Last escort
Funeral service for Siegfried Steiger – with flashing lights
A portrait of the deceased founder of the Björn Steiger Foundation, Siegfried Steiger, stands at the funeral service in the Castle Church. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The architect has been committed to modern rescue services for decades. Now he died at 92. A convoy of about ten emergency vehicles accompanied him on his final journey.
Siegfried Steiger, a tireless fighter for a modern rescue service, was buried in Winnenden on Saturday. After the funeral mass in the Castle Church, the coffin of the founder of the Björn Steiger Foundation, who died in mid-March, was accompanied by a convoy of around ten emergency vehicles from various aid organizations.
With flashing lights and sirens we drove about a kilometer through the city to the cemetery. Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl and former Prime Minister Günther Oettinger (both CDU) paid tribute to Steiger’s services.
The architect Steiger died more than two weeks ago at the age of 92, just shortly after his wife Ute. The couple established the foundation in 1969 shortly after the death of their son Björn and named it after him. The then eight-year-old was hit by a car near Winnenden. It took almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
The Björn Steiger Foundation is committed to improving emergency aid and rescue services in Germany. Strobl said in his eulogy: “As a team, Ute and Siegfried Steiger have revolutionized the rescue service in Germany with groundbreaking ideas.” The emergency numbers 110/112 and emergency telephones on German roads go back to their commitment.