He once described himself as “Zeller Eiche” with a wink of the eye, but appropriately: The long-time Main Post local editor Günther Hillawoth was a guy like a tree, protective and providing shade, firmly rooted in his native soil. At the age of 67, death felled the “Zeller Eiche”. The editorial team and his wife Martina mourn the loss of someone who deserved the name “pound guy”.
The “Karl vom Land” (as Hillawoth’s pseudonym in a column) was a down-to-earth local editor of the old school. He liked to sit down with the people at the regulars’ table to hear about their worries. “It’s easier to talk over a bottle” was his credo, but also: “By the time you say schnitzel, we’ve already eaten.”
Hillawoth joined Main-Post as a trainee in 1981 and, after completing his training, initially worked in the Würzburg city office. He made a name for himself from 1988 to 1996 as editor-in-chief in Ochsenfurt and deputy head of the district editorial team. Hillawoth retired in 2019.
A big heart for the little people
The childlike joy of life slumbered in the heart of this giant guy. That did not prevent Günther Hillawoth from approaching issues with the necessary seriousness: For example, when a woman facing bankruptcy called the writer of these lines in desperation in 1992 and threatened suicide. It goes without saying that Hillawoth picked up the phone from the overwhelmed colleague? and in his calm manner made the young woman give up her plans.
His appearances as a cook at the Mainfrankenmesse are unforgettable. He left the topics from the big world to others, his topics are reflected in headings such as “Finally: Free ride on the Zeller Bock” or “From A for Aal to Z for Zander”. What if a colleague got stuck with a research? the “hig”, his abbreviation, always knew someone who would help.
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Research in the locker room
Anyone who laughed and celebrated with him could easily underestimate the tenacity with which he pursued important issues: once leading local politicians met in a gym in the Würzburg district for a crisis discussion? but Hillawoth was already unseen one floor higher on elbows and knees crawled across the grandstand to a changing room, where he secretly noted the points for the election of a new district administrator. The understanding of the partnership between the Israeli district of Mateh Jehuda and the district of Würzburg also grew thanks to Hillawoth’s sensitive reporting.
The Franconian Carnival Association also mourns Hillawoth. “He loved and lived Carnival,” says Bernhard Schlereth, honorary president of the FVF. Hillawoth’s foolish career began in 1972 when he was accepted into the Elferrat in his hometown of Zell. From 1986 onwards, he was chairman of the meetings there. And after he and his wife Martina had found a new center of life in Veitshöchheim, he took over the post there for four years in 2008, and continued to work in the background afterwards.
One who had learned from him wrote sadly when he heard of Günther Hillawoth’s death: “If the big boss up there is already starting to fell oak trees, we should enjoy every day.” The “hig” would have liked that. He would have answered in his own way: “Schmarr nidd, hau nei!”
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