Frederic Schultz
Funeral orator
For remembering
Frederic Schulz has three professions: He has a doctorate in history, publishes both short stories and novels as a writer and works full-time as a funeral orator. If you look closely, this fits together well: as part of his doctoral thesis, at the end of his studies he interviewed many contemporary witnesses and discovered his interest in the diversity of human lives. He also explores this in his novel “Eugen”. The focus of this literary work is the forgotten life of his great-great-uncle Eugen Schnepple. The path to becoming a eulogist is determined by this activity at the latest, because: “This novel is my first written eulogy,” says Frederic Schulz. Here, over 150 pages, his need to do something to remember someone is shown
And that's exactly what the profession of funeral orator is all about.
Love for a Thuringian woman
Born in 1988, he learned a lot about the former GDR. For most of the deceased whose lives Frederic Schulz deals with, “there was a life before the reunification and a post-reunification life”. All of this flows into his speeches and so in the end all three professions meet again at work: the historian classifies, the writer writes and the mourner remembers.
This activity takes a lot of time and requires empathy. This is the only way to adequately represent the different biographies in a eulogy.
The fact that Frederic Schulz lives in Erfurt is more of a coincidence. He came because of his love for a Thuringian woman. The old buildings in Erfurt contribute to staying together: “For someone who grew up in Heilbronn, a city that was completely destroyed in the Second World War, every building built before 1946 is special,” and Erfurt is known to have many of them.
Erfurt Bratwurst
So it is certainly no coincidence that he lives in an old apartment in the Poets' Quarter with his wife and child. Frederic Schulz also likes to spend his free time there. At the house there is a garden with a cozy corner and a table tennis table, where a resident can almost always be found to play together.
Another hobby horse is strolling through Erfurt. His aim is to get to know districts and corners of the state capital that are away from the center of his life. While strolling like this, Frederic Schulz always realizes that Erfurt is more than the well-known old town. In his opinion, Erfurt should therefore confidently recognize opportunities outside of tourism and the Middle Ages: “A lot of potential lies unused, you sometimes wallow in your own bratwurst and the little sweet streets, but Erfurt is more than that,” said the historian with a view to other cities and regions. Frederic Schulz assumes that he has found his new home in Erfurt. Even though he can work as a sought-after funeral speaker all over Germany, he is very satisfied with life in the Thuringian state capital. Should Frederic Schulz one day leave the city, he will probably go down in city history as the creator of the term “Bratwurstigkeit”…
