Schwerin – September 15, 2026 -- Ulrich "Uli" Durst, 59, from Ostfildern near Stuttgart, has won a pool villa on Lake Plau in Germany's Mecklenburg Lake District through the Omaze house lottery, a prize worth roughly €2.5 million including €100,000 in starting funds.
The win comes just two months after Durst and his wife Carmen, 60, were victims of bank fraud. Criminals created a virtual debit card linked to the couple's account and withdrew about €15,000 across various supermarkets within four days. Durst said his initial reaction to Omaze's visit was disbelief, admitting he first suspected another scam before realizing the house was genuinely theirs.
Durst spent 40 years working as a butcher before the win
Durst took out a loan seven years ago to buy out his siblings' shares of his parents' house, a debt he has been paying off since. He spent roughly four decades in the meat industry, a career recently marked by uncertainty after his employer's business shrank significantly. The couple has built a close social network at home, with family and friends already planning visits to the new property.
The 250-square-meter villa includes a panorama pool and a Kamado grill
The modern villa sits on a roughly 2,000-square-meter plot in Alt Schwerin and features two bedrooms, a floor-to-ceiling glass living room, an open kitchen with a central island, a spa-style bathroom, and a home office. The elevated terrace includes a panorama pool overlooking Lake Plau and a high-end Kamado grill. The property meets energy efficiency class A+ and comes fully furnished. Durst and his wife had visited the Mecklenburg Lake District three times before, canoeing and sailing there, and Durst said the lakeside home had long been his favorite among Omaze's listings.
Omaze returns to the same town one year after its first German giveaway
The villa's location marks exactly one year since Omaze's first house lottery in Germany, also held in Plau am See, previously won by a man named Burak B. Omaze Germany head Georg Hesse said the fraud had taken away the couple's trust and financial stability, and that the win offers them a fresh start toward becoming debt-free.
A charity linked to the raffle received €1,205,000 in funding
Separately from the villa winner, treffpunkt verein, an initiative of the Philipp Lahm Foundation, received €1,205,000 in funding from the raffle. The program supports volunteers across Germany's roughly 600,000 clubs through funding and knowledge-sharing. Lahm, a former German national team captain and ambassador for the raffle, said the funds would help strengthen more clubs and the volunteers behind them.