The Cantuccini are a hit, followed by wash pieces made from sheep’s milk and jojoba oil – all these treasures can be found in a small shop on Dietramszeller Straße in Linden. The two doors are wide open during the day. Inside, shelves are lined up with shelves filled with different delicacies: home-made fruit spread or mint sugar, handmade apple and cinnamon juice, raspberry vinegar, flavored coffee or raspberry leaves for tea preparation. There are also body care products such as wild rose or burdock root oil, sauna oils and products made from sheep’s, goat’s and even camel’s milk.
“Soap, lotion & sea – made in Dietramszell” is written on a large poster at the hut. Underneath “Medesign”. That’s the name of Lothar Engel’s company. The entrepreneur runs the Hörmannhof in Linden, where you can go on vacation, hold seminars, but above all buy something special in a small manufactory. But since the beginning of the pandemic, hardly a customer has come to the store, says Engel. That’s how the idea for the sales booth came about.
On a small table are a blue cash register and a pad. There, customers enter what they have taken from the shelves. They put their money in the till. “That has proven very useful,” says Lothar Engel. “Neighbours, walkers or cyclists can easily shop.” The inhibition threshold to go to the hut is significantly lower than going to the shop. “Often there is no pastry with the coffee, there are excellent Cantuccini here. Word has gotten around.”
The Hörmannhof and its small offshoot on Dietramszeller Straße in Linden.
(Photo: Manfred Neubauer)
But the people of Dietramszell also know that they can order cakes from Lothar Engel’s daughter Andrea. They could do that even before the corona pandemic. Andrea Engel is a trained cook and bakes to order together with a confectioner. For example, it supplies the “Café in the South” in Tölz. At Christmas time she sold cookies in the little house. It is also she who makes sweet spreads. The label then says “Hörmannhof”.
Andrea Engel also has a second mainstay: she has completed medical training as a masseuse. She has been offering massages at the Hörmannhof for four years. Customers come not only from Dietramszell, but also from Wolfratshausen or Unterhaching. “I’m very happy,” she laughs. The oil blends she uses in the massages are made at court. “For example, I really wanted a massage honey,” she says. “We developed this product.” The honey is now also selling very well via the web shop.
During the pandemic, father and daughter made a virtue out of necessity. “At some point I thought that if things went on like this, everything would collapse,” says Lothar Engel. He now employs 30 people, most of them part-time. He also has an apprentice. Then they came up with the idea of the sales booth on the street.
“In the beginning, a lot of people bought our soap-free cleansing bar made from sheep’s milk. Then we put more and more products in it and found out what people needed at the time,” he says. “For example, we often refilled the jojoba oil from Israel or the nail oil.” The cash register was always right. “People are honest.”
Originally, Engel and his company were based in Munich. Then the space there became too small for him. At the end of the 1990s, he acquired the Hörmannhof from the municipality of Dietramszell on a long-term lease and gradually renovated it. A stroke of luck. “We had the tennen driveway removed so that the courtyard opens up to the street. We always wanted to be an open house,” he says.
One day he received a special request. A birth preparation course was looking for a place with overnight accommodation. “I offered people my attic,” says Engel. “They slept on thin mattresses on the floor and loved it.” Then word got around. A group of students from Berlin soon arrived. “Originally they wanted to learn, but then they went to the mountains, cooked in the evenings and sat together. That’s how we came up with the idea of offering seminar rooms.”
The Engels are now also renting out two rooms. “The people who come to us are very uncomplicated,” says Andrea Engel. “We serve a delicious breakfast with handmade rolls, homemade fruit spread and delicacies from the region.” So, over time, one thing has happened. The latest innovation: “We are now growing peppermint tea.”