Obituary - Willi Haller

On this hot sunny day, a great man, a great friend and a great Mondcivitan departed from our midst: Willi Haller.

Many will have known him as a business colleague, a fellow traveler or as an unbelievably innovative person. A few will have had the honor of knowing him as a friend or relative. I can only say from my own point of view that Willi is the person who had the most lasting influence on my life.

It was through the Mondcivitan Republic that we came to know one another when we were working in the head office with Hugh Schonfield. He became the Executive Chairman and we spent lots of time discussing plans and also the Mondcivitan Philosophy. Later, I was to join him with my wife in Germany as we started the Mondcivitaner Boutiques and he started Interflex, the company based on his revolutionary ideas on flexible working hours, where I later joined him for some eight years. These years working with him were some of the happiest years of my life and I am sure his radiant joy and the example of his dear wife Margareth were instrumental in my wife and I becoming the parents of so many wonderful children ourselves.

Willi was through and through an idealist and had a caring ear for everybody. He was a true 'guru', teaching by his example of unselfish love. Nevertheless, he was a realist and it was this realism which has left such a strong foundation which will go beyond his recent life. Not only has Flexitime led to a huge industry employing thousands and improving the working lot and family life probably of hundreds of thousands, but his late projects such as the Lebenshaus and Nudelhaus, to name a few, have brought a sense of purpose and help to many and continue to grow.

All of this would be to ignore his talents as an author and translator. As well as translating some of Hugh Schonfield's books into German, he has written a number of books and many articles on a wide range of topics from management science to theology.

His masterpiece, 'Das Dunkle Feuer'¹ is somehow a prophecy of his own path of the Suffering Servant in the last period of his life. I am grateful to God particularly for these last times when I was privileged to share his simple joys and deep love in a very special way.

Willi is an example of a true leader and a true Mondcivitan. He served many years as Executive Chairman and his ideas have been a strong influence on the shape of things to come for the world as a whole and for the Mondcivitan ideal.

Now is the time to stand up and join in building that Messianic Kingdom and to do honor to Willi and all those before him who have been exemplary in the realization of this age-old dream in learning from his example and to carry on the work with vigor.

Steve Engelking

Tuningen 2^nd August 2004

As a tribute to his service to the Servant-Nation, the, what has become the National Anthem of the Mondcivitan Republic, John Lennon's melody, 'Imagine' was played in a beautiful organ arrangement at his funeral attended by hundreds of those that loved, adored and admired him on Friday 6^th August 2004.

Extract from: A Fire Burning in the Shadows (Das dunkle Feuer) by Willi Haller

We overlook, and too often suppress, the fact that salvation is actually to be discovered in the shadows. As in the conversion of seed to fruit, to use one of Jesus' examples, the darkness of the earth and its apparent destruction is decisive. Salvation apparently grows mainly from a suffering experience with oneself and the environment.

But this has nothing to do with the asceticism or self-affliction which forces a grimace and a bitter countenance. This has rather more to do with a way to freedom, releasing man, creeping on all fours in internal and external dependency, to the glorious freedom of the Children of God and the making of us as upright human beings. This way leads to the wilderness, down into hell, into the caverns, into the dark lap of Mother Earth, where wheat corn dies and from which only thus can fruit be born.