2023-08-23 00:09:49
Oftersheim. “I’m probably the first to go into the Protestant church with a crowbar.” Of course, it would be particularly desirable for the community that Markus “Patch” Müller was right with this sentence. At least he has no diabolical intentions, but only has noble goals with the rabid tool.
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Until last Sunday, Müller and his wife exhibited under the title “Hommage – Treasures from the Garage” in the vaulted room in Oftersheim, primarily old vehicles with which the two wanted to tell special stories. On this occasion they also asked for donations in an old milk churn tightly closed with a wooden lid – not for themselves, but for the “Café Vergissmeinnicht”.
Petra Müller (from left) and “Café Vergissmeinnicht” manager Doris Zimmermann proudly present the donation money that the exhibition “Hommage – Treasures from the Garage” brought in. © Heylmann
crowbar is used
Now, at the end of the exhibition, Müller hands over the amount – which he initially does not know himself – to Doris Zimmermann and her team. And this is where the crowbar comes into play. “My wife hit the lid on the pot so hard, there’s no other way I can get it out,” comments Müller with a touch of humor, but ultimately truthful. And so there is the peculiar scene of him lifting the lid off the jug on the steps in front of the gates of Christ Church.
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What follows is heartwarming. Petra Müller and Doris Zimmermann have a container ready into which the contents of the milk can pour – and Zimmermann’s eyes widen and she can’t find the words. “Is that a lot of money?” is the only thing she manages to say right away.
A short count inside the church, where at the same time the visitors of the “Café Vergissmeinnicht” are sitting over coffee and cake, results in an amount of 431.50 euros in donations. “Some really threw in 50-euro bills,” says Doris Zimmermann, still a bit stunned. “I didn’t even know what to expect. I thought, if 100 euros come around, that’s a lot.”
What exactly is to be done with the money has not yet been decided. In the past, the team used donations to buy a valuable set of skittles or a swing towel for gymnastic exercises, for example – the aim is to offer visitors a bit of variety and a good time, also using the donations, of course. “Once we’ve made an acquisition and try it out, we’ll of course invite Mr. Müller back,” promises Doris Zimmermann.
At the beginning of the contact, she hadn’t been able to imagine much about Müller’s exhibition, as she admits, and wasn’t sure whether the visit to the vaulted room with the group from the “Café Vergissmeinnicht” would really work. Müller, on the other hand, had already appeared more than convinced in a conversation with this newspaper before the vernissage that his show was perfectly suitable. According to Doris Zimmermann, he was right. “It was all so well tailored to people with dementia or the first symptoms of it,” she enthuses. This is also due to Müller’s concept, which is not limited to just exhibiting pieces, but – as he says – wants to offer an overall experience with melodies, smells and many small details. He, too, is not only more than satisfied with the amount donated, but also with the course of his time in the vaulted room. “With some of the people who came, I was initially skeptical as to whether there was anything for them. But at second glance, something always turned up and something different stuck with each one.”
Dialogue instead of lecture
It is important for Müller to emphasize that it was not so much a question of leading through his exhibition with a lecture. “Instead, there was always a dialogue.” One story particularly stuck in Müller’s memory: a man visited the exhibition with his wife the day before he was due to start his rehab a few weeks earlier due to a heart attack. “You couldn’t tell by looking at him. He said he had no memory of the incident at all. A witness must have observed everything, rescued him from the car and resuscitated him, and seeing the vehicles in the exhibition made that come up again.” But not in a negative way: “He told me that he now has a really positive feeling goes to his rehab,” remembers Müller. For him, this proves one thing above all: “You never know the story of other people. Then hearing them and exchanging ideas is an enrichment for both sides.”
After these good experiences, Müller would like to exhibit again in Oftersheim, preferably next year. Nothing is certain yet, but Markus Müller has enough plans. Although he doesn’t want to reveal too much about them just yet, the motto of his next exhibition, which he says he has largely conceived in his head, is clear: “Clothes make the man”.
Here, too, he would like to use individual exhibits to tell different stories and create individual impressions in every visitor. And who knows – maybe at the end there will be another milk can for a good cause.
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