Andreas Winau passes away Flood helper loses battle against cancer
Ahr valley · Andreas Winau, a well-known flood helper in the Ahr valley, has died of cancer. Together with friends, he had acquired donations in kind worth two million Euro. The people in the Ahr valley are grieving.
His fighting spirit was a role model for many – sadly Andreas Winau has now lost his battle against cancer. Born in Rüdesheim in 1968, the Rheingau native, who was known to many people in the Ahr Valley simply as „Andy", as a flood helper, is dead. He lost his fight against his serious illness on Saturday. The shock in the flood area is great. Especially among those he helped and those he helped with.
"Now you are simply no longer there, you fought for more than a year and many hearts are crying for you today. Every day with you was a gift. One that not everyone gets. Thank you for enriching our lives.“ This is how flood helper Nadia Ayche says goodbye to her fellow campaigner. Together with him, she acquired and distributed donations in kind totalling more than two million Euro. Others also express how much they miss the man with the infectious laugh, who brought hope to the Ahr and never let himself get down.
"I felt sorry for the people"
Andreas Winau first came to the Ahr Valley to help five days after the flood. He was already undergoing chemotherapy. "I just felt so sorry for the people that I said to myself: You have to go there immediately," he once said in an interview with GA. First he helped to remove mud from the flooded houses in "bucket brigades", then he turned to organising donations in kind due to his physical condition. Several hundred wood and electric stoves, tens of hundreds of cubic metres of firewood, more than 100 bicycles as well as washing machines, dryers and furniture were probably donated.
One of Winau's favourite projects was the "Raised beds for the Ahr valley": ready-made boxes built from fruit crates, lined with foil, filled with soil and delivered to private individuals, kindergartens and schools with plants ranging from strawberries and parsley to leeks and tomatoes. As a trained horticulturist and landscaper, who most recently worked in hydraulic engineering on the Rhine, he initiated this campaign: "The people in the flood area no longer had gardens, and where the soil was contaminated, it was no longer possible to grow vegetables," he explains his initiative.
Helping from his hospital bed
"It makes me feel good to see people happy," Andreas Winau once explained. And what has always been important to him in his work in the Ahr Valley: "We don't impose ourselves, we just offer our services. We are just guests in the Ahr Valley who help." He has even helped from his hospital bed in a clinic in Wiesbaden, acquiring goods and managing transport. Only in May of this year, he was honoured with the Rhineland-Palatinate State Pin of Merit together with others who had been involved in dealing with the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley. His partner and daughter join the many people in the Ahr valley in mourning him.
Original text: Andrea Simons
Translation: Mareike Graepel
