Created: 01/02/2023, 19:00

By: Andreas Steppan

Life's work: The Hotel Eberl, founded by Georg Eberl, was considered a model company in the field of health tourism and is now run by his son Thomas as a private clinic.

(Archive photo) © Arndt Pröhl

Georg Eberl, master captain of the ECT in 1962 and 1966, hotelier and long-time SPD city councilor in Bad Tölz, passed away peacefully on New Year's Day at the age of 86.

Bad Tölz

– For many ice hockey fans from Tölz, it is the game scene that they still associate with the name Georg Eberl even after decades: in the game for the 1966 ice hockey championship against Füssen, he shot the disc from the face-off from the air directly into the goal .

But not only as the captain of the championship team of the EC Bad Tölz in 1962 and 1966 did Eberl go down in history.

He later shaped Bad Tölz as a hotelier and long-time SPD city councillor.

He passed away peacefully on New Year's Day at the age of 86, according to his family.

Georg Eberl, founder of the Kurhotel Eberl in Bad Tölz, died

Georg Eberl was born in Bad Tölz in 1936 as the youngest of five children and grew up in the bathing area.

First he learned the trade of carpenter, then he trained as a masseur and medical lifeguard.

With his wife Ingrid, a dietician, he founded his own business on Buchener Straße.

In the early 1980s, the couple built the Kurhotel Eberl.

Over the years, the owners have repeatedly adapted it to the changing times.

The spa hotel became a sanatorium and an inpatient rehabilitation facility.

In 2018 Georg Eberl handed over the business to his son Thomas.

Today it is a private clinic for psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry.

The development of the company - in the literal sense, because Eberl lent a hand on the construction sites - was "a great effort" in every respect,

His ambition and his qualities as a driving force also helped Georg Eberl to his great sporting successes at a young age.

As a player on the national ice hockey team, he traveled widely, taking part in world championships and the 1960 Olympic Games in Squaw Valley in the USA – as an amateur, mind you, as was customary at the time.

"He was a tough but fair player and a role model for the team because he always gave his all," says his long-time companion Walter Riedl.

Combative in city council politics, but always forgiving

Georg Eberl benefited from his stature and assertiveness on the field.

"In Bavarian one would say he was a Prackl man, today one would speak of a model athlete," says Willi Streicher, who is not only a fan of ice hockey, but also sat on the Tölz city council together with Eberl.

Georg Eberl joined the SPD at a young age and later became an honorary member of the Tölz local association.

The fact that he himself came from a rather humble background is certainly one of the reasons why he never lost sight of the interests of the weaker in society, says son Thomas.

In 1966 Georg Eberl was elected to the city council for the first time. He was a member of the committee for 42 years – with an interruption – until 2014, longer than any other SPD city councilor in history.

As a farewell, the mayor at the time, Josef Janker, awarded him the Tölz Citizens' Medal.

Janker remembers the Social Democrats as a “very upright, very honest city councilor who is open to the people”.

Eberl was also "combative" in local politics, "but always forgiving".

Eberl's own foster father in the SPD was Ernst Thissen,

Mourning for Georg Eberl: Connected to Tölz ice hockey to the end

Eberl was often referred to as the political "voice of the bathing part".

This also led to the derisive designation of a structural traffic brake on Buchener Straße as "Eberl-Warze".

All in all, the hotelier has always been committed to “the future of tourism”, says Streicher.

Janker considers the fact that the SPD city council was focused on the bathing part to be “not enough”.

Eberl "had the whole city in view".

His massage practice also ensured that he had his ear close to the citizen.

Under Eberl's extremely large and strong hands, "everyone told the truth," says Streicher jokingly.

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Doctors have repeatedly confirmed Eberl's fighting spirit.

In recent years, he has struggled with health problems, but, sometimes contrary to expectations, has always gotten back on his feet.

He continued to accompany the Tölz ice hockey with passion - as long as it was possible, like live in the ice rink.

He also followed current events with inquisitiveness, local news as well as politics in the USA, where two of his sisters had emigrated.

Eberl leaves behind his wife, three children and four grandchildren.

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