FC Schwaig mourns a football pioneer: Rudi Hettler died at the age of 98.
Schwaig - When the heart of 98-year-old Rudolf Hettler senior stopped beating on April 26, not only a wonderful person died, but also a unique contemporary witness of the social and especially the sporting life of the last almost 100 years in Schwaig.
The death of the man who had been involved in voluntary work for so many decades and who was the mainspring par excellence, which is why football could be played again in Schwaig shortly after the end of the war, tears a large gap.
Rudi - as everyone called him - was born in Niederding in 1923 and moved to Schwaig at the age of two.
He had to learn early on that life has many difficulties in store, as the boy lost his father at the age of 13.
It was a heavy blow for the whole family.
Rudi's mother suddenly found herself alone with her three children.
After school, Rudi Hettler trained as a hairdresser and was so skillful that he made it to the district winner.
Who knows what would have happened had he been able to continue doing his job?
Maybe one day he would have opened his own salon.
But things turned out differently, because the Second World War broke out in Germany and Rudi Hettler was drafted when he was just 16 years old. Together with a friend from Freising, he completed his basic military training in Sonthofen and then joined the mountain troops. This was followed by a transfer to the Russian front, where the Schwaiger was used as a reporter. After 18 months of service at the front, he was allowed to go on home leave for the first time. Of the three months approved in total, he had only 14 days in his beloved Schwaig due to the time-consuming and strenuous journey to and from the country.
Then the young soldier had to go back to battle, this time to Yugoslavia.
His last stop was the Italian front, where Rudi Hettler suffered severe burns on his arms and hands.
After three months in the hospital, he was finally allowed to go home, overjoyed to have survived this dark chapter of history despite two shots in his jacket and hat.
No sooner had Rudi Hettler recovered from his injuries than he immediately went back to his greatest passion: football.
Only 14 days after he returned to his family circle, he was back on the Schwaiger lawn.
And as his father did before him, Rudi got involved with FC Schwaig.
The first friendlies were quickly identified and jerseys sewn themselves, as there was no financial means at all.
At a time when popular sport was on the ground in Germany, Rudi Hettler was one of the pioneers in amateur football.
It is thanks to people like him and their tireless efforts that hundreds of people have been able to pursue their hobby at FC Schwaig to this day.
The Schwaiger Sportfreunde know only too well what Rudi has done for the club.
As an active player, he played a proud 576 games, and for over 50 years he kept statistics on all games of the two men's teams.
Regardless of the line-up, goalscorers or the number of games played by each member - as a personalized database, Rudi Hettler simply knew everything that was going on on the Schwaiger sports grounds for half a century.
In addition, he looked after the players well into old age as a supervisor.
There was not a half-time break in which not every kicker reached at least once into the bowl of glucose provided by Rudi or a training session in which Rudi lent someone either a towel to shower or socks to play football or both.
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This is how they knew him at FC Schwaig: Rudi Hettler (photo above) looks at the field with a satisfied smile from the balcony of the clubhouse.
© Rainer Hellinger
For over 50 years he has been there for every game at FC Schwaig.
Only once a year, when his mountain riflemen met, he was absent from the football field on Sunday.
It was not until he was well over 82 years old that Rudi gave up the position of team supervisor with a heavy heart, and only because his wife fell ill, he wanted to take more time to care for her and looked after her until her death.
Because the wellbeing of his family has always been a priority for Rudi Hettler.
He had been happily married to his wife Maria since 1949 and they had four children together (Rudolf jun., Angelika, Lieselotte and Albert).
Rudi Hettler later also became a six-time grandpa and multiple great grandpa - a role in which the family man was fully absorbed.
Loyalty, hard work and humility - these are the best attributes to describe Rudi Hettler.
In addition to FC Schwaig and its hiking friends, the Schwaig church choir was also able to rely on its reliability for decades.
Incredible 70 years he was a member of the church choir and 80 years of the FC, for decades even an honorary member.
There will probably no longer be someone like him, they are sure of that at FC Schwaig and in the entire village community.
RAINER HELLINGER