The common people usually have fantastic ideas about the working day of a Wiesn landlord: counting money in the morning, eating chicken at noon and drinking a few liters of beer, in the afternoon thinking about how best to increase the price of beer for the next Oktoberfest, shout “Sweet Caroline” in the evening and party. Roughly.
The reality is a bit different. Christian Schottenhamel – his family has had a large tent at the Wiesn for more than 150 years, the mayor traditionally taps the first keg there – reports on one of the last evenings he was on duty: “Florian was in the kitchen at the pass and fetched his son to help out, I cleared the plates from the tables myself.” Schottenhamel is not only the Wiesn host, but also runs the large restaurant on the Nockherberg with his business partner Florian Lechner. On the evening he is talking about there was a big event with 1200 guests in the hall. “We had booked 65 waitresses through an agency,” says Schottenhamel, “then 25 came.” There has been a lack of staff in the kitchen for a long time, and cooks can currently choose where they want to work. “We’ve already reduced the menu,” says Schottenhamel, “if we had the normal menu, people would have to wait forever for their food.”
A man under stress: Christian Schottenhamel, Wiesn landlord and here just a white sausage inspector.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Problems that are now anything but unusual in Munich gastronomy. Gregor Lemke, spokesman for the city center innkeepers and innkeeper at the Augustiner Klosterwirt am Dom, reports that many of his colleagues have to adapt the menu and optimize the service processes in order to get by with the existing staff.
In the Atlantic fish restaurant on Zenettistrasse, the menu was taken off the menu for a day, actually the flagship of a restaurant that caters to discerning guests. “At times we weren’t enough cooks,” says head chef Franz Josef Unterlechner, “so it’s better to offer less than to make people wait a long time.” Ali Güngörmüs from the Pageou fine-dining restaurant in the Fünf Höfe has also pulled the emergency brake and currently only opens his restaurant in the evenings. The midday business in the city is actually lucrative. “The staffing situation is a disaster,” says Güngörmüs. “I could hire three chefs right away, and I actually need two more people for service.” The former star chef now helps out himself when there is a fire – sometimes in service, sometimes in the kitchen. And at the moment he prefers not to offer all the tables and closes at lunchtime, says Güngörmüs. “It’s no use filling up the restaurant if people don’t get the quality they’re used to.”
Every seventh employee changed jobs
There is always a need for staff in gastronomy, that was the case even before Corona. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation considerably. Short-time work helped a little, but long lockdowns and short opening hours were devastating for the service staff, because tips are an important part of income for many. In recent years, many have looked for another job with a reasonably secure salary and more pleasant working hours – including some cooks.
According to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association Dehoga, in 2020 alone, in the first year of the pandemic, every seventh employee in the catering trade changed jobs. Across Germany, that was a loss of 400,000 workers. In April 2022, the employment agency reported 630 vacancies in the hospitality industry in Munich alone, and 9,500 throughout Bavaria. As recently as autumn 2021, a Lower Bavarian restaurant business had even advertised a bonus of 5,000 euros for a young chef who wanted to start with him. And with a starting bonus for career starters in the kitchen and service, the luxury hotel Four Seasons on Maximilianstraße also attracted visitors – 1858 euros, after the year the hotel was founded, by the way.
The corona crisis has dramatically exacerbated the lack of staff in Munich restaurants. In the picture the Hofbräuhaus during the pandemic.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Such special payments are not yet the norm. But Christian Schottenhamel, who is also the Munich district chairman of Dehoga, says: “If you’re a chef, you have a strong pound in salary negotiations today.” The restaurateurs’ order books are full “because people want to go out and celebrate again”, but sometimes the demand simply cannot be met: “We have had to cancel events with 700 guests, and for others we were only able to have a buffet instead of the full one Offer card.” Buffet is practical because it saves on service staff: After all, the guests get the food themselves.
There is a lack of living space for staff
Schottenhamel’s innkeeper colleague Peter Reichert from Donisl is following a similar path when he will soon occupy the upper floor of the traditional inn, which has been largely unused up to now: “It will be more like in a bar, where you can pick up your own drinks at the counter,” he says. “but food will be served, of course.” At the moment, he’s mainly missing temporary workers for peak times – classic student jobs, actually, for two to three hours a day. Reichert doesn’t have these classic “food runners” who bring food and drinks to the tables and don’t need much training.
Various tabloid media have already claimed that he is now relying on high-tech, namely the “Bella” gastro robot, which you can find in the Donisl down in the Schwemme. However, Reichert puts the matter into perspective: “A friend had me discuss it in Bavarian and put it in for me,” he says and laughs: “Honestly, when we have a lot of business, he tends to get in the way.” Because in terms of intelligence, the robot is an idiot who can just about be trusted to drive from the tavern to the main entrance. Reichert: “But he can! My waiters who serve on the terrace are happy because it saves them the long journey through the entire inn.”
In the Donisl, a robot brings back the empty glasses. That brings at least a little relief.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
So the technology isn’t much of a help either. Maybe better pay actually helps? It was not without reason that the Food & Beverage Restaurant Union (NGG) was able to push through wage increases of up to 27 percent in March – this huge increase was mainly due to the upcoming higher minimum wage. So you can imagine how low wages in the hospitality industry usually are. For Munich, however, that is no longer so decisive. “Anyone who pays the tariff won’t get far in the city anyway,” says Ali Güngörmüs from Pageou. “The cost of living here is simply far too high.” As a restaurateur, you have to offer a lot more, not just in monetary terms: “We also have to protect our staff from being overloaded.”
In other words: Exploitation and driving is not in it, otherwise people will leave. Says Dehoga district chairman Schottenhamel. He sees one reason for the misery in the high rents: “There is a lack of affordable housing for our people.” One hopes for the municipal housing associations and cooperative housing. And then there would be “the many people who come to our country, we have to make offers for them, they have to train them”. Then things could go up again.
Güngörmüs has just hired a chef and a waitress from Ukraine on a trial basis. The language barrier is still an obstacle at the moment, but he thinks it can be overcome. Of course, the working hours are also an obstacle when looking for staff. But he still doesn’t quite understand it: “Gastronomy is actually such a nice job. I couldn’t imagine a nicer one.”