Waldi Lehnertz deals in antiques and managed to become a TV celebrity with “Achtzisch Euro”. Now he has written a crime novel, even though he doesn’t read anything himself. What is his secret?
When a customer enters his shop, the Waldi begins his ceremony. “Little angel,” he says with a croon and already has a bill in his hand. Printed on it: his face and the amount 80 euros. That’s what he’s known for, but more on that later.
Waldi first explains to the woman what to do with it: “If your age really gets on your nerves, then my phone number is on it. Then you call me.” His promise: “I’ll call the old man and get you back on track until he gets smooth again.” The other side is giggling. Then a photo is taken together, cheek to cheek. Waldi is happy.
When you visit Walter Lehnertz, known as “Waldi”, in his shop in the Eifel, you sometimes don’t know where you have ended up. At an antique dealer, as the signs say? Or with a comedian? With a television celebrity known from the ZDF program “Bares für Rares”? Or with a dancer at a ladies’ coffee klatch? Or, more recently, with a crime writer?
A big thing
Waldi Lehnertz has written a crime novel, which is the reason for this visit. It is called “Murder in the Antique Shop” and is about the antique dealer Siggi in the Eifel, who suddenly discovers a corpse in his shop. The book, which – to use the word – reads fluffily, was created with a co-author who processed Waldi’s ideas.
A lot of it is based on stories from his shop, he says – apart from the murder. “The “Siggi” in the book – that’s me, of course. That’s clear.” For him, crime fiction is a big deal, also because he doesn’t read any books himself. “I was only forced to read my school books. That’s why it’s such a thing for me.”
The career
To understand how a trained horse owner from the Eifel could become the template for a crime thriller character, you have to start at the beginning. Lehnertz was born in Prüm in 1967. He used to “do construction.” But then came several herniated discs. A friend said to him: “Waldi, you have to think of something, otherwise you won’t walk a meter in five years.” So he started as a dealer, small at the flea market. In his private life he was a collector of historical music boxes, so there was a bit of expertise there.
Today Lehnertz runs a kind of antiques and junk empire in the Eifel. His shop “Waldi’s Eifel Antik”, a former pony farm, resembles a convoluted large cave. There’s a way in, but lots of ways to get lost.
What you see is somewhat reminiscent of Ms. Waas’s shop on Lummerland (“baskets, hats, lamps, brushes, cauliflowers and window glass, lederhosen, cuckoo clocks and this and then that”), minus the food – a impressive collection. “Collections are only really good when they go to extremes,” he says. Among other things, he once bought a pen collection with 16,000 pens. “She was cool,” says Waldi.
Antiques, grannies and money
“The store is structured like this: 80 percent antiques, 20 percent flea market. I want even the poorest grandma with the smallest pension to be able to buy a Hutschenreuther vase for five euros,” he explains. “She’s just as much a part of it as the notary or the building contractor who runs around here and buys a silver bowl for 2,000.” The cheapest things he has are “porcelain thimbles.”
In general, he has a heart for grandmas. “They’re allowed to do anything here,” he says. “They used to walk around with the stones and today there’s no money for them anymore. That’s sad.” In this context he also mentions his thigh, which he calls “the hardest thigh in the Eifel”.
“When a bus like this arrives here, I always pick out the oldest lady and then we take a photo. Then I put her on my thigh and say: “Wow, mother, you still feel hot.” Then they completely freak out .” This way you can “give something back to what these people used to do for us.”
The show makes him an “80-Euro-Waldi”
Of course, many people come because Lehnertz became known with the popular ZDF program “Bares für Rares”. In the junk show he competes with other dealers for the best finds. He fills the role of the somewhat bizarre guy, who also sometimes speaks in a so-called tacheles way. But he became what is called iconic because he often starts the negotiation with a bid of 80 euros.
In his dialect: “Eighty euros.” He now calls himself “80-Euro-Waldi”. That’s even written as his stage name on his ID card, he says. “I can now buy a car and sign it.”
And that’s exactly why he first gives people who come into the store his 80 euro play money bill, which is now his business card. The secret of a good trader? That’s simple: you have to take care of the people. “Anyone who comes in here as a stranger leaves as a friend. That’s why this is such a place of pilgrimage,” he says. “It’s different than in a furniture store. Three monkeys come with a tie around their neck and try to sell you something.”