Maria ERHART

(1944-2011)

Maria Erhart, née Kirner, came from a bridge-playing family and learned the game when she was 24. She won the first duplicate she ever played and in just six years' time she had made it to the open team which represented Austria at the 1974 European Cham­pion­ships in Herzlia, Israel. As a member of the Austrian women's team, one year later she won the bronze medal at the Europeans in Brighton. That marked the beginning of Maria's long record of successes.

At world level, Maria Erhart was instrumental in leading Austria's women team to victory at the 1992 Olympiad, one year after finishing runners up at the Venice Cup in Yokohama. Also in 1992, she won the women series at the inaugural GENERALI World Masters Individual, while her team won the McConnell Cup in Lille 1998.

In Europe, Maria Erhart was on the Austrian team that won the women series in Killarney 1991. She won the European Mixed Pairs in 1996 (playing with Fritz Kubak). the European Mixed Teams in 2002 and the European Women Pairs in 2003 (playing with Jovanka Smederevac), while she was second at the European Women's Teams in 1999.

Maria Erhart had countless other successes at national level, as well as in numerous festivals, etc. One of her favorites festivals was St. Moritz. Maria Erhart was a close friend of the leg­en­dary Rixi Markus; playing together they won the St. Moritz teams just two months before Rixi died - it was her last trophy. On the year of her death, St. Moritz honored Maria who, although hand­i­capped by her decease, finished third in the Mixed Pairs, second in the Open Pairs and first in the Teams!

Apart from bridge, Maria Erhart had many hobbies and interests, including golf, classical music, politics, psychology and literature. She enjoyed chatting with her friends over a glass of wine. Spontaneous and ambitious, she was loved by those close to her and was always willing to help those in need.