Yes to a Future Worth Living

Thorsten Buss' long career at Lufthansa began in 1980 with a vocational examination at the employment office. There, the young man was advised to either attend secondary school or pursue a career as an aircraft mechanic. “And then I just focused on becoming an aircraft mechanic because I've always had a soft spot for flying,” says Buss. 

He worked in production for a while, later supervised an IT project and finally studied alongside his job to become a manager. Today, Buss manages part of the aircraft maintenance department and is responsible for the A380 hangar in Frankfurt with almost 100 employees.  

Even though retirement is already in sight, Buss still enjoys going to work. “Of course you have good days and bad days, but you can influence that yourself,” he says. “I've always said that if there ever comes a day when I haven't laughed heartily at work at least once, I'll hand in my notice immediately.” That hasn't happened once in 44 years. 

Motivating, inspiring and involving people - this is not only Buss' job with his Lufthansa team, but also part of his free time: as Chairman of the Aktionsgemeinschaft Lebenswerte Altstadt association, he works to beautify the old town of his home town in the Taunus region. He also launched a major planting campaign in the town forest. “The forest is the lungs of humanity,” says Buss. “And if we no longer have a forest in Germany, we have a real problem.” 

We can see the effects of climate change, and the bark beetle is causing problems for the weakened forests. “I am a nature-loving person and have two children, and now even two grandchildren,” says Buss. “Of course you think about the future. I want my children and grandchildren to have a beautiful future, to be able to enjoy nature and the forest like I was able to.” 

And so Buss organizes donations, plans campaigns, organizes the cooperation of other associations and turns the planting campaigns into events in which many families with children also take part - and he will continue, because “the trees that we have planted so far are developing magnificently. And there is still enough space.”