Anneliese celebrates 70 years

A lot can be done in 70 years. Testament to this is Bedfordview resident and founder of the ABC Ladies Club Anneliese Plettenbacher.
On November 18, she celebrated her 70th birthday and just under a month later she will celebrate her 49th wedding anniversary to husband Hubert.

Anneliese describes herself as a go-getter who has a passion for cooking, dancing, travelling and helping others.

She and Hubert have travelled around the world twice and her favourite destination remains Tahiti.

“The travel bug bit when we visited our first overseas holiday destination. We went to Hong Kong for New Year’s in 1979. We also travelled to Singapore and Bangkok that year.

Before then the two would regularly travel to Austria to visit family.

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Anneliese was born in the German town of Oggerheim and both her parents fought for Germany in WWII.

“My father, a member of Hitler’s youth army, was shot in his right arm and was forced to return home. I still think that if he wasn’t shot, I would not have grown up with my amazing father.”

She said the horror of living through war made her family realise they needed a better life.

Anneliese’s parents and their three daughters set sail for South Africa.

The family settled in Roodepoort in 1961.

When the family moved to Krugersdorp later, Anneliese’s father took over running the German Country Club.

Her father was also the chairperson of the Kolping Society, which raised funds for those in need.

This was Anneliese’s first taste of charity work.

She quickly learnt the art of hosting a successful fund-raiser, a talent she would use later in life.

As teenagers, Anneliese and her sisters joined the Johannesburg Jungenbund, a social club for German, Swiss and Austrian immigrants.

One Easter weekend the Jungenbund visited Richards Bay. The trip would be where Anneliese met her husband, Hubert, an immigrant from Austria who studied mechanical engineering.

In South Africa, Hubert worked at Consol Glass.

Anneliese went on to study teaching at Goudstad Teachers Training College and she would spend weekends partying in Hillbrow with friend and exotic dancer Glenda Kemp.

Before graduating as a teacher, Anneliese knew she wanted to buy a house in Eastleigh and approached the principal of MW de Wet.

“I told him I had not finished my diploma but I knew I was going to pass and that he needed to give me a job. He was taken aback, but he gave me the job and I started in 1972.”

In 1976, she started teaching at Jan de Klerk Technical School in Germiston.

“I was creative and while raising my two children, Hubert gave me a pottery kiln.”

Before long she started hosting five pottery classes a week at her home, often making more money than she did from teaching.

“We started the Owl Outing Market, where we sold our pottery crafts.”

Anneliese was approached by the Edenvale Bowling Club to create the pottery sculpture of Sagittarius for the club.

“I was also commissioned to create a coat of arms for the office of the mayor of Edenvale, an item which still has a place at the civic centre today.”

Eight years after moving to Edenvale, Anneliese and Hubert bought their house in Bedfordview, where they still live today.

While staying in Bedfordview, Anneliese was asked to join the Bedfordview Damesklub and to commemorate the 21st birthday of the club, Anneliese was invited to design its coat of arms.

“I was then asked to join the Maria van Riebeeck Club, and that started a new chapter in my life.”

After her first year at the club she was elected on to the committee and in 1990 she was elected as the vice-president.

From 1996 to 1998 she served as president and under her leadership the club’s registered charity, Help the Child Fund, grew from R26 000 to R54 000.

Anneliese still serves on the club’s advisory committee.

In 1997, she decided it was time to start her own club and registered Anneliese’s Breakfast Club, fondly known at the time as the ABC Club.

“Today, the club known as the ABC Ladies Club, comprises top businesswomen and academics to those involved in charity work. We raise funds for many local charities at our events.”

But there was no slowing down for Anneliese and in 2001 she also launched The Executive Women’s Club at The Hilton and later The Michelangelo.

She also served as president of the Austrian Club of Johannesburg for 13 years and was the secretary and treasurer of the Edenvale Museum and Cultural Society.

To top it off she was a regional finalist for Mrs South Africa.

 “You can get so much done in 70 years, I’m proof thereof. I will never stop raising funds and giving to the less fortunate,” she said.

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