Jurgen Ehlers-and the fate of the black-hole spacetimes

This article-written in honour of Jurgen Ehlers-consists of two different, though interlocking parts: Sect. 1 describes my 54 years of perpetual experiences and exchanges with him, both science and episodes, whilst Sect. 2 describes the history of astrophysical black holes, which evolved during the same epoque though largely independently, with its activity centers in other places of the globe, and has by no means terminated.