Frankfurt: Celebrities serve Christmas goose for the needy
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fromKathrin Rosendorff
conclude
500 needy people came to the Frankfurt Ratskeller on Wednesday evening. They are happy about the “beautiful goose” and sitting together “in the beautiful Ratskeller”. Among the prominent helpers were ex-Bundesliga managers Reiner Calmund and Tobias Künzel, the blonde singer from the “Prinzen” – and Franz Lambert on the Wersi organ
Half an hour before the door to the Ratskeller opens early on Wednesday evening, many women and men are already lining up. The song “Let it snow” can be heard from the Christmas market carousel across the street. Some have shopping trolleys with them, sometimes with Tupperware or large, washed-out yoghurt pots. Later they will take leftovers of the Christmas goose meal with them.
The “Christmas goose meal for the homeless”, but also for all people who have little money, has organized media manager Bernd Reisig with his foundation “help to help” for the ninth time. A young man who says his name is don Juan says he has been homeless for three weeks and is sleeping in shelters. “I’m not going to miss the beautiful goose,” says the 34-year-old. “I used to work as security in a brothel in Mannheim and also went shopping for the women. The brothel doctor vaccinated me against Corona, ”he says. Then he lost his job. Now the former martial artist is hoping that he will get a job again. “My buddy works as a pizza maker, he’s trying to get me in somewhere.”
An older, diverse lady who raised children, only works part-time and has very little pension, says: “The food is not the most important thing for me this evening. I look forward to sitting with other people in the Roman’s beautiful Ratskeller. ”Aren’t you celebrating Christmas with your children? “No, children, you know …”
Meanwhile, Tobias Künzel, the blonde singer from the “Prinzen”, is waiting inside for the first time in his life, as he says. “I was just shown how to carry three plates, but for now I dare to only carry two at the same time.” It is important to him to be here, for people who die with little in life.
But he doesn’t want to sing. “I’m there to wait the wait, maybe I’ll hum softly under my mask while serving.” He is one of many prominent helpers: inside. The Christmas goose meal for people in need is now taking place under hygienic conditions after it had to be canceled due to the pandemic last year. Inside under 2G conditions and at a distance. At the entrance, people dying show their vaccination records. Outside in the courtyard in front of the Ratskeller there are tables under patio heaters for people who have neither been vaccinated nor recovered, but they have a currently negative antigen test. “We didn’t want to send anyone away from the people in need, the winter is already hard anyway and the pandemic is particularly hard,” says Reisig.
500 people come in the two shifts, compared to 600 in previous years. There is also the option of having goose and red cabbage packed to take away.
A gentleman sits not far from Franz Lambert, who accompanies the evening on the Wersi organ. “It touches me that people like me who live on the subsistence level are not forgotten,” he says. Not far from him, Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) gives a speech.
Ex-Bundesliga manager Reiner Calmund, who has almost halved his body weight from 180 kilograms to 90 kilograms, also served. He says: “If you have just a little heart and soul, you help people who are not on the sunny side of life.” “But if necessary, I’ll carry a pack of mustard behind you.”
An older lady with an elegant beret is less interested in celebrities than in the tender meat on her plate. She didn’t have a good day because she received a letter from the social welfare office: “I need a new mattress. The pen hurts my back. But they wrote back to me: ‘You had a new mattress 21 years ago. “