During a festive ceremony on the market square in Oberwiesenthal yesterday Sunday, my father Eberhard Riedel was made an honorary citizen of the town of Oberwiesenthal. What an honour!

Back in the days, together with his successful coach Joachim Loos, the two significantly formed the history of skiing on the Fichtelberg and founded a successful alpine skiing department on our mountain.

"The miracle of Fichtelberg" - how the success story from back then was brought into the world, culminating in three Olympic participations and World Cup victories in Adelboden and Kranjska Gora. Training took place under the most difficult conditions back then. As a citizen of the GDR it was anything but easy, you had to be creative and persistent to achieve your goals. And they always were, the track under the lift on the Fichtelberg was converted into a downhill slope. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the successful coach Loos, this slope is now called "Joachim Loos".

With the award of the title "Honorary Citizen of the City of Oberwiesenthal", my father also received a great honor that he more than deserved. The honorary citizen waiver is a sign of gratitude for the international attention that the city of Oberwiesenthal has gained through the successes of Eberhard Riedel. Since then, Oberwiesenthal is no longer an unknown place on the international ski map.

On the occasion of his 85th birthday, the city administration applied to the city council for honorary citizenship, and a large majority voted in favour. Since yesterday, my father can proudly bear the title "Honorary Citizen of the City of Oberwiesenthal".

"It's very emotionally to review the whole story from back then. The images are so present and flash back in my mind's eye as if it all just happened recently. May the trust and the the appreciation that was shown to me will live on in our town of Oberwiesenthal. Thank you for that!", said my father in his speech, in which he gave exciting insights into the "miracle of the Fichtelberg".

Anyone who knows my father knows that he can talk for hours about the experiences of back then. Thank God he kept his speech a little shorter yesterday :-)

It makes me extremely proud as a son and I would like to pay tribute to my father for what he has achieved. Being the son of an honorary citizen is something special!