A German vacation ended in tragedy for Guenter and Ute Lotzmann, who died two days apart in May following a car crash. Best known in Waterloo Region for Finest Sausage & Meat, the business they established in 1975, the couple leaves a lasting legacy of embracing their German culture and sharing it with the community. The story of how they came to be a couple in postwar Germany reads like a Hollywood romance.
Guenter was born April 18, 1938, the youngest of three. When he was 18, Guenter saw his freedoms disappearing as the Berlin Wall was being constructed and he left home for West Germany, where he worked as a butcher, a trade he learned from his father. A few years later he moved to Canada, envisioning a life of opportunity, adventure and even cowboys.
Like many young Germans at the time, Guenter was enamoured with the idea of wild frontiers. It was a love he would never get over, even well into his senior years as he pored over his collection of Karl May adventure novels. Arriving in Canada as a young man, he was first sent to London for a job in a meat processing facility.
He soon moved to Waterloo where he took a similar job in Breslau. Guenter worked hard and saved enough money to return to East Germany to visit family. He was a Canadian citizen and had the freedom to travel, but he didn’t have the freedom to marry local girl, Ute Schmiechen.
Ute was born on Aug. 18, 1945, close to Guenter’s home village. Her father, a math teacher, expected his two daughters to get an education.
She graduated with a chemistry degree and worked for a time at a chemical plant. She met Guenter after leaving her bike in front of his family’s butcher shop one day. He was instantly besotted.
He tracked down the lovely Ute and showed up at the family farm. Poor Ute was not at her best, standing in the yard in rubber boots and gardening clothes, but Guenter didn’t care. After several dates, he had to face the reality of returning to Canada as his visa was about to expire.
The young romantic promised to return in a year for his beloved, and he did. Unable to marry in East Germany, they planned her escape, made possible with the help of some Americans. These liberators had hollowed out the dashboard of a Cadillac, creating a crawl space large enough for an escapee to hide, and they would transport individuals across the border.
They were going to meet Guenter and Ute in Prague, with Ute sneaking away from her tour group and meeting Guenter in the city, where he was waiting for her. The next step was climbing into the Cadillac’s hidey hole, but the latch to the secret compartment was broken. The Americans had to leave and get it repaired.
Would they return? The couple waited anxiously, but their liberators did indeed return and Ute squeezed into the compartment, bound for freedom. Border guards swept the car with flashlights but did not detect the compartment or Ute. The couple made their way to Frankfurt, married April 26, 1967, and caught a boat to Canada.
Living in Waterloo, they raised two daughters, Marika and Tania. Master sausage maker Guenter started Finest Sausage & Meat with his friend, Martin Gedja, in 1975. Gedja was the businessperson, Guenter the creator of all the company’s recipes, including the bacon that remains a top seller.
Many of the recipes were his father’s family secrets. Ute always supported her husband, helping in the business that is still run by the Lotzmann family on Trillium Drive in Kitchener. Outside of work, their home was a welcoming place.
Both were good natured, happy people with a wonderful sense of humour. Ute was particularly adept in the kitchen. Summers would be spent on Ontario beaches, with swimming being a favourite family activity.
As Tania said, her father was always up for an adventure. “He liked to try new things,” she said. “He’d always say ‘yes.
’” As the daughters reflect on the loss of their parents at age 86 and 78, they note the couple had a beautiful partnership — close, supportive and filled with love for each other and their family..
