9 January, 2008

SHETLAND is a poorer place after the sudden death of Dr Richard Winkelmann, developer and enthusiastic advocate of sustainable housing, who died at his home in Lehrte, Germany, aged 75.

In a community that has one of the highest rates of fuel poverty in the country, Winkelmann was promoting ideas that would have helped to cut enormous domestic fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions.

To that effect his Bio Solar Hus at Lerwick’s North Ness is a demonstration project en route to fulfil his vision of a modern society that can live and work without an unsustainable impact on Shetland’s environment. When he died, he was already working on the next phase of attaining that goal, an “eco-habitat” of 25 houses in Vidlin.

Winkelmann was a well known figure in Shetland. There can only be a few islanders who have not noticed the Hanover-registered motor home he used as a temporary home and office as well as to get around the isles.

He has been around these parts – on and off – for the last 20 years, touring the Highlands, the northern isles and neighbouring Faroe. He first set foot on Shetland in 1988, quickly falling in love with the place, fascinated by its landscape, climate and people.

As his long term business partner Brunhilde Mayer said, Winkelmann was never happy to be just a tourist. As an educationalist he was inquisitive, determined and generally good fun and possessed the rare ability to infect people with his inexhaustible enthusiasm. No wonder he quickly became involved in local affairs.

Born in 1932, in the village of Arpke, now part of Lehrte, as the son of cobbler Richard Winkelmann and his wife Louise, young Richard first studied literature and theatre science in Erlangen before later gaining a doctorate in psychology from the University of Tübingen. He spent most of his academic life as an educationalist at the University in Hanover.

Since the early 1970s, Winkelmann was involved in local politics. He was elected onto Arpke community council in 1972, then onto the Lehrte town council and later became the town’s deputy mayor.

After retiring from Hanover University, Winkelmann launched himself straight into a new phase of his working life, founded the ‘Actec’ group of companies, which aimed to gain acceptance for innovative environmental technologies throughout Europe.

He saw Shetland, and the islands in the north in general, as a perfect testing ground for his main ambition - to change people’s perceptions to accept new technologies that would help protect and safeguard the environment.

If the Bio Solar Hus fulfils its promise to cut energy costs by 90 per cent, Shetland will have benefited from a technology of the future, already tried and tested on the European continent, and now fine tuned to suit the needs of this windswept archipelago.

Sadly, Richard will not be present to see his project at the North Ness reach completion. But it can be hoped that his ideas will live on in other, similar housing projects throughout the isles and northern Scotland.

His motor home remains parked at Millhus, in Weisdale, the house he had planned to buy to become a permanent islander.

Up to the end, he was full of life. During a chat over a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup he was able to sketch out one project after the other. He said he felt he had plenty of energy left to go on for another 15 years.

He was also keen to get involved in local politics. Impressed by the new Scottish Government’s performance, he was keen to get involved with the local SNP branch.

Richard Winkelmann is survived by his daughter Dagmar and three grand daughters.

Hans J Marter