The market Wartenberg has become poorer by a great personality: Its honorary citizen Eduard Ertl died on Saturday at the age of 97 in the Wartenberg Clinic.
Wartenberg – The native of Wartenberg was born in January 1926 as the eldest son of an unskilled worker. From an early age, he was a devout Catholic, an attitude that he inherited from his father in particular – an attitude that also prevented him from becoming a member of the NSDAP, for example. Ertl never remained silent when it came to the horrors of war. When in 2013 students of the Marie Pettenbeck School interviewed contemporary witnesses with the simple question: "What was it like back then?", they also received comprehensive information from him: A shrapnel had totally smashed his lower jaw. He almost choked on his own teeth. He told this in front of the video camera.
At that time, the VdK was called the "Association of War and Military Service Victims, the Disabled and Social Pensioners". Of course, Ertl was there. When he was honoured in 2014 for his 65 years of loyalty to the association, he showed the shrapnel that Walter Gebhardt had surgically removed from him. He told of the war hospital, of no less than 20 operations. This splinter had never been discovered, but had repeatedly caused tonsillitis. It was Gebhardt who found him.
Joie de vivre and a big heart were the hallmarks of the recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He suffered the serious injury during an ascension mission in the Battle of the Bulge: he had not wanted to join the party, and the local group leader had probably therefore arranged for the conscription of the man who had long been considered unfit. In 1951, as Ertl himself once recounted, he asked him for forgiveness. Ertl forgave him, but demanded that the ex-chief Nazi report on the subject at the youth club, which then happened.
Ertl always stood by his convictions, even offensively and publicly. Among other things, he was chairman of the Catholic Workers' Movement for around 30 years. He was also very active in local politics: from 1960 to 1996 he was a member of the market council for the CSU. As reported, his party honored him only last year for 70 years of loyalty. He received a plaque of honour, signed by Prime Minister Markus Söder. Ertl became secretary immediately after joining the CSU in 1952.
His son Eduard says about him in an interview with the local newspaper: "He was actually always a very modest person, never made a fuss about the awards he received." It is now his son who has made it public that the honorary citizen was one of the driving forces behind the market buying the bridge saint Nepomuk from artist Christiane Horn.
But he was also an excellent connoisseur of Wartenberg's architectural monuments and, moreover, a walking local history book. During a guided tour on the occasion of the Open Monument Day, he once confessed: "At that time, I voted for the vicarage to be demolished. Now he's gone."
It is precisely this historical knowledge that the parish has expressly acknowledged in an obituary in the current parish letter. It also certifies that the honorary citizen has "put his heart and soul and commitment into the concerns and needs of the parish of Wartenberg". From 1959 to 1990, Ertl was chairman of the parish council, was a lector, which was an issue in his war injury, which prevented a clear debate. "For mi is' koa Sunday, when i ned in church service ganga bin," he said on the 90th birthday of the local newspaper.
Ertl has worked a lot in his life: in 1941 he started as a machinist at Steinbock in Moosburg. He became head of inter-company training and worked his way up to become a master craftsman. His family – his wife Katharina came from Langenpreising – moved into their own house on Rosenstraße. The couple raised four children: Gabriele, Eduard, Hermann and Stefan. His wife was also diligent as a midwife. She was in need of care at the end of her life, but her husband took care of her as best he could until she moved to the local retirement home in 2017, where she passed away in 2020. About his father, son Eduard says: "97 years is a blessed age, and despite all the sadness, we should also be grateful." The whole place can be grateful to have had such a person.
Funeral
Today, Thursday, at 10 a.m., the requiem is scheduled for burial at the Wartenberg cemetery.
