Gloss of
Philipp Crone
It’s not that the sight alone isn’t amazing enough. The man is definitely well over 70, which his outfit also suggests, because training fashions like these fluffy synthetic fiber glossy body suits date back to the last century. His shoulder-length gray hair bobs as he runs down the alley to the Bratwurstglöckl at the cathedral with both hands on the handlebars on an autumn evening. And then he turns around the curve so routinely that not a single one of the four rollator wheels lifts off by a millimeter. It’s over, disappears in the passage to the Frauenkirche. Several questions arise.
Munich is well known for the fact that the world’s most armed pensioners live here in wonderfully named fitness temples such as the “Premium Residenz” Tertianum. The walk to the beer garden and the eternal euphoria about the victories of the Reds simply keep people young on the Isar. But since in this country the rollator is only allowed from a three-digit age at the earliest, why did the racing retiree have one like that? Or: Was that a rollator at all?
When it comes to means of transport, the Isar has long been through all the fashions. The rowdy cargo bike is currently in the fading pool of the latest trend. Fixie or even touring bikes? You can wear high-gloss sportswear again right away. Now it is the turn of the rollator, which of course is no longer called that, but was given the name Rollf at the pitch by Munich’s bearded creative offspring. Rollf brings together some of Munich’s best qualities. It is expensive, cumbersome and can be used at any time as an additional seat in the beer garden or as a beer crate transporter for a party on an Isar meadow.
Two final questions remain: Who was the man and where did he want to go? A former riding jockey who, as a test driver, does the first laps with the new E-Rollf.