The shoemaker’s living in a renovation-needy house. Soon the lease expires. What then comes, is uncertain.

Anna Lifted

He is already in the Garage, new Boiler. Nevertheless, it must still go with the old, somehow, for the Installation of the new device, the money is no longer enough. “Actually, you would have to with the 70 to die”, says Manfred Schuster sarcastic. “The longer you’re retired, the poorer you become.”

Everything is getting more expensive, the Savings is eventually used up. He has always worked hard, independently, as an electronics technician. His wife, Inge, 67, was at Hugendubel, and in the case of beetles, it still works on 400-Euro-Basis, at a supermarket checkout. Schuster is now seven years on its self-designated age limit. Twelve years ago he went into retirement, ten years, he has worked as a volunteer in an Old – and-Service-center. Old people helped needed the help.

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It did him good to have a task to “Help fun” he says. For a time, his wife, and he took care of was also an Eritrean. Now you need a little support. The volunteer work can make a cobbler for health reasons. The medication for rheumatoid have just been changed, some days he has spent in the hospital, “it was awful,” says his wife. Because you know you are in the neighborhood and you don’t want neighbours to know of their plight, changed your name at your request.

14 years Ago, they moved into the house in the Munich suburbs, built in the last thirty years and with outdated technical Standard. Manfred Schuster shows the “house phone”: an old ventilation heating. “If the top one is coughing, you can hear it through the bottom of the cellar.” The rent was very low, they should have to pay for all the repairs yourself. For the couple it was a fair Deal.

Schuster ripped out once everywhere the old floors, he took care of the electrics, took over the painter’s work. So you have prepared your home beautiful. Lucky that he is a skilled craftsman. Today, the rent is still very affordable, but costs are high. And in a few years the lease runs out. You look now for cheap apartments – it is the search for a needle in a haystack. “Now an Apartment costs 700 euros”, says Schuster. You get used to the idea, from Munich away. “We are unpretentious, just need a doctor and a bus stop in the vicinity.”

the contract is set Because it is so, you need to pay for the Boiler, you needed to have bought in, including Installation. “But an amount we can no longer not be able to cope, it’s easy.” Still, you need to come up with the old Boiler clear. You make him only briefly in the Morning, one after the other fix in the shower. The Boiler must then be quickly rotates again, so that there is no Flooding. The old towels, which has spread Inge Schuster including, are soaked all the Time. She is glad that she has not thrown away the towels.

The shoemaker’s to show her the living room. View to the outside, in the winter garden, the one you love. No holidays, “we do not need”, the more you will enjoy the open space in front of your house. On a garden table, Manfred Schuster, a bird designed to feed. “But there’s a lot less birds, earlier it was like at the Stachus.”

It is not the two easy to ask for money. “You are ashamed”, says Manfred Schuster. “You have to wonder, have I done something wrong? You would actually look back on his life and think: well done.” A little more of this feeling, the wish for the couple.