Anneliese Deschauer:
Honorary citizen of the town of Geisa

Anneliese Deschauer née Pabst was born on July 15, 1936 in Dorndorf/Rhön. She lived in Geisa for four years as a young girl and fled to the West from the constraints of the GDR in 1955. The brothers Werner and Hubert Deschauer also fled Geisa in 1957 and began to build up a flourishing business in food retailing in the Ruhr area.

In 1960 Anneliese Deschauer married Werner Deschauer, who was born in Geisa. Both found a new home in Bochum, she joined the company and so the success story took its course. Starting with a small grocery store, further branches followed in the years that followed, culminating in the first hypermarket with integrated catering and numerous specialist sausage stores, spread throughout the Ruhr region.

“There’s no road that doesn’t lead home at some point.”

This old folk wisdom also applies to the Deschauer couple, because their hearts were always attached to their old homeland all these many years.

Since the peaceful revolution and the opening of the inner-German border in 1989, both of them came to visit Geisa again and again with great pleasure. Mrs. Deschauer supported her husband in the establishment of the Werner Deschauer Foundation for the benefit of the town of Geisa and was involved in the Board of Trustees of the Werner Deschauer Foundation for the implementation of the foundation’s goals for the benefit of the town of Geisa and its citizens. The Deschauer couple supported a wide variety of cultural projects, local associations and people in need.

Anneliese Deschauer showed particularly great commitment to the castle ensemble of the town of Geisa with the complete renovation of the castle and its furnishings. Today it houses the headquarters of the Point Alpha Foundation and festive venues for weddings, celebrations and conferences.

Of supra-regional importance is the ANNELIESE DESCHAUER G a l e r i e , which opened in 2018, was established by the Deschauer couple in cooperation with the town of Geisa and has developed into a center for art, culture and science. It also tells the life story of the entrepreneur couple Deschauer. By generously donating her art collection, Anneliese Deschauer showed her great heart for her homeland. Impressive paintings and sculptures can be admired in the gallery, most of them by French and German expressionists. Among them are works by famous artists such as Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí or Gabriele Münter.

Anneliese Deschauer has left many traces that will still be felt by future generations. She did much good, often working quietly and always remaining humble.

In 2014, Anneliese Deschauer was made an honorary citizen of the town of Geisa for her extraordinary commitment, and on January 11, 2018, she received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On June 27, 2016, the Geisa City Council decided to name the street in the new residential area “Am Weinberg” after the honorary citizen of the city of Geisa.

On January 27, 2020, Anneliese Deschauer passed away at her home in Bochum at the age of 83.

What remains in her memory is an extraordinary woman, a committed personality to whom the town of Geisa and the people of the region are deeply grateful.

Anneliese Deschauer