Hermann Dörnemann
Encyclopedia
Hermann Dörnemann of Germany was hailed in the press as the oldest living man
Oldest people
This is a list of tables of the verified oldest people in the world in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. In these tables, a supercentenarian is considered 'verified' if his or her claim has been validated by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such...

 in the world upon the death of 113-year-old American Fred Hale on 19 November 2004. Not until Hale's death, however, did Dörnemann's family offer documentation to the Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 or to a supercentenarian
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

 researcher, and at that point the claim of Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 Emiliano Mercado del Toro
Emiliano Mercado del Toro
Emiliano Mercado del Toro was, at age 115, the world's oldest person for six weeks, and the world's oldest man from November 19, 2004 until his own death on January 24, 2007. He is the oldest verified military veteran ever...

 was put forward too with documentation that he was born in 1891, almost two years earlier, which was subsequently accepted as well. Dörnemann was born in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

.

Dörnemann was recognized by the German government as Germany's oldest person for half a year, following the death of fellow 111-year-old Lina Zimmer
Lina Zimmer
Lina Zimmer was, for the last year of her life, dying at the age of 111, the oldest German. She was said to be humorous. She was born and died in Stuttgart....

 on 28 August 2004, until his death in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. He was also very likely the oldest living veteran of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 who fought for the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

.

Dörnemann credited his longevity to drinking "a beer a day."

External links

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