Last Thursday evening, Ulrich Dachs stood in front of a small group of young men in the counter hall of the Dachauer Sparkasse. You have just completed your carpentry apprenticeship. Behind Dachs, the foreman of the Dachau carpenters’ guild, there are freshly made wooden furniture, some of which have won prizes. “You have shown that you can perform well and the most important thing is that you brought a part of your personality with the journeyman’s piece, I can certainly sign that when I see it. You have three years of training behind you, you have many Had visions. When you see your journeyman pieces, you have to say: respect. It almost makes you spit,” praises Badger. He’s getting a little sentimental tonight. Every year, the Dachau carpenters’ guild publicly exhibits journeyman’s pieces.
The Dachau carpenters’ guild is currently exhibiting cupboards, tables, desks, all of which are handmade one-offs by the journeymen, in the Sparkasse.
(Photo: Niels P. Jørgensen)
The carpentry apprenticeship comes to an end with the so-called journeyman’s piece. In this, the prospective carpenters are supposed to demonstrate their technical skills in 80 hours (two working weeks). They show that they can design and manufacture a piece of furniture within a given time frame. The result is judged according to technical and aesthetic aspects. Forty hours are set aside for planning and another forty for production. For a few of those present, however, overtime was necessary to create the desired wooden result.
Dachs explains that all guild companies can also take part in the competition of the trade association. Quite a few young carpenters take part in the “Die Gute Form” competition, which takes place at guild, state and federal level, with their journeyman’s piece.
Simon Grahammer is one of the assembled young carpenters who exhibited their piece of furniture that evening. In any case, the 22-year-old is relieved that his journeyman’s piece is done. He didn’t make it easy for himself. He made a small box out of the wood of plum trees. “Plum wood has a fairly small diameter. You have to work with five-centimeter boards, which often have different colors because they often come from different trees,” he explains. The small box door shows a checked pattern on the front and a star pattern on the inside. “Inside, I worked with maple, cherry and walnut wood to get the color shades,” explains Grahammer, who works in his father’s company. Mainly doors and windows are manufactured there. What is carpentry in the company depends on the order situation. “If customers want furniture, that would of course be nice too.”