Bath brush, beer mug brush, hat brush, table broom, feather duster, book brush, neck brush, cosmetic brush, and, not to forget, the belly brush. It is made of beech wood, trimmed with soft horsehair and is only there to pamper your own belly or that of your partner. There are many beautiful things at Holz-People at Munich’s Viktualienmarkt. But the brush department is probably unique. “And the brushes are bought,” says managing director Stephanie Strobl.
Together with her brother Florian Fackler, the 54-year-old runs the traditional shop that every Munich resident probably knows because it has one of the most prominent squares in the city, on the corner between Markt and Marienplatz. The butcher’s row begins right next to it. Holz-Leute also has the right tools for the butchers, fish sellers or greengrocers at the market or their customers: knives in all possible designs, from Bavarian with a stag horn handle to Japanese. Prices range from 24 to 1400 euros. These include many individual and collector’s items from renowned manufacturers. For example, the knives from the Laguiole en Aubrac forge in France. Fackler and Strobl have been friends with the owner for many years. For the company’s anniversary – Holz-People has been around for 150 years – he produced an anniversary edition for them. “A pocket knife like this,” says Strobl, “means as much to a man as a piece of jewelry does to a woman.”
The siblings rely on craftsmanship; the majority of their products come from German or European production. The brushes from the Black Forest, the steel from Solingen. Anyone who stands in front of the brushes with hand-drawn bristles or the Damascus knives learns a lot about beech, maple and walnut, goat, horse or pig hair and steel folded 300 times – and also that a knife like this definitely doesn’t belong in the dishwasher . Now that everyone is talking about sustainability, crafts and natural products are experiencing a renaissance. “But we have always been sustainable,” says Strobl and laughs.
There are regular customers and tourists who come to Holz-People at the Viktualienmarkt. That was already the case in 1873, when master wood turner Josef Leitl opened his shop in what was then Tal 1, on the site of today’s Stadtsparkasse. The historian Karl Gattinger writes in the commemorative publication for the company’s anniversary that even back then, 150,000 tourists a year were drawn to the city.
Hair brushes, beer mug brushes, book brushes or belly brushes – there is a suitable brush for every purpose.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
Leitl sold bowls, boards, spoons and ladles, ladders and also board games, which he made in his workshop on Rumfordstrasse. The period after the founding of the empire also brought growth, progress and prosperity for Munich. The city changed rapidly, the new town hall was built and the Viktualienmarkt was expanded. In order to create more space for market stalls, the “Women’s Building” of the hospital at the Holy Spirit Church was demolished.
Leitl means people in standard German – and as luck would have it, the Leitl daughter married a Mr. Leute. This Carl Leuten moved the business under the arcades at the Old Town Hall. During the Second World War, the sales room, the workshops on Rumfordstrasse and the wood warehouse on Kohlstrasse burned down completely after an air raid. The family rebuilt the business and ran it until 1975. The successor then moved from the town hall to the current location on the Viktualienmarkt. In 1992, Christine Fackler, the mother of the two current owners, took over the business.
For the anniversary year, they designed a man-don’t-anger-you made of walnut
While the daughter is talking, Christine Fackler comes into the small kitchen in the basement. She has long since passed the business on to her children, but at the age of 84 she still stands in the store every day and keeps an eye on everything. The award given to the hand brushes is not correct, she says. “Yes, mom, I’ll take care of it right away,” replies the daughter.
Stephanie Strobl is a trained carpenter, but initially studied architecture in Berlin and worked for Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, among others. But after seven years abroad she wanted to return home, she says. She founded her own design brand “Sarah Finn” and designed vases, bowls, candlesticks and table accessories made of wood. Then she joined the family business, which her brother and mother had previously run together. “I find it pleasant to decide everything as a group of three,” she says. There are rarely arguments, “and when they do, you don’t hold a grudge against your own brother.”
The big seller is still chess. Especially since the Corona period
Florian Fackler is the commercial manager and runs the store with dedication. Above all, knives and chess are his passion. Stephanie Strobl takes care of the online trade that she runs in Valley near Munich, as well as the product range and marketing. She also continues to design objects. For the anniversary year, she designed a man-don’t-anger-you-made of walnut, which now stands on the store shelf among all the other board games, mill, checkers, backgammon, bao, zoom or puzzles, and almost equally so with its subtle colors and classic shapes very jewelry is like game.
The big seller is still chess. Especially since the Corona period. “When the Netflix film ‘Lady’s Gambit’ came out, we could hardly deliver as many games as were ordered,” says Strobl. The figures were sold out worldwide. And even young people today still value a beautiful board and wooden figures. “They come to the store for that too.”
Some people buy 30 belly brushes as a souvenir because: “It’s so German”
The store is busy on this late summer day. An American is having the subtle differences between pocket knives explained to him. A customer learns why a hairbrush that is good for the head should only be made from boar bristles, from the first bristle cut. “The composition of pig hair is most similar to that of humans,” explains Strobl. Tourists are always amazed at such subtleties and such appreciation for the craft, she says. Some then bought 30 belly brushes at once as souvenirs because: “It’s so German.”