This year's camaraderie evening of the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin took place on 27 August 2022 in the canteen of the Hennickendorf Chamber of Crafts.
Our mayor, Ms Sabine Löser, opened the evening with a big thank you to the comrades for their work and commitment as volunteers and also emphasised at this point that she was very proud of "her" volunteer fire brigade.
After Mrs Löser's welcome, the community fire brigade leader, Björn Hanneck, took the floor. Traditionally, the comradeship evenings are used to commemorate the deceased comrades in a minute's silence. This year, comrades Eberhard Patschke (founding member and board member of the MOL district fire brigade association and founding member of the state fire brigade association) and Rudolf "Rudi" Hinz (Hennickendorf local fire brigade) passed away.
The municipal fire brigade commander then welcomed all comrades from all three local fire brigades and their escorts. He also warmly welcomed our mayor, local leaders, municipal representatives, administrative staff and the chairwoman of the Märkisch-Oderland district fire brigade association, along with her predecessor.
This year, special thanks went to the members of the old-age and honours department for their active support of the emergency services and their excellent cooperation. Björn Hanneck also expressed his highest appreciation for the many years of loyal service in a volunteer fire brigade to each individual comrade.
As of 27 August 2020, the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin has a total of 110 firefighters. In 2021, our volunteer fire brigade was alerted a total of 441 times and a total of 362 times up to 27.08.22. On 23 October 2021 (at 05:00), the firefighters showed great operational readiness during an emergency drill in the area of the Cemex company railway. This operational exercise was also handled very professionally by all participants as usual. Also mentioned as special operations were the storm situations on 29/01/22 and from 16 to 20/02/22, the support during the forest fire in the Lieberoser Heide from 05 to 06/07/22 and the large field fire on 06/08/22 between Lichtenow and Hennickendorf.
A total of 32 children and young people are active in the three youth groups of the youth fire brigade. For the first time in a long time, a joint trip to Poland was organised this year, "under the leadership" of the community youth fire brigade warden Dominik Zipper. All the children, young people and supervisors had a lot of fun and intend to make such joint activities a tradition again in the future.
This year, the chairmen of the support associations of the three local fire brigades were invited. The support associations were also thanked for their active support and great cooperation.
Since the end of February, our "Erbse" (Manuel Przybylski, local fire brigade leader in Rüdersdorf), with the support of many comrades, members of other fire brigades, citizens, the state fire brigade association, the district, the district fire brigade association and many other hard-working helpers, has organised a total of three relief operations for the firefighters in Ukraine. "Erbse" in particular, but also all the other supporters, deserve everyone's utmost respect and thanks.
Many major challenges will have to be overcome together in the future by the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin. In particular, the focus will be on procuring replacement emergency vehicles such as a rescue fire fighting vehicle, a tanker and a new aerial rescue vehicle. The purchase of operational clothing must also be urgently finalised. However, the municipal fire brigade leader also pointed out that in future it will be essential for the emergency services to have "light" protective clothing for forest and vegetation fires. Mr Hanneck thanked the municipal council, the mayor and the employees of the municipal administration for their support to date. The good co-operation between administration, politics and the fire brigade must be continued in order to overcome the major challenges ahead.
A total of 50 training courses were successfully completed at municipal, district and state level. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the successful course participants once again.
At the end of his speech, the municipal fire brigade commander thanked all the members of the volunteer fire brigade in the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin for the time and energy they put into their voluntary work in the fire brigade on a daily basis. He also thanked their families for the understanding they show towards their partners when, for example, "the pager goes off again at night"!
The head of the village then thanked Mrs Döppner-Smyczek for the tremendous work of the comrades. They are always ready for action for the citizens and society for emergency door openings, dealing with traffic accidents, storm damage situations, flooded cellars, oil spill clean-ups, securing municipal events, etc.
Comrades were then honoured together with the mayor:
Promotions
as a firefighter candidate
Rosenau, Oskar (local fire brigade Herzfelde)
Szelong, Lennox-Joel (local fire brigade Hennickendorf)
Unglaube, Marco (local fire brigade Hennickendorf)
Firefighter
Lübke, Silke Swantje (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Tantow, Leonie (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Scheurich, Nico (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Weisener, Luis (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Kretschmer, Dennis (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Mallow, Michael (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Schmidt, Enrico (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Herrig, Julian (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Senior firefighter
Fichte, Heiko (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Preuß, Tizian (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Chief firefighter
Hartwig, Michael (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Jahn, Ronny (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Kunze, Florian (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Rexin, Simon (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Plicht, Eddi (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Varuzza, Tobias (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Herbst, Benny (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Master firefighter
Bauer, Marco (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Zipper, Dominik (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Zorn, Tobias (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Krippner, Mario (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Oberlöschmeister
Hilbig, Thomas (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Esche, Peter (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Chief Fire Officer
Sahr, Dennis (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Sendel, Maximilian (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
1st Chief Fire Officer
Lindstedt, Tino (Herzfelde local fire brigade)
Apitz, Philipp (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Chief Fire Officer
Staske, Gordon (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Chief Fire Officer
Bierwagen, Roland (Rüdersdorf local fire brigade)
Ulrich, Klaus-Dieter (Hennickendorf local fire brigade)
Honours
Thanks to
Comrade Mario Krippner for completing the eFIII (electronic group leader course)
Comrade Mario Strutzke Association leader, head of a volunteer fire brigade in conjunction with deputy fire chief
Comrade Tino Lindstedt Local fire brigade leader of a volunteer fire brigade in conjunction with deputy fire chief Local fire brigade leader
Comrade Denny Vogt - 10 years of loyal service in the volunteer fire brigade
Comrade Bert Schuckert - 40 years of loyal service in the volunteer fire brigade
Comrade Bernd Mißler - 40 years of loyal service in the volunteer fire brigade
Comrade Mario Strutzke - 40 years of loyal service in the volunteer fire brigade
Comrade Margot Karge - 50 years of loyal service in the volunteer fire brigade
The evening of camaraderie came to an end with a cosy get-together with food and drink.
Björn Hanneck
Community fire brigade leader