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Obituary
notice for Michael Günther
October 7, 1968
- April 27, 2000
Michael Günther is dead.
He worked as a teacher at “Burgschule Meßstetten” and he gave
lectures at the State Seminar For Practical Teacher Education” at
Albstadt-Ebingen. He was the driving force of the
children’s-home-project “Jardin del Eden” in Ecuador. His young life
ended tragically with a rock-climbing accident in the mountains near
Montpellier in France.
Growing
up and finding a job
In 19698 Michael Günther
was born in Hechingen (Baden-Württemberg) and he grew up in
Albstadt-Ebingen. After his graduation at Gymnasium Ebingen
he took up his studies at “Pädagogische Hochschule” in
Weingarten. In 1994 he
successfully passed his First State Exam , and , in 1996, after
participating in Preparatory Training Courses for Teachers at Primary and
Secondary Schools, his Second State Exam. He has worked a teacher at
“Burgschule Meßstetten” since 1996.
What made Michael Günther
decide to take up a teaching profession was his work for the community
service (instead of military service) from 1988 – 1990, when he was
engaged with an institution for handicapped people. His work with
handicapped children shaped his life.
He wanted to choose a
profession in which to work with people, above all with children – and
in which children could be helped.
Traveling
to South America and finding a life-time responsibility
In 1989 Michael Günther
went on his first trip to Mexico and Guatemala, the following year the
second trip to Ecuador followed – these were travels in search of an
opportunity to be able to help. His third trip in 1992 brought the
decision for his life. In Cartagena (Columbia) he met some street kids, he
learned about their needs, their fears, their deplorable lives. And we may
assume that it was a bitter experience for Michael when he had to leave
behind these kids without being able to offer some kind of help.
Michael Günther
continued traveling to Ecuador and first of all decided to improve his
language-skills in Spanish. While studying at the language college he got
to know Roberto Altamirano, a young man who had started to build up a
children’s home for street kids. Michael Günther immediately offered to
help with Roberto’s task. He interrupted his studies for one semester
and ended up living and working with Roberto and his family for seven
months – under the most primitive conditions.
Commitment
for the “Kinderheim Jardin del Eden”
Back in Germany Michael
Günther had become a different person. He had found his task. He started
giving reports at different places, among them at his former school,
Gymnasium Ebingen, that took up some kind of sponsorship for the
“Kinderheim Jardin del Eden”. He roamed the country to collect
donations for the children’s home. His open and unpretentious ways
managed to convince people –this was also due to the fact that Michael
could provide the certainty that each cent donated would arrive in
Ecuador: he paid for all his expenses during his travels through Germany
out of his own pocket.
Friends from Germany
joined him helping in the “Kinderheim” for weeks and months. New
buildings were erected, the project grew and prospered. The children in
JARDIN DEL EDEN were also “his children”, and he wanted to offer to
them some perspectives for their lives. We may assume that Michael Günther
would have loved to move to Ecuador and stay there permanently, but he was
so much of a realist as to recognize that he could do more for his
children by staying in Germany instead of living with them in Ecuador.
His commitment for a
world with more justice and humanity can also be found in numerous
publications which he helped to prepare in the past years. It was at the
very core of his work to make children strong, to give them courage and to
show them what it means to be tolerant in life.
In his short life
Michael Günther has managed to win many expressions of support and signs
of sympathy. His colleagues at “Burgschule Meßstetten” and his
principals have always appreciated both his pedagogical skills and his
extra-ordinary social engagement. It was in spring 1998 that Michael Günther
took up his job as an instructor in Mathematics and Educational Theory at
the Teachers’ Seminar in Albstadt.
The news of Michael’s death came as a shock to both the teachers’
instructors and to the prospective teachers. They mourn the loss of their
colleague and instructor who has always proved to be competent in his
subjects, likeable as a person and unassuming in his ways.
Asking
for further support of the “Kinderheim”
It would probably have
been Michael Günther’s greatest wish that the Kinderheim-project he
loved so much should be supported just as strongly beyond his death, that
supporters could be found willing to follow his footsteps.
Michael Günther in the Jardin
del Eden, 1999
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