In the second Corona year, you almost got used to the pandemic and its effects on everyday life. This also includes a Loisach, which flows quietly into the Isar in Wolfratshausen, without the rafts full of happy people with beer and brass music that otherwise sail towards Munich from May to September. It is now the second summer without a raftsman in the rafting town. Corona has paralyzed the three family businesses that maintain the traditional trade, which has just been nominated for the intangible world cultural heritage by Unesco and of which the city is so proud. While restaurateurs are running their beer gardens again and even showmen start their rides here and there, they continue to sit on dry land.
When Josef Seitner talks about his situation, it becomes clear again how much the pandemic can upset life. Although the 71-year-old, who is in the fifth class of Flößer in Wolfratshausen, naturally uses the opposite linguistic image. He had never experienced a year without rafting in his entire life until 2020. “There were floods for six weeks during the season,” he recalls. “That shook us, but we were able to stay afloat. But now,” he adds in view of the second failed season, “we are under water.”
Wolfratshausen, Seitner rafting / tree trunks waiting for the next season / Photo: = Hartmut Pöstges =
(Photo: Hartmut Pöstges)
Lamenting is actually not the thing for the raftsmen who have made good money with their leisure activities for years. All three companies – that of Josef and his cousin Franz Seitner in Wolfratshausen, as well as that of Michael Angermeier in Arzbach – showed this last year when they almost stoically accepted the loss of the season in view of the new pandemic, as they have just been Generations to do with the forces of nature. This spring, however, when the third wave raged, the family businesses threatened to drown: In contrast to other businesses, they could not benefit from the state Corona aid. The November and December aid did not exist for the raftsmen, whose operation only lasts until September. They also have no umbrella organization that could represent their interests.
In a fire letter to the Bavarian state government, the raftsmen had made it clear that, due to their seasonal nature of the operation, they would fall through all economic aid schemes. The city of Wolfratshausen supported the call for help with an address of solidarity. The rafting is “a great figurehead and a unique selling point,” it said. The traditional companies are “facing major existential problems”. Shortly afterwards, the Wolfratshauser honorary citizen and former Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber personally contacted Markus Söder about the matter to draw his attention to the “dramatic consequences of the pandemic” for the Wolfratshauser rafters, “which has been the cultural image of Bavaria and especially Upper Bavaria for centuries shape”.
After all, something has happened in this regard. “The improvements to the bridging aids benefited us, so that our existence is secured for next year,” says Franz Seitner’s daughter Monika Heidl-Seitner, who takes care of the management and bookkeeping in her father’s company and was significantly involved in the call for help. “The fire letter gave us a good contact in the Ministry of Economic Affairs who went through the guidelines with our tax advisor. The bottom line,” she explains, “is the bridging aid that saved us.”
The three companies benefit from the help in different ways: Josef Seitner runs a general partnership with his rafting company and has three permanent employees whom he has sent on short-time work. He has fixed costs, but his tax advisor has now promised additional bridging aid, he says. Angermeier operates a GmbH & Co. KG. Franz Seitner’s company, on the other hand, has no permanent employees and is therefore considered a sole proprietorship, explains Heidl-Seitner. She has now had to put off the 14 people she normally employs during the season. But she is not afraid that they could be permanently absent because they had to make ends meet in the second summer. “My raftsmen are part of the family business,” she says. Many of the fathers have already rafted, “that is also a matter close to their hearts”. When she canceled them this year, they replied: “Then we’ll tackle it next year,” reports Heidl-Seitner. “My men stay with me.”
Despite the experience, the raftsmen are confident for the coming season. It is true that in early summer this year they had to sell the logs that had been lying unused on the raft landing for more than a year because they had become too dry for rafts. But in the autumn they will choose new trunks again, work them by hand and lay them ready at the raft landing for the coming spring, they say. “We are already in contact with the state forests,” says Josef Seitner. After all, the trees would have to be selected individually in autumn. And Monika Heidl-Seitner explains: “We’ll be back next year.” That should give hope not only to the seasonal raftsmen, but also to the musicians, restaurateurs, tree drivers, beer suppliers and freelance photographers who benefit from the leisure activities.
However, Heidl-Seitner also emphasizes: “We will definitely only transport people who have been vaccinated.” After all, you can’t check every passenger to see whether they have a valid quick test. The state will prescribe who is and who is not allowed on the raft anyway, says Josef Seitner. However, the recent political decisions indicated that those who had been vaccinated would be given more freedom. He couldn’t imagine a new lockdown. Both now sincerely hope that the vaccination rate will increase and that exuberant raft trips with music and beer will be possible again in the coming spring. They take place outdoors, but usually with 50 to 60 people per raft. Minimum distance and mask requirement are not an option on the water. And a significant reduction in the number of passengers would hardly be feasible for reasons of cost. After all, companies, clubs and groups of friends pay more than 3000 euros for a pleasure trip with all the trimmings.
But the raftsmen not only want the rules to change in the coming year. The weather should also get better. “This summer was a catastrophe,” says Josef Seitner. “There were so many floods and storms – that wouldn’t have been a good season at all.” As a matter of habit, he kept checking the weather forecasts and the water levels on the Isar and Loisach on the laptop, says the 71-year-old. “We would have strained ourselves nervously because we have to make a statement every day at four o’clock in the morning whether we are going or not,” says Seitner. “To be honest, we were almost a bit lucky this year that the season was canceled.”