I hadn’t been a member of the club long before I met our sports doctor for the first time.
It was said that the doctor had to serve a prison sentence because he had helped a young family prepare to flee the Republic. The affair was busted, and only with a lot of luck did he keep his license to practice medicine.
Ulli, as the doctor was called by everyone, was nevertheless very likeable to me, and we became closer. During our conversation, he told me that he wanted to build a weekend cottage near the lake in Caputh according to his own plans.
I spontaneously assured him of my help, pointing out that I had some experience in building houses. He gladly accepted my offer, and the next spring the first sod was turned on the proverbial green meadow.
After the work was done, we slept with a few helpers in a gazebo without any sanitary facilities. But that changed quickly. When the shell of the building was finished and the shower provided the first warm water, the working atmosphere and the well-being of the construction crew improved noticeably.
Ulli was not only a good sports doctor, but also an excellent organizer. When we set off with three cars and two trailers on Friday afternoon for the weekend work, everything that was needed on the construction site was on board.
From the smallest screw to the special tools, everything was there, of course also the food for the whole troop. Even the after-work beer and the schnapps were never missing. Ulli’s wife and Chris were present at almost all operations.
Sabine took care of the physical well-being of the people, and Chris was responsible for everything that had to do with stain, brush, and paint. The builder also knew how to keep his helpers happy.
Sometimes he organized a soccer game against the local association, sometimes a cozy dinner at the beach restaurant or a humid evening steamboat trip. As a surprise, the ship anchored in front of the ‘Liebesinsel.’ Symbolically a ‘priest’ married Chris and me.
Since then Ulli’s house was only called ‘the cradle of our love.’ The years passed. The planned weekend cottage had become a property with guest rooms, double garage, and sauna. Also a landing stage at the lake was not missing.
Chris and I were allowed to spend undisturbed, wonderful weekends on the property as we pleased. Ulli did not forget his volunteers even years later. Whoever had worries went to the Doc, no matter what it was about. Ulli always knew what to do and helped unselfishly.
It was only through his widespread connections that I came into possession of modern ski equipment and finally a surfboard. Like all my sports friends, I was fascinated by the new sport and became an enthusiastic windsurfer.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Oberwiesenthal in the Ore Mountains became a veritable winter sports paradise. The Fichtelberg, which is over 1200 meters high and has guaranteed snow, with its ski lifts and Germany’s oldest cable car, built as early as 1924, acted as a magnet for winter sports enthusiasts.
Half the republic, from Berlin to Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and now again Chemnitz), met on the ski slopes during the winter season. To book an overnight stay in the town for a few days at that time was almost hopeless for strangers.
But Ulli managed to rent a room in the best house in town all year round under these difficult conditions. 𝓣𝓸 𝓑𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭…
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