As of: March 1, 2024, 12:00 p.m
By: Verena Möckl
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Honorary citizen and holder of the Golden Ring of Honor: Karlsfeld's first full-time mayor Bruno Danzer (†) would have been 100 years old today.
© repros: local museum Karlsfeld
No one else has shaped Karlsfeld like he did: the former mayor Bruno Danzer.
A look back at a person who left countless traces on the town and in the hearts of his fellow human beings.
Karlsfeld - When Bruno Danzer was elected mayor in 1960, Karlsfeld was a torn village with more black buildings than tarred streets.
When cars drove along the gravel paths, they kicked up huge clouds of dust.
There was neither a sewer system, a school, a kindergarten or any sports or cultural facilities.
During this time of departure, the then 36-year-old Danzer managed to assert himself as a candidate for the Karlsfeld Citizens' Block, the SPD and the electoral community with a lead of just 64 votes.
Bruno Danzer became Karlsfeld's first full-time mayor.
How committed the native Sudeten German was to the community over the next 30 years of his term in office becomes clear when you drive through the town.
“He left his mark almost everywhere in the community,” says Karlsfeld local historian Ilsa Oberbauer.
And Danzer's traces can also be found in the 85-year-old's own life story.
Why Bruno Danzer urged Ilsa Oberbauer to marry the chamberlain
Because Ilsa Oberbauer was a teacher for 39 years at the school that Bruno Danzer had built in his first two years in office.
“It is thanks to Bruno Danzer that I was able to work as a teacher in Karlsfeld.
He advocated for me to be transferred to Karlsfeld,” says Oberbauer, who lived and worked on Lake Tegernsee at the time.
It is thanks to Bruno Danzer that my husband and I got married.
Ilsa Oberbauer
Ilsa Oberbauer taught generations of Karlsfeld residents at primary school in Karlsfeld.
She had Bruno Danzer to thank for the fact that she worked there as a teacher for many decades.
© vm
Why Oberbauer wanted to work as a teacher in Karlsfeld of all places?
Her great love lived there: Alois Oberbauer, the municipal treasurer at the time.
His boss, Bruno Danzer, recommended that he take his beloved as his wife as soon as possible, otherwise he would have no reason to insist that she be transferred to Karlsfeld as a teacher, says Oberbauer and smiles.
“So it’s thanks to Bruno Danzer that my husband and I got married.”
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Later, Ilsa Oberbauer often looked after Bruno Danzer's son Gerald.
He was the same age as her own son Peter Oberbauer.
The two played together as children and raced around the back yard of the local museum where the Oberbauers lived in the back building in a kind of bobby car.
Incidentally, Peter Oberbauer is now head of the sewage treatment plant that Bruno Danzer inaugurated in 1968.
The list of Karlsfeld's achievements, which go back to Bruno Danzer, is long.
There is also the middle school, the elementary school, the town hall, Lake Karlsfeld as a local recreation area, the indoor swimming pool and the largest event room in the Dachau district, the community center.
The legalization of numerous black buildings, the so-called moonshine settlements, also made Danzer popular with its citizens.
Heart project: The construction of the community center, the largest event hall in the district, came to an end in 1980.
Danzer is on the right in the picture.
© repros: Heimatmeuseum Karlsfeld
What impressed his successor Bruno Danzer
When he was no longer allowed to run for mayor after five elections at the age of 66 for reasons of age, Danzer left big shoes to fill.
“When I sat at the front for the first time after my election as mayor, I suddenly became aware of the burden of responsibility that Bruno Danzer had borne for over 30 years,” remembers his direct successor Fritz Nustede.
I understand when people say that other mayors pale in comparison to Bruno Danzer.
Danzer's successor Fritz Nustede
The 84-year-old former mayor can still remember Danzer’s “great election victory” in 1972 well, he says.
At that time, Danzer had only just joined the SPD.
Nustede, who was an election worker at the time, is still very impressed by Danzer's dream results in the election.
“I understand when people say that other mayors pale in comparison to Bruno Danzer.” Danzer shaped an entire era.
As a builder, as a doer.
“He gave me inspiration to get involved,” says Nustede.
So that he is never forgotten
Immortalized: Mayor Stefan Kolbe and his local councilors named the square in the Neue Mitte after Bruno Danzer.
The decision was made during his lifetime; unfortunately, Danzer did not live to see the inauguration of the square.
© Verena Möckl
He lived closeness to the citizens.
That inspired me.
Mayor Stefan Kolbe
But Danzer will also be remembered as a humanitarian.
Bruno Danzer was not afraid to approach people.
He was always there, always had an open ear.
“He lived close to the citizens,” says Mayor Stefan Kolbe.
Danzer always wanted to know what concerns the people in his community.
That was an inspiration for Mayor Kolbe, as he says today.
It was also Danzer who hired Kolbe as an administrative assistant in the town hall.
Bruno Danzer (left) and his employees moved into the new town hall in 1967 with baskets full of files.
In the background is Gartenstrasse and today's local history museum.
© repros: Karlsfeld Local History Museum
Why the handball players would have had no future without Danzer
Günter Meikis knows how important community cohesion and club life were for Danzer.
“Danzer was a friend of the citizens who always listened to their concerns,” says the now 82-year-old.
As deputy chairman of the handball department of TSV Gerberau, he turned to Bruno Danzer at the end of 1969.
Danzer granted us asylum.
Günter Meikis
The handball players were on the verge of elimination at that time.
Their hall had burned down five years earlier, and MAN now bulldozed the new small-field grass field without notice in order to build a parking lot.
Bruno Danzer, an enthusiastic handball fan, didn't hesitate and helped.
“Danzer granted us asylum,” Meikis remembers.
The mayor paved the way for the homeless handball players to join a new club, TSV Eintracht Karlsfeld.
Danzer also announced the construction of a hard court on Jahnstrasse.
The Karlsfeld handball players had a new home.
When the construction of the large gymnasium on Krenmoosstrasse was completed four years later, Danzer had created the basis for handball sports to continue to exist in the Karlsfeld community.
But Danzer was not only committed to sport, but also to the local culture.
At the inauguration of the community center, he had the handball department perform a skit.
It was the birth of TSV Brettl.
“Danzer was so enthusiastic and made rooms available to us,” says Meikis, one of the founding members of TSV Brettl.
There are many anecdotes from the life of the former mayor that Danzer's companions can tell and that will put a smile on your face.
For example, when he suddenly stepped up to the three-meter board at the opening of the indoor swimming pool and jumped into the pool wearing a suit.
One of Danzer's favorite stories comes from a time when he was working as a registrar and was supposed to marry a couple who had previously fallen out.
When Bruno Danzer asked the man whether he wanted to tie the knot with his bride, the groom promptly answered no, whereupon the bride fainted from sheer shock and Danzer had to postpone the whole thing.
How Bruno Danzer's life changed forever
But Bruno Danzer's life also had its dark sides.
He was in the war and was expelled from his homeland.
In 1970 he lost his wife in a car accident.
But he found new happiness: his second wife, Anni Danzer.
Together they raised Gerald, Danzer's son from his first marriage.
“He was a great family man who loved children,” says Anni Danzer.
Her husband had no moods and was always positive.
“He was aware of how precious every hour is that you can live in peace.” When her husband went into his well-deserved retirement, he was happy to finally be able to spend more time together.
They traveled around the world, skied down snow-covered mountains, and regularly visited their extended family.
Bruno Danzer was finally able to devote himself fully to his great passion: his horses.
Riding in nature allowed him to switch off and relax.
But I am very grateful that he was still able to grow old.
Wife Anni Danzer
But after five years, Danzer suffered a stroke that changed everything.
He was paralyzed on one side, had to sit in a wheelchair and could no longer speak.
“It was pretty hard for him at the beginning,” remembers Anni Danzer.
“But I’m very grateful that he was still able to grow old,” she says.
Eight years ago, at the age of 92, Bruno Danzer closed his eyes forever.
Today, on his 100th birthday, primroses, primroses and daffodils decorate Bruno Danzer's grave in the cemetery in Karlsfeld.
Anni Danzer specially provided the spring flowers.
Today she is celebrating with her family.
Together they remember their beloved husband, dad and grandpa.
Bruno Danzer has left many traces in the hearts of his loved ones.
Traces that never disappear.
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