As of: March 29, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Michaele Heske
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Boss on board: His customers should feel comfortable on the night train from Salzburg to Sylt. Martin Pavlik sees himself as a “hotelier on wheels” © private
Every Saturday evening there is a Ukrainian service in the market church in Dorfen. The Byzantine rite is very solemn, with clouds of incense wafting through the nave. Martin Pavlik swings the silver vessel, looking reverently at the ground. The 40-year-old Catholic assists Father Lubomir Fedorak and also reads the reading. Pavlik is the only altar boy in the district who speaks the native language of the Ukrainian war refugees almost fluently. In general, he has had an exciting life. He is a trained historian and a family man. And platoon leader.
Dorfen – “'Se Weliko-dnem.' That means 'Happy Easter',” explains the studied Eastern European historian from Dorfen. This year, at the same time as Catholics and Protestants, Orthodox Christians are celebrating the Feast of the Resurrection according to the Gregorian calendar, instead of a week later according to the Julian calendar. “Easter represents so many things that people need or long for right now. It is a festival of peace and hope.” The calendar change is also a political issue; Ukrainian believers are turning away from the Russian Orthodox Church, which is headed by Patriarch Kirill, a supporter of Putin.
Altar boy: Pavlik is the only altar boy in the district who speaks Ukrainian. Every Saturday the Catholic priest Lubomir Fedorak assists in the market church. © private
Pavlik is the son of political emigrants from Bratislava; he came to Taufkirchen when he was just four years old. “Czechoslovakia was a communist country, a totalitarian dictatorship,” he says. His parents also had little luggage with them - but they had their diplomas." His father settled in Taufkirchen as a doctor, his mother is an artist with her own studio in the moated castle: "The recognition procedures are still a tough and lengthy process today.
“We are very lucky. Many people forget how well we are doing – that is the exception worldwide,” says Pavlik, who supports green politics and has given speeches at climate demonstrations in Dorfen. “We live in a state that puts human dignity first in the Basic Law – not the dignity of German citizens, but that of all people,” he emphasizes. Since his early youth, he has seen this and his Catholic faith as the driving force to stand up for his fellow human beings, no matter what faith or nationality they have - be it from 1993 as an altar boy in the Pauli Conversion parish church and as a DLRG lifeguard and supervisor Forest pool in Taufkirchen or, as is currently the case, as a tireless refugee helper in Dorfen.
He has never been discriminated against because he is a “Zuagroaster with a migration background”: “In kindergarten I quickly learned German and of course the Bavarian language. Nobody has ever called me 'Slovakian' or 'foreigner' in a derogatory manner.”
He wants this experience for all refugees who are looking for a new home in the district. The convinced democrat observes right-wing movements with increasing disbelief: “Nobody leaves their homeland without a reason, the word re-migration does something to you,” he accuses the AfD. “If everyone with a migrant background did not work on April 1st, there would be no church service on Easter Monday with the main priests in either Dorfen or Taufkirchen.” And patients in clinics and retirement homes could not be adequately cared for.
Pavlik attended high school in Dorfen, where he also met his future wife. After graduating from high school, he studied Slavic studies, politics and history in Munich, even received a scholarship and published academic papers.
In 2010 he completed his master's degree. “As a humanities scholar, you hardly had any prospects on the job market back then.” There was one rejection after another: “Very frustrating if you want to start a family.” In the same year he married his wife Angelika, she is on the church council of the Protestant community Taufkirchen-Dorfen and teaches as a special education teacher at the St. Nikolaus School in Erding.
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A friend from college encouraged the academic to apply as a temporary service employee on the night train. This would soon become his dream job. Pavlik switched gears, completed internal training and worked his way up to platoon leader. He often has to make it clear that he is not a train driver. As a train driver, he is responsible for everything that happens on the train. He gives the signal to depart and ensures safety. Pavlik is the boss on board. The passionate railway worker calls his passengers “customers” because he is a “hotelier on wheels”.
He quickly began to learn the languages of the countries he was traveling to in order to make announcements in the local language. On the way to Venice he announced the election of Pope Francis via on-board loudspeaker, on the trip to Zagreb he welcomed Croatia to the EU, and on the train to Amsterdam he showed passengers how to hitch up a locomotive. With every trip, Pavlik built his personal European unity. In 2016 he left Deutsche Bahn because it abolished its night trains and went to work for BahnTouristikExpress, a private company.
He regrets that he didn't have a model train as a child: "We didn't have enough space back then." But during the holidays, when the family was visiting relatives in Bratislava, he rode the tram with his father for hours. “You float through the city on your own network,” he says enthusiastically. The following applies: “The older the technology, the more fascinating the rides in the wagons.”
He regularly goes on train trips with his two sons, aged seven and three, for example he recently visited the tram museum in Stuttgart. They have also been to Geislingen an der Steige, the town where he was born. Nearby is Göppingen, home of model railways and the Märklineum. “It’s almost as if the industry was born in my cradle,” says Pavlik with a wink.
The fact that the friendly train attendant is predestined for the railway profession was shown again a good two years ago, when over three million Ukrainians fled the war to the West. At the border with Poland, there were kilometer-long traffic jams on the roads, some people left their cars behind and continued on foot - or hoped for the train. Special trains brought many refugees from Frankfurt (Oder) to Hanover Laatzen train station, where a large reception camp was set up on the exhibition grounds.
Of course Pavlik was also there. “That was a moment in which everyone, whether employees or management, immediately mobilized all resources and organized evacuation trains without discussion,” he reports proudly of his railway family.
“Dobroho dnya, shanovni pasazhyry,” Pavlik then greeted the tired and frightened Ukrainians right at the start of the journey, first with an announcement, later he personally introduced himself in the compartments: “Ya Martin, vash nachalnik poyizda.” “Good lunch, dear passengers. I’m Martin, your train conductor.” He struck up a conversation with some of the passengers. “I took the time and listened; people could cry to me,” he remembers.
Including a 95-year-old woman in a wheelchair who had to witness how Kharkiv was bombed out by the Germans during the Second World War in 1943. In the next compartment: a young mother whose child had been born in a bunker a few days earlier.
Family people: Angelika and Martin married in 2010. The historian passed his master's degree that year. © private
At Easter a year ago, Pavlik received an offer to travel to the war zone with a delegation from his employer to get an idea of the extent of the disaster. Images he won't soon forget. He still has many friends from his student days in Ukraine with whom he writes regularly. Reports from the front and the question of when the war would be over are of little interest to him. For him it is important to help locally, here in Dorfen.
It's still before 7 a.m. when he meets with the local newspaper for an interview. His cell phone rings: "A Ukrainian woman just called, her child is in the hospital in Erding," he reports about the emergency. He has been supporting refugee aid tirelessly for two years. He submits applications to the job center or district office and helps with finding accommodation. Pavlik also uses the Saturday evenings after the service in the market church for conversations. “It’s also about approach, not just about practical assistance.”
“My Life” series
Many people look back on exciting lives with breaks, strokes of fate, successes or positive turns. In this series we present them in loose order. Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Then send an email to redaktion@erdinger-anzeiger.de or call (0 81 22) 4 12-1 34.