Robert Habeck sits on the stage in Munich with his legs crossed; above him in large letters is written “75 Years of the International Craft Fair”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”Allow me to briefly clarify the facts,” he says Green Minister of Economics and addresses Markus Söder (CSU), who sits next to him with his legs apart. At the end of this largely conciliatory round of talks, the Vice Chancellor and the Bavarian Prime Minister exchanged blows. The topic, of course: energy policy. With the aspects of nuclear phase-out, final storage, renewables.
The International Craft Fair (IHM) starts in Munich on Wednesday with such a high number of visitors. And three more trade fairs are about to begin: “Crafts & Design”, “Food & Life” and “Garten München”. Eight halls in total. Until March 3rd, around 800 exhibitors will present their crafts, their art, their cuisine and more. The Chancellor will also arrive on Thursday.
With Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (right) on stage, Robert Habeck presents a more usual picture.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
There is less going on at the Munich Butchers’ Guild stand in Hall C1 – even when Hubert Aiwanger was just standing there. “We told them about our problems,” says Werner Jais, master butcher since 1983. Finding new trainees is now very difficult. That’s why the state guild association for the Bavarian butcher’s trade has come up with something new, he explains, pointing behind him.
From the back wall of the stand, an anime figure with pink hair, a deep neckline, a steak hologram above the smart watch, the large M of the national association dangling as a gold chain in front of her chest looks back at him. The butchers use this and other fantasy characters to advertise the training on Instagram and at IHM. VR glasses are also available with which visitors can mix up their own meatloaf in the virtual world. No mess at all. Werner Jais sees only one problem with this new advertising strategy: “The kids who stop by here often ask us: ‘Are you a game developer?'”
Virtual butcher games are intended to make the training profession attractive for young people, but they also lead some people down the wrong path.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
The stage round with Habeck and Söder on the opening day of this IHM is under the motto “Time to do it”. A week after the Economics Minister spoke urgently in front of the Bundestag about the sluggish German economy, this doesn’t seem to be a bad motto – albeit a rather vague one. Things will get more concrete about an hour later in Hall B1, at the paving stand of the Munich and Ebersberg Building Guild.
Here Habeck is kneeling on pads in the gravel, now without a jacket and with his sleeves rolled up. Everything is very suitable for the press. In his right hand he holds a hammer, in his left a paving stone – natural stone, as it was laid in ancient Babylonia – and now also in modern pedestrian zones. Heinz Dotzauer, training master of the building guild, kneels next to Habeck on yellow gloves. He critically examines the minister’s work.
“My wife says I didn’t look angry – that’s saying something,” says Dotzauer a little later, when the entourage of politicians, press people and onlookers has already moved on to the next hall. “He has definitely held a hammer in his hand before,” says the master. Shortly afterwards, the stones that Habeck had laid in the gravel bed disappeared again. But no offense, “we apprentices also have to turn every stone a few times until it fits,” says one trainee.
Nevertheless, many people here seem to be dissatisfied with Habeck. The increased rejection of government policy is also noticeable at the craft fair. And a disinhibited tone can be heard, which is particularly directed against Green Party politicians. “There he is, our beautiful green minister,” jokes a viewer. It wouldn’t be a shame if a ceiling spotlight fell on the minister’s head, another one blatantly remarks. Security forces and police officers are standing by.
Not far from Habeck’s paving attempt, Franziska Kolb, 28, plucks the strings of her harp. The instrument has a double neck above the base, body and column, but below the head. The strings are stretched between these two necks without any offset, so the harp is slimmer and playing higher notes is easier. Kolb calls this a double neck harp, not to be confused with the double harp, and in turn not to be confused with the double pedal harp. “I have the commercial patent for the double-neck harp,” says Kolb proudly.
Woman with a commercial patent: Franziska Kolb on the double-neck harp.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
Even as a child she wanted to learn the harp. “But my mother said: I’d rather play the violin,” says Kolb. She did that, including in her Abitur exams in Rosenheim. Only after training as a violin maker did Kolb switch sides – today she is self-employed and builds her own harps. The cheapest model for adults, a double-neck harp made of spruce wood, costs 6,850 euros.
If you continue walking through the halls of the fair, the fairytale sounds of the harp will soon be swallowed up. There is a lot going on at IHM, even on the first day. It is particularly loud in Hall C1, where the trades are recruiting new talent. In the “Professions Rally” students run from carpenters and stonemasons to roofers and shoe technicians, listen to the craftsmen’s explanations via headsets and at the end get a stamp in their notebook. The main prize of the campaign: a Saturn voucher for 20 euros.
At the fair, young people can try out all sorts of things, including baking.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
Around midday, the atrium of the trade fair is even more reminiscent of the halls of an airport than it already is due to its architecture. Young people sit on all the side walls and column bases like waiting passengers, already wearing their down jackets, playing on their cell phones, waiting for school to end. New groups keep arriving from the halls, take a quick look and sit down.
Here and there a teacher stands nearby – including Andreas Friesenegger, 44, with both hands in the pockets of his jeans. “We’re almost ready to leave,” he says, pointing to the ninth-graders on the ground and laughing. With this, Friesenegger means two things, so to speak. On the one hand, that’s what we’re talking about now, in just a few minutes the bus goes back to Bad Aibling – to the Alpenland business school. On the other hand, and this is actually what we were talking about today, some of his protégés will soon leave this school and usually head off into professional life. “Every student who leaves us should have seen a mass like this,” says the teacher. Many have come into contact with employers at the IHM in the past few hours and have also been able to get involved themselves. They would have done it very well – on both sides.