It is with great sadness that we say farewell to the founder, partner and great-father of the non-profit KOMM MIT Society.

The KOMM MIT family mourns the loss of Karlheinz Reinartz. Mr. Reinartz laid the foundation for KOMM MIT in 1983. In the early years, the focus was on various sports trips for club members.

With the fall of the Wall in 1989 — 1990 and the dissolution of the former Soviet Union at the end of 1991, KOMM MIT from now on focused exclusively on intercultural youth encounters about soccer. In the 1990s, the focus here was in particular on the exchange between Eastern and Western Europe.

With the start of cooperation with DFB e.V. (German Football Association) in 1993, the non-profit KOMM MIT underlined its social mission of strengthening not only international understanding, but also grassroots club life and volunteer work.

KOMM MIT quickly became the most popular organizer of international youth tournaments across Europe and a reliable partner in the implementation of projects in children's and youth soccer. The participation was a highlight and an unforgettable experience, especially for the teams from the grassroots level. Mr. Reinartz's wealth of ideas to strengthen grassroots associations was tremendous, as was his determination to implement projects. He is responsible for the educational trip for volunteer coaches, club funding, a funding program for equality (AllToGehter — Freiplaetze) and the AllTogether — European Youth Football Festival under the auspices of UEFA, and much more.

Mr. Reinartz had a sense for the moment and the emotion and was able to inspire numerous volunteers from all over Europe for the KOMM MIT idea. For him, it was always important that the focus is on people and that you can meet on equal footing. His intercultural openness and curiosity not only gave him numerous international friendships and business partners, but also enabled him to travel the world and thus get to know the differences and similarities of the various nations.

It was important to him to set the course for the future of KOMM MIT as he was convinced that the sustainable work of KOMM MIT would continue to be relevant in the future. With Florian Heuschmid and Markus Egyptien, he gained support in the management and shareholder structure in the 2000s. His son, Philipp Reinartz, who has been supporting the management since 2014, follows in 2009.

Without Karlheinz Reinartz, there would be no KOMM MIT and without KOMM MIT over the past 40 years, over 700,000 children and young people from over 60 different nations would not have found their way to each other through soccer.

We are all very grateful to him for what he has built up with KOMM MIT and has left behind us all, we will continue his life's work responsibly! Dear Karlheinz, we will miss you a lot, you will always be a part of COME WITH US!