Austrias oldest person dies aged 111

Austria’s oldest citizen has died aged 111. Hermine Nistler was born on 24 December 1900 in Favoriten in Vienna and had up until her death lived a long and healthy life.

The first few years of Hermine’s life were far from easy however. When she was just eight years old, she lost both of her parents to tuberculosis at which point she went to live with her grandmother. At the age of 14, she took the job of a maid before she eventually married a painter, Josef, in 1923.

Hermine tragically lost her 23-year-old son in the Second World War but her daughter survived to give her two grandchildren. These grandchildren have in turn brought three great-grandchildren into the world.

Hermine’s long life, of which she spent only two years in a care home, may well have been a result of the healthy lifestyle she led. Her grandchildren commented, “She never drank a lot of alcohol, only a glass of champagne occasionally and never smoked.”

After the death of Hermine on Monday, aged 111 years and 51 days old, Cäcilia Buchinger from Salzburg, aged 110, now holds the title of the oldest person in Austria.