Versatile interests and commitment: This is how you know City Councilor Andreas “Assi” Antoniuk, who is celebrating his 70th birthday this Monday. He has represented the Greens in the Heidenheim municipal council since 2019. But he was already well known in the district of Heidenheim: Generations of students know him as a sports and English teacher, he worked as a basketball coach for many years and later in baseball, and he plays his guitar as a musician in various formations.
Antoniuk was born in Pirna near Dresden, but came to the West with his parents at the age of one and attended school in Heidenheim. After graduating from Hellenstein-Gymnasium, he studied sports and English in Tübingen to become a grammar school teacher. He completed his legal clerkship at the Max Planck High School in Heidenheim. After that he was a teacher at the Margarete-Steiff-Gymnasium in Giengen for 22 years, before retiring for another eleven years at the Hellenstein-Gymnasium in Heidenheim, where he himself had graduated. “This closed the circle,” says Antoniuk.
After being an active basketball player himself in Heidenheim and Tübingen, he founded the basketball department at TSG Giengen with Andreas Stoch and was active as department head and trainer. He also coached the women’s Bundesliga team in Ulm for two years. He came to baseball through his sons and has been the coach of the youngest baseball players on the Heidenheim Heideköpfe U-8 team for a number of years.
Andreas Antoniuk is also known as a musician with a fondness for folk songs. With vocals, guitar and harmonica he was on the road with Armin Löser as “Double AA”, his current formation with Ricarda Rickert is called “You ‘n’ Me”. In addition, Antoniuk is now part of the band “Quasi Musici”. He has also been living out his artistic streak for over 20 years in the Heidenheimer natural theater.
Concerned about Ukraine conflict
Andreas Antoniuk has been married to his wife Gabriele for almost 40 years. They met at school in 1972. The couple has three adult sons and now four grandchildren. The local politician is very concerned about the war in Ukraine, since his father came from Lviv (Lemberg) in Ukraine. “I’m really upset about that,” says Antoniuk about the current events, which is why he is also actively involved in helping the Ukrainian population. Silja Kummer
