When Hans Schlehhuber steps outside the front door, his gaze falls on Johannisplatz – his home for almost 80 years. Whereby the Johannisplatz of his youth no longer has much in common with the Johannisplatz of the present time in many ways. Admittedly, the parish church of Haidhausen still stretches its pointed tower 91 meters up in the center. But all around it has become narrower than before, because of the many parking spaces; it has also become prettier than before, because of the many renovations; And last but not least, it has become more expensive than before, because rents are rising at an insane rate.
“There is the house in front, the one with the construction fence in front of it,” says Hans Schlehhuber, his right hand on the walking stick while the left hand points in the direction of the Johannis Café. In the neighboring building, the now 78-year-old once lugged coal from the cellar up to his aunt’s apartment. Now the house is to give way to a new building whose apartments are already being offered for sale on the market. The price for an apartment with 41 square meters: 1.1 million euros.
The fact that Johannisplatz would one day be one of the most sought-after residential areas in the city – for this prognosis one would have been laughed at at best in Hans Schlehhuber’s childhood days and at worst declared crazy. Born in Munich in 1943, he grew up on Johannisplatz. Even his parents came from Haidhausen, and he himself never moved. Why? When answering this question, Hans Schlehhuber looks for a moment as if someone wants to sell him the earth as a disc. Then he holds three fingers in the air one after the other and says: “No money, no opportunity and also no desire.” Because what Haidhausen means to him can be expressed in a single word: “Home.”
The Friends of Haidhausen Association made a book out of the stories
Now Hans Schlehhuber doesn’t roam the neighborhood as quickly as he did back then. But his mind is as nimble as ever – and his memory is full of memories and anecdotes, most of which revolve around Haidhausen. Last year he spontaneously started to put all the stories on paper, he says. In the meantime, the Friends of Haidhausen Association, of which Schlehhuber is one of the founders, has made a book out of it. “Wias amoi in Haidhausen war” is the name of the work that is available in various shops in the district. 96 pages are about old post offices and fire stations, sometimes about a beer tent on Orleansplatz and sometimes about Walter Sedlmayr, who once worked as commissioner Franz Schöninger for the television series “Police Inspection 1” in Schlehhuber’s house. The very personal stories convey a picture of Haidhausen far away from a neighborhood, “which sets trends for living, living and enjoying”, to quote the owner of the 1.1 million euro apartment on Johannisplatz.
“The common people used to live here in the quarter,” says Schlehhuber, who suggested the market on Wiener Platz as a meeting point. On the way there you would have passed “rundown houses” in your childhood. And Wiener Platz has also changed. Where dozens of people come together for wine and snacks around the maypole on sunny days, there used to be no seating, says Schlehhuber. “You came here to shop. And that’s it.”
He grew up in simple circumstances, there was never much money, and yet he had a “happy childhood”. After graduating from high school, Hans Schlehhuber started working for the city of Munich in 1966; from 1968 he was responsible for the homeless in the social welfare office – and stayed there until his retirement in 2005.
A class photo from the school year 1950/51 at the elementary school on Kirchenstrasse in Haidhausen: Hans Schlehhuber is the boy in the third row, second from the right.
(Photo: private)
At that time, Haidhausen had long since gone through a profound change after the city declared the district a redevelopment area in the 1970s. Little by little, the many old buildings were renovated, the partly desolate condition of which Hans Schlehhuber knew from his youth: “At that time there was only running water on one side of our house. And the toilets were outside in the corridor.”
In the course of the renovation, old industrial areas were also torn down and apartments were built on; In addition, cultural sites emerged whose appeal extended beyond the quarter, such as the Muffathalle, the Lothringer 13 gallery, the Unterfahrt jazz club and, above all, the Gasteig. “The renovation in Haidhausen has improved a lot. And it has become more beautiful. The ruins have disappeared,” remembers Hans Schlehhuber. At the same time, however, the population of Haidhausen has changed: “More and more academics have moved here. And families with children.”
While a lot changed around him, Hans Schlehhuber stayed true to his neighborhood: in 1987 he married Wiltraut Kleinikel, whom he had met through the parish, and moved with her to the other end of Johannisplatz – where they still live today. “I’m a city kid, I could never live in the country,” says Hans Schlehhuber. “I need the hustle and bustle, the squeaking of the tram and the many people around me.”
In addition, there is his connection to Haidhausen, which was already apparent during school days, says the 78-year-old and grins. He had already been characterized in his Abitur newspaper with the words: “A church-loyal local historian with an official nature”.