If you want to live a long life, you should eat healthily and do a lot of sport.

But he should also cultivate his friendships: for a social being like humans, friends are a real fountain of youth, as science knows.

And in some cases, friendship can literally prove life-saving.

Jorg Thomann

Editor in the “Life” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

  • Follow I follow

Manfred and Günther, as the two should be called here, have been best friends for 72 years, they come from the same village in Lower Saxony.

Even her parents were friends, and when the boys in the village club first started playing football and then handball, they quickly found each other, says Manfred.

Ten years old at the time, he admired the slightly older man, who was “an outstanding athlete”, stood in the handball and football goal and did track and field athletics.

In quick succession, they fell in love with girls from their home village, whom they would later marry.

Graduation help

The friendship continued even after Manfred switched to high school in the nearby town.

Günther later attended night school, and when he was about to take his Abitur exam at the same high school, Manfred, who could go in and out there inconspicuously, came to his aid with a few comrades: "We have the tasks with all sorts of tricks about windows and toilets received it, worked on it in a pub and returned it.” Günther still didn't pass – “we were all sad about that,” says Manfred – but he still made it, and he sold computers with some success.

Although Manfred was stationed here and there as a career soldier, the friends saw each other three or four times a year, and when Manfred finally landed in Cologne, he was so close to Günther, who had moved to a village in the Palatinate

Manfred's wife died 20 years ago, Günther's four years ago, and because his own suffering was long past, "I could perhaps be a certain support for him," says Manfred.

Three years ago they decided to talk on the phone every day.

It's become a ritual: Günther calls Manfred every afternoon at 5 p.m., but only very briefly, because he doesn't have a flat rate.

"Yes, I'll call you back," says Manfred and then calls you back.

The conversation is over at half past five sharp, very rarely it lasts until quarter to six.

And what are the two men talking about, who are 82 and 83 years old and actually know everything about each other?

"First we make our stupid jokes," says Manfred, then it's about football and handball and the old days.

And suddenly silence

Last Saturday at 5 p.m., however, Manfred's phone was silent.

He kept calling Günther throughout the evening, then at some point to a neighbor and, after nobody answered her knock, to the police on Sunday morning.

Entering the apartment through the open balcony door, officers found Günther on the floor in the bedroom, fallen and unable to get up on his own.

He is now in the clinic and, according to Manfred, is on the mend.

If you ask Manfred whether the daily phone call was not just a ritual of friendship, but possibly a life insurance policy for both parties, he replies: "You can say that."

Ever since the police broke the story, Manfred's phone has been ringing more frequently, mostly with journalists.

The police report erroneously referred to a 70-year telephone friendship, which sounds sensational, but is obviously nonsense: ten-year-old boys don't meet to make calls, but to play football, and the Federal Republic of the early 1950s didn't have nationwide connections either.

Manfred has now also asked the police not to give out his number anymore.

He doesn't want to be celebrated as a hero, he just is: a friend.

Günther himself only said to him: "Man, that was good that you did it."

Günther has to stay in the hospital for a while.

Manfred will call him there every day, just not necessarily at 5 p.m. anymore.

They want to resume this ritual when Günther is healthy and at home.