Charlotte Kretschmann, Germany’s oldest person ever, dies at 114
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) is saddened to report news that Mrs. Charlotte Kretschmann, the oldest person ever to have lived in Germany, died in Kirchheim unter Teck, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on 27 August 2024 at the age of 114 years, 268 days.
Charlotte Kretschmann was born in Wrocław, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland (then Breslau, German Empire) on 3 December 1909. She married Werner Kretschmann and had one daughter with him. During the World War II, her husband was drafted to the army and sent on the frontline in France. In 1944, her daughter and she were forced to flee Breslau and moved to Stuttgart, Baden Wuerttenberg, Germany, where she was reunited with her husband after the war ended. At the time Charlotte was 109, her daughter was still alive, as well as two grandsons, Dominic and Peter.
Charlotte Kretschmann celebrated her 110th birthday in December 2019, becoming a supercentenarian. In March 2021 at the age of 111, she voted in the Baden-Wurttemberg state election.
On 8 August 2023, she surpassed the final age of Josefine Ollmann, becoming the oldest woman ever to lived in Germany.
On 18 September 2022, following the death of 113-year-old Anna Cernohorsky, Kretschmann became the oldest living person in Germany. Upon the death of 113-year-old Maria Aulenbacher of South Carolina, USA on 8 February 2023, Kretschmann became the oldest living German person in the world.
On 10 December 2023, at the age of 114 years and 7 days, she surpassed the final age of Gustav Gerneth, securing her position as the undisputed oldest person ever to have lived in Germany.
The case of Charlotte Kretschmann was meticulously examined and verified by modern scientific age validation criteria by Mr. Stefan Jamin GRG-Correspondent for Germany, Mr. Felix Kommnick and Mr. Thomas Breining, and validated by the GRG on 23 August 2023.
At the time of her death, she was the sixth-oldest living person in the world, and the second-oldest living person in Europe.
May she rest in peace. Condolences to the family and friends.
