Walter Sturzebecher

Walter Sturzebecher (German: Stürzebecher; 25 July 1908 – 14 July 2018) was a German centenarian who is, along with William Del Monte, the oldest man to die shortly before reaching supercentenarian status. He was the third-oldest man in Germany when he died, behind Gustav Gerneth and Gerhart Schneider.

Biography
Sturzebecher was born in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, on 25 July 1908. One of his earliest memories is of him, his brother and his mother bidding farewell to his father in 1914, when he went to fight in World War I. He died a few months later in December 1914. From 1923 to 1926, he worked an apprenticeship as a merchant.

Sturzebecher married his wife Elsbeth in 1927, when he was 19. During World War II, he was captured and spent four years in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Walter and Elsbeth moved to Hildesheim, Lower Saxony in the 1950s, where he found work shortly after arriving. After Elsbeth’s death, Walter married again in 1977.

In 2001, aged 93, Sturzebecher moved into a nursing home with his second wife, who died in 2005. On his 107th birthday in 2015, it was reported that he would sit in the foyer of the nursing home and read a book three days a week. His secret to a long life was: "You can live much easier, if you're nice!"

Sturzebecher passed away in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany, on 14 July 2018 at the age of 109 years, 354 days. He is currently the 10th-oldest man ever to die in Germany and the seventh-oldest to be born in present-day Germany.