Archived Hans

Hilden, March 23, 2004

Hans Ibowski Died at the Age of Nearly 84

On March 16, 2004 around 4:50 PM Hans deceased at home in Hilden, Germany. The emergency doctor diagnosed cardiac arrest because of his general weak health condition. After pneumonia last year, followed by a delayed convalescence with several relapses, everybody thought of a slow, but steady amelioration. During this putative recovery his death came out of the sudden.

Änni was with him when he died. Just shy of two days, on March 18, they would have had their 60^th anniversary, the Diamond Wedding. Because of Hans’ health condition the big party was already postponed until mid of May 2004.

Many family members and friends participated with great sympathy in the funeral on March 23. Hans got his last resting-place in the tomb of his parents-in-law, Anna and Wilhelm Heubes, at the city cemetery in Hilden.

Hans lets behind his wife Änni, his two sons Rainer and Hartmut, his two daughters-in-law Karin and Petra, four grand-children Natascha, Gregor, Erika and Jasmin, and one great-grand-child Nicolas.

Hans was born in Homberg on the Lower River Rhine, Germany, on May 7, 1920. He was the oldest of nine siblings. He survived with the age of nearly 84 all his younger brothers. His two sisters Lene and Elisabeth live in the vicinity of Aachen, Germany.

During the first few years of his life he stayed with his maternal grand-parents in Homberg, while his father – due to the economic crisis -- had to change several times his job as a coal miner in the Ruhr Valley. When his father found a permanent job in the coal-mining area of Aachen, the family moved to Alsdorf close to Aachen late 1925. 199 Linnicher Road became the center of life. Further siblings were born.

Because of the small income and the economic conditions in the coal-mining industry Hans was forced to leave school directly after the mandatory number of years. He had to work on a farm to subsidize the family. When he was 18 he got his drivers license. He jobbed as a truck driver at a forwarder in Alsdorf. About a year later, in August 1939, the days of Hans’ and his contemporaries’ youth were put to a sudden end. Hans was drafted for the German army including his expropriated truck. Aged 19 he came to the barracks in Hilden where he met his later wife Änni Heubes.

Hans served as driver ranked private first class with the German Air Force, anti-aircraft unit L3542. He went through the turmoil of World War II at first at the Western front all the way to Paris, and later, beginning mid 1941 in the East close to Minsk (today’s capitol of Byelorussia). During short vacations from the front he got engaged with Änni on January 16, 1943; the wedding took place in Hilden on March 18, 1943. He became a prisoner of war in Poland, then in Russia in January 1945. He was quite lucky to be released from captivity already in August 1945. After some adventurous rides on coal trains he came home to the house of his parents-in-law on August 23, 1945.

Rainer was born 1946, Hartmut 1954. Like many others the young family faced the deprivation of the years after the war, until Hans got a job as driver of tourist buses.

Looking back on Hans’ life we have to realize that Hans could not develop his own life for nearly twenty years from 1934 to 1950. This is inconceivable for today’s generation. His own life started when he was thirty! Hans shared this fate with all his contemporaries but he never said any word or complained about this fact.

Hans drove tourist buses across Europe until 1958; most frequent destinations were Spain, France and Italy. Even though the lengthy absences from the family were not convenient at all, they prepared the grounds for a cosmopolitan attitude, for an open-mindedness and for an urge for knowledge. This, as we would call it today, multi-cultural understanding was one of the most important dowries for his sons.

In order to support his sons’ education more efficiently he changed occupation and worked as truck driver at Wiederhold, a Hilden based chemical company. He was proud that Rainer and Hartmut graduated from high school and attended university. Without his (and, of course, Änni’s) support neither Rainer nor Hartmut would have been successful. He shaped his children and grand-children in many ways, his hobby model railroad, his preference of camping vacations, his home repairs and improvements, his love of card games (the German games Skat and Doppelkopf), his soccer fever and many, many more.

In 1975 he faced his death for the first time. He survived a serious crash on a German highway only because of excellent emergency doctors who took care of him on the crash site and flew him with a SAR helicopter to a specialized hospital. After many months in hospital and subsequent many months of convalescence he worked again at Wiederhold until 1981 when he retired early because of his accident related health problems.

However, there is something positive: Hans found finally time for his own life. Aged 60 he traveled with his wife Änni, in the beginning with a tent, later with a trailer to destinations in the Mediterranean area, basically Spain and Italy.

When his mother-in-law started to need looking after he sacrificed his own interests again and assisted Änni caring for her mother. In order to be available on a short notice the trips abroad were replaced by a camp-site in the Eifel Mountains where they parked their trailer and where Hans and Änni spent many weekends and summer weeks.

During the 1990ies after the death of his mother-in-law, after the marriages of his sons, travel became again an essential part of his life. They celebrated their Golden Wedding (50^th Anniversary) on Lanzarote, Canary Islands, the truly first flight in his life.

Pretty soon, they had to take further flights. Rainer moved with his family to Canada. Hans and Änni visited them three times, traveled to the Rocky Mountains, to Florida, Washington and New York and spent lots of time with son, daughter-in-law and the teen grand-children Natascha and Gregor.

Olching, close to Munich, Germany, became the other and frequent destination because Hartmut and Petra moved there. Starting from their home they made many short trips into the surrounding and to the Alps. It was in Olching where Hans got in favour of something new. He became a fan of the annual country fair. Unlike at the kermis of the Rhineland here the beer tent is the center of the celebrations. Hans became two times Grandpa in Olching when Hartmut and Petra got their foster children Erika and Jasmin.

A full life? We can only speculate about a “Yes”. Hans never talked about his personal needs; he accepted thankfully the diversity of his life. He focused on his family as a silent leader in the background. Our society does not create monuments of stone for such a legacy. Nevertheless, there is honour and respect. Family and friends will remember him and his legacy. His children and grand grand-children will live in his spirit, living monuments of a great human being.

Please see photo gallery “In Memoriam Hans Ibowski”, too.

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