When the Munich Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) invites you to a reception in the Comité courtyard of the royal residence, the occasion must be a special one. The fact that the district association Munich-Stadt is only just turning 70 and not 75 years old, as was assumed for a while, plays less of a role. And when former mayor Christian Ude leaves his Greek island domicile to speak to around 200 invited guests from Munich’s social scene, something epochal happens: the “Salzhuber era” at Awo comes to an end.
The banker and social worker Jürgen Salzhuber is retiring from this position at the age of 75 after 30 years in the management and then another ten years as an honorary board member of the district association. The district conference elected Florian von Brunn, head of the Bavarian SPD and parliamentary group leader, to succeed him as chairman of the association.
When Salzhuber joined the management of Awo, the district association was on the verge of bankruptcy, was indebted at eight million marks and insolvent, Mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) recalled. Salzhuber initiated the renovation in 1983. His “efficient management” earned him the nickname “Dagobert”, but that doesn’t go far enough: “He always wanted to be a world improver, a pusher.” In the four decades of his work, he made Awo one of the largest providers of social services with more than 3000 employees.
District President Josef Mederer also said that Salzhuber was an “absolute grandee”, who above all paid tribute to Salzhuber’s pioneering work in social psychiatry, which began in the 1970s with the establishment of outpatient social-psychiatric services. He set the right course and initiated the reorientation towards the principle of outpatient before inpatient, which is taken for granted today. The President of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, emphasized in a video message that he was “a really unique person” who “promoted togetherness”.
Because of course there is always a lot of talk on such occasions about how difficult it is for a successor to fill in the large footsteps of the predecessor, Salzhuber cleared up this worn image in his short speech and let it be known that a comparison showed that the shoe size by Florian von Brunn is one size larger. And in general, as far as the successor is concerned: “I assume he’s doing well, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten him.” Salzhuber has never lacked self-confidence, the social democrat was able to appear as a “tough employer representative” before the labor court, but on the other hand he has also been a Verdi member for more than 50 years, emphasizes Awo managing director Hans Kopp.
As a banker, he calculated soberly, his credo was: “The belief that because I do good things for poor people there will be some kind of financing does not help.” He would even have liked to open an Awo-Bank, but he failed because of the association’s committees. Instead of renting real estate for social purposes, Salzhuber, as he says himself, opted for “buy, buy, buy”. The value of his Awo acquisitions has already exceeded a “quarter billion”, “it was my goal to achieve that”. The association is very stable and technically well positioned. So Salzhuber now says goodbye, garnished with contemporary and social criticism by Hans Well and the Wellbappn dressed in folk music.
“An Era” is the name of the book that the district association is dedicating to him on the occasion of 70 years of workers’ welfare. In fact, it consists almost entirely of tributes to Salzhuber’s 40 years at Awo. Standing applause also in the residence. exit? Well, not quite, Salzhuber remains connected to the Thomas Wimmer Foundation and some projects. And the respect that not only his thundering bass gives him will have a long-lasting effect anyway.