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Homeless Hero
December 5, 2022, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to fifteen individuals for “creating ways out of poverty” in Germany and worldwide, primarily aiding the homeless through medical care, educational support, food, and financial assistance.
It’s worth noting that the Order of Merit is the only decoration conferred by federal German authorities, while individual states have their own awards, except for Bremen and Hamburg.
Among the awardees is Dominik Bloh, the creator of a mobile shower bus for the homeless in Hamburg.
Dominik Bloh became homeless at the age of 16 when his grandmother, who had been raising him, passed away, and his mentally ill mother ejected him from home. He lived on the streets, slept in train stations, parks, yet continued attending school and even managed to pass his high school exams. He spent eleven years living on the streets and during that time, wrote his first book on small, loose sheets of paper, “Unter Palmen aus Stahl: Die Geschichte eines Straßenjungen,” which became a bestseller and helped him exit homelessness.
Today, he resides in a small apartment in Eimsbüttel district, writes a column for the Hamburger Morgenpost (Hamburg Morning Post), a newspaper he used to stuff under his clothes to protect himself from the cold and wind. However, as…