There are 25 steps. 25 steps that are very familiar to Ute Nachtigall. She has run it thousands of times since 1972. 25 steps that lead from the entrance area of the Rüsselsheim sports hall to the basement. On the one hand, there is the gymnastics room in which the former artistic gymnastics coach spent many, many hours of her life. And around a bend is the ballet room, equipped with mirrors and wooden ballet bars. There she has been training a group that bears her name every Thursday for more than 50 years: the “Nachtigall Group.” Ute Nachtigall also runs down the 25 steps on the last Thursday in November. Anyone walking behind her might think they were following a 60-year-old. But the woman with the medium-long, honey-blonde hair is 82. She wears blue leggings and a fleece sweater of the same color, her steps are quick, her posture is upright. She has her sports bag in one hand and an exercise mat in the other. “There is no one like us anymore today.” She tells us how in the old days the whole hall was buzzing from the afternoon onwards, full of fencers, judokas, gymnasts, trampoline jumpers, hockey players and so on volleyball players. And how she regrets that those times are over. Because sport no longer has the social status it once had, overall and also in Rüsselsheim. Five decades ago, the city, located in the middle of the Rhine-Main region, was able to afford a multifunctional sports hall that was oversized and magnificent for 60,000 residents thanks to the bubbling tax revenues from the Opel main plant.
Since the 2000s, says Nachtigall, there has been a decline in club sports. “The boys go to a class at the gym today, then they say goodbye and leave. There is no one like us anymore today.” The sad thing is: “Us” no longer exists either. This Thursday evening, the Nachtigall group meets for the last time to do sports together. The group has been getting smaller for years. But that doesn’t dampen the mood in the ballet room; rather the opposite is the case. To say goodbye today, a dozen more women threw on their sports clothes, an unusual number. The group has been getting smaller for years; The decline has different but unsurprising reasons. Some women who were there for a long time are no longer alive or have moved away. The larger number, however, have physical problems that make gymnastics difficult or even impossible. So last year there were sometimes only three or four of them. It’s neither worth it for the club, the TG Rüsselsheim – nor is it fun. Group dynamics only develop when a group actually comes together, not a bunch. Ute Nachtigall says pragmatically: “There is a time for everything.” It’s about to get started: there’s a game of snacks before the sports lesson. Afterwards, too.Jasper HillIn an energetic voice, she reprimands those who, after entering the room, prefer to chat with each other instead of grouping themselves around the journalist. “Elfriede, now come here,” she commands, somewhat angrily, in the best instructor manner. The North Hessian woman started instructing younger people in gymnastics when she was just 14. In 1964, as a newly married Mrs. Nachtigall, she moved to Rüsselsheim with her husband Dieter. He was also a trainer and took over the management of the Rüsselsheim sports department for many years in the 1970s. Anyone who used to play sports in Rüsselsheim knew at least one of the Nachtigalls, or rather both. When the hall opened in 1972, Ute founded the Thursday evening group. She was 30 years old at the time and had three small children. They were modern, they were at the forefront. The women who joined the group were of a similar age. Christel, Karin, Marga, Gisela, Elfriede and Inge were there from the start. The group grew steadily until the mid-eighties. At peak times, 40 women filled the ballet room; a man never strayed to them. “We were modern, we were at the forefront,” says Ute Nachtigall when asked what differentiated the group from other groups in the TG. It was the time of jazz dance, including modern dance. At the club-wide carnival celebrations, they made a name for themselves as the formation with the hottest dance numbers. It was only this spring, they say together, that they watched a resurfaced private video of a carnival performance from the late 1980s. Since Nachtigall could only play it in her bedroom, they all made themselves comfortable on Ute’s bed – and laughed with tears. “We were so fast with our feet,” says the trainer, who also used clubs, sticks, balls and ropes, classic gymnastics equipment, during training. A dedicated instructor: Ute Nachtigall spent countless hours in the ballet room of the Rüsselsheim sports hall.Jasper HillYou can still tell today that Nachtigall didn’t think much of “this aerobics” that also spread in German sports halls 40 years ago. But she always picked out the good elements from the countless fitness trends that she experienced over the decades – and kept up with the times. This was also the case with the ghetto blaster, which replaced a gentleman named Sommerlath. In the first decade after its founding, the latter sat at the piano in a corner of the ballet room and set the rhythm. For a few years now, the music has mostly come from the cell phone – at least when Carola is there, the chick of the group at 68. ABBASo can also be heard from the speakers on this last evening of gymnastics together. ABBA – “Waterloo” and “SOS” – plays from the speakers on the hall ceiling to warm up, and the observer wonders what Mr. Sommerlath would say to that. In addition to Carola and Ute, there are Jirischka, Monika, another Ute, Marga, Angelika, Elfriede, Loretta, Inge, Waltraud and two Christels. Most of them are over 80. They have lined up in three rows, Nachtigall is in the first and gives instructions. They march in place, grab an imaginary pole above their heads (“Pull yourself up!”) and dance freely to the music. In the second part, exercises to strengthen the torso (“Think of the ball in front of your stomach!”) are followed by exercises to stretch on the ballet barre (“Straight back!”). Some turn out to be quite flexible. At the end, the pulse is raised once again. The women take their last steps together after, for some, more than 50 years, “Money, Money, Money”. Then it’s over, the nightingale group’s active time – and the senior women in their sportswear applaud each other a little longer than usual, almost without sadness. They lined up in three rows. Exercise leader Ute Nachtigall stands in the first and gives instructions.Jasper HillAnd there is a simple reason for this: the end of the group gymnastics is not the end of the group. The sport hour on Thursday evening was fun for them and contributed to their physical fitness. But the benefits of this weekly gathering went far beyond just health. Over the decades, the women – some housewives, some working, some mothers, others without children, all married – have become confidants, supporters, some even friends. What do they appreciate about each other? Firstly, that they “have no quarrels and no arguments “Be able to get along with each other and still have open discussions. That they express different opinions without taking offense at the others. The ability to be comfortable with each other without always having to agree has allowed them to spend time together beyond the ballet room. When the hall was closed during the school holidays in the summer, they met for bike rides. And from the mid-eighties onwards they went on more than 30 trips together. These took them to destinations in Germany, but also to European metropolises such as Rome, Prague, Seville, Istanbul – and offered the opportunity to get to know each other in a completely different way. Known for the hottest numbers: Part of the “Nachtigall Group” before a performance at a carnival event in the 1980s. Eva Schläfer But a connection between them also creates the fact that they care for each other. The stories just flow out of them: When one of them had a fire, everyone else was doing their laundry; When one of them was so sick with the flu that she couldn’t cook for her children, the others took over; When one of them’s oven broke down during Advent, the others showered her with cookies. Support that is based on reciprocity. They have aged together. The women are also bonded by what defines many long-standing friendships: that they have aged together and “each knows what the other has been through,” as one of them puts it. “First we told each other about the problems with our children, and those who had older children could say: That would be resolved in five years,” says Jirischka. “Then came the phase in which our parents grew old. In the last few years, many have lost their husbands.” It’s not talked about that much, but it relieves and helps that the others know what the situation is and sympathize. However, Hilde, a member of the group who was active for many years and who died in October 2019 – presenter at the carnival celebrations and creator of beloved travel photo books – is often mentioned in the conversations. “We talk about her and ask ourselves: How would Hilde have done that?” They will continue to meet in the pizzeria around the corner of the hall. Maybe not every week. But definitely on Thursdays.Jasper HillAfter their last gymnastics lesson together, the women pack their bags and move on together, without the otherwise obligatory shower, which they can tell nice stories about – relaxed room talk of a different kind. From the start, the nightingale – The group has a drink after exercise. For many of the women, this was the only night of the week that they were alone (and the only night of the week that, in the old days, the men put the children to bed). They used to go to the club bar, but for more than 20 years they have been going to a pizzeria that is right around the corner from the hall. Those who have long since given up on sports lessons, but not on their desire to be together, also come there.More on the topicWhen the owner of the pizzeria hears that sports are now history, her eyes widen, she doesn’t want to believe it and says: “I can’t imagine you guys stopping.” The twelve women sitting around the table have a total of 970 years of life. They don’t appear old or sedate; the conversation is lively. Everyone is looking forward to the group’s Christmas party on Thursday, which will also be attended by Esma, also a long-time member of the group. “Get dressed up!”, orders Ute Nachtigall, who invites people to her house – and, to the laughter of those sitting next to her at the table, gives the other Ute a specific request: “I don’t want to see a wool sweater like that!” Of the few women who are up to If you recently went to training regularly, one half will look for another sport, the other half will not. What everyone will continue to do together: meet up for a drink and a small pizza, probably not every week, more like every other week. But of course on Thursdays.
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