Her knowledge of Zorneding was inexhaustible – and irreplaceable. It is no coincidence that she was called “Frau Heimatkunde” in her later years. Now Emmi Heder has died at the age of 82. A great loss for Zorneding, especially for the Zorneding local history group: at home in Zorneding from childhood on, the qualified translator co-founded the local history group in 1986, was very committed to it from the start and chaired the association from 1999 to 2014 ; In 2015 she was made an honorary member.
If the local history group is able to keep the public interested in local history in words and pictures, this is largely due to the many years of work of Emmi Heder and the motivated team she leads. Through her research in the main state archive and in other archives, she tracked down important documents for Zorneding’s history and – also thanks to her knowledge of Latin – made it understandable for today’s readers, researched and wrote down the stories of houses and farms and their inhabitants.
The extensive yield of this work is reflected in the electronic archive of the local history circle: under Heder’s name there are 769 different topics and contents, from the individual certificate to the file folder bulging with Heder’s research results. Quite a few of them are still waiting to be evaluated further and made public in print, much has already appeared in books.
The “first work” was the illustrated book “Zorneding – yesterday and today” published in 1990; in the editorial team, Emmi Heder was responsible for writing the texts for the more than 450 photos. The first was to be followed two decades later during Heder’s tenure as chairman and under her leadership, three local history books for Zorneding’s districts: Ingelsberg 2009, Wolfesing 2011 and Zorneding 2013. because a lot of research and notes by Heder could be used again. Four demanding books in a strenuous two-year cycle. This achievement was made possible because Heder herself brought a lot of knowledge and work to the respective project – and because she managed to motivate her team in the same way.
But Emmi Heder also passed on her knowledge to interested Zornedingers outside of the books: Between 1988 and 2015 she gave around 30 lectures on a wide variety of local history topics: from the early centuries to the Thirty Years’ War to the present day, from Zorneding’s Bader , schoolmasters and pastors to strong women in the history of the congregation. And again and again “historical walks” through the community as well as helping to shape exhibitions of the local history group.
“Committed, creative, knowledgeable, Emmi Heder passed on her knowledge and love for her hometown of Zorneding. Even if her work has now come to an end: Emmi Heder’s work will continue to have an impact on the activities of the local history group and beyond – to her honorable keepsake,” the club said in its obituary.
The funeral service for Emmi Heder will take place this Wednesday, July 13, at 2 p.m. in the parish church of St. Martin in Zorneding. Burial followed in the parish cemetery.