As of: January 29, 2024, 10:00 a.m
By: Manuel Eser
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He can now leave “his savings bank” the way he always wanted: in an orderly manner.
He headed the financial institution in Freising as chairman of the board for almost 17 years, and is now retiring.
© Lehmann
Johann Kirsch actually wanted to retire at 63.
Instead, the Freising savings bank boss experienced the two most turbulent years of his professional life.
Freising
– One thing cannot be said: that Johann Kirsch let his professional life spiral out.
“Experimenting is a better fit,” he explains, but he says it with a wink.
He seems completely relaxed, tidy and at peace with himself when talking to the FT.
Kirsch actually has two tough years of work behind him.
Actually, according to his plan, the long-standing CEO of Sparkasse Freising wanted to retire in 2023.
That seemed possible, after all, he had an experienced board member at his side in Irene Dullinger, who could have easily taken over the management.
But instead Dullinger decided to accept an offer from Regensburg.
There she was given the position of boss at the savings bank.
He buried his future plans in the forest
“The corona pandemic had just started and I was walking in the forest when I found out about this change,” Kirsch remembers exactly the moment when he realized that he would have to bury his long-held retirement plans.
Kirsch stayed.
Longer, in fact, than even Dullinger's successor Andrea Felsner-Peifer, for whom Kirsch had already moved into second place, but who, after almost two years in office in the cathedral city, went to the Kreissparkasse München Starnberg Ebersberg.
“I can’t just walk away,” he said at the time.
“I feel strong enough to step into the breach again.”
Kirsch also needed starch.
Because in addition to the personnel castling on the board, Corona and all the other global challenges that did not leave Sparkasse Freising unscathed, a colossal mega-project suddenly came around the corner that Kirsch had actually already shelved.
A merger with Sparkasse Moosburg failed several times during Kirsch's almost 28 years at Sparkasse Freising.
At one point, the merger was actually already worked out ready for signature, he remembers.
That was in 2017/18. He would have even given up the position of CEO to make the merger possible.
Freising’s mayor Tobias Eschenbacher called it “an act of incredible human greatness.”
But the colleagues in the Three Rose City still backed down.
In the end, the savings bank association came about.
Over the past two years, Kirsch has been jointly responsible for managing the merger to form Sparkasse Freising-Moosburg as CEO.
“The workload he did there was enormous,” reports Dr.
Michael Langauer, Felsner-Peifer's successor and now also the new CEO of the Sparkasse.
Kirsch himself speaks of “the two most strenuous professional years of my life.”
Kirsch overcame one crisis after another
And Kirsch has experienced a lot of “strenuous” things in his 48 years and five months of work for the Sparkasse, which has taken him to several regions of Germany: the introduction of ATMs and computers in the distant past or the conversion from German marks to euros.
Later, financial crisis, economic crisis, interest rate crisis, Corona crisis.
A single crisis mode that was required of Kirsch, especially during his time as CEO of Sparkasse Freising from 2007.
The right man in the right place at the right time.
“Because Johann Kirsch has outstanding problem-solving management,” emphasizes the mayor.
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An example: In the course of digitalization, Kirsch saw no other option in 2014 than to close four branches in the Freising district.
“He promised that he would find a solution for each individual, and then had each affected customer call and also picked up the phone himself,” reports the mayor.
“In part, he sent vehicles around to provide money to people who were not mobile.”
Now Kirsch would like to gain some distance in order to find the best solutions for his retirement.
“I'm going to look into myself and think about how I can get a good structure into my life as a pensioner.” He wants to give himself two months to do it.
He also has in mind a stay in a monastery.
Task with pitchfork
He puts a stop to any advances from associations: “I will not accept any positions as treasurer.” However, he can imagine working for the landscape conservation association.
“But I want tasks with a pitchfork, not a ballpoint pen.”
What is already bothering him now, and what he still has to come to terms with, is what he sees as a delayed entry into retirement.
“This at least one year that I lost for myself is something that weighs on me a bit.
I have to say that.”
At least he can now leave “his” savings bank in the way that comes naturally to him out of his sense of duty: in an orderly manner, with a successor who is suitable for him.
“Dr.
Langauer is the right person.” The outgoing Sparkasse boss rejected calls for a memorial for Kirsch, which were loud at his farewell party, with his usual modesty: “Don’t make a big deal about me.”