A lot of heart for the horses and for the craft: the traditional butcher Leonhard Walch from Kreuth has died

Created: 01/15/2023, 12:00 p.m

By: Christina Jachert-Maier

At the Rosstag, here in 2019, Leonhard Walch has been there with his four-in-hand for decades.

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Leonhard Walch's heart beat for the horses and his own craft: at the age of 73, the traditional butcher from Kreuth died after a serious illness.

Kreuth

- Leonhardi was the biggest holiday for him, more important than birthday, Christmas and Easter.

And not because of the name.

Leonhard Walch was a Rosserer through and through, from childhood on.

“Ross blood flowed in his veins, you can say that,” says his daughter Birgit.

Three weeks before his death, her father was still driving guests with his Haflingers through the magnificent landscape of his homeland.

"da Woich Hardl", a Kreuther veteran, is remembered above all for its legendary white sausages.

He was a butcher by trade, body and soul.

After a serious illness, he died at the age of 73 in a clinic in Innsbruck.

Walch took over the family butcher's shop at a young age

He was born in 1949 into a long-established Kreuther family.

His father was a butcher and his mother an innkeeper.

The Walchs had been running the Batznhäusl inn since 1911, and the butcher's shop was added in 1930.

Leonhard Walch learned the trade from his father and, after his father's early death, had to take over the butcher's shop at the age of 24.

At the same age he married his wife Helga, and their children Markus and Birgit were already born.

The white sausages were Leonhard Walch's speciality

The white sausage became the specialty of the young father.

"He was the white sausage pope," says his brother Martin.

The master butcher processed 200 kilos of meat on a good Saturday, and Walch's white sausages were delivered as far as Sylt, in Zanzibar.

At home in Kreuth, the location of the big CSU retreats, Bavaria's Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss also liked to look into the sausage kitchen and enjoy the specialty fresh from the cauldron.

In October 2016, Walch had to close the traditional butcher's shop.

The strength was no longer enough: at that time, failing kidneys forced him to have dialysis three times a week.

In 2019, life was given to him again.

He got a donor kidney.

"So he was fit again," reports his daughter.

The deceased was involved in the village community

In addition to the butcher shop and the horses - until the end he kept four Haflingers - Leonhard Walch loved the village community.

From 1972 to 1996 he sat on the Kreuth municipal council for the CSU, supported clubs and was involved in a variety of ways.

Driving the Hirschbergler Schalkfrauen to Leonhardi every year with a four-in-hand carriage was a matter of honor for him.

Walch's Weißwurst recipe has been preserved.

"Someone even tried it," says daughter Birgit.

But the result was disappointing.

His family knows why.

In order to create a fluffy white sausage that melts in your mouth, you need a special feeling when the meat is just right: "And he just had this unique feeling."

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The soul service for Walch will take place on Wednesday, January 18, at 10 a.m. in St. Leonhard, followed by the burial in the Kreuth cemetery.

jm