Where Rapunzel lets her hair down, children cheer, birds chirp, and parents and grandparents are happy when the little ones are in a good mood: With spring, the fairytale forest theme park in Wolfratshausen opens its doors again. In addition to the currently warm temperatures, there is the normalization after two years of Corona: what is a leisure pleasure for visitors means hard work behind the scenes – nevertheless, even the employees radiate fairytale joy.
“When Halil, the kiosk tenant, watches us at work or hears us laughing,” says Markus Hohenreiter, “he comes regularly and asks if he can start with us.” Hohenreiter, 33, is a mechanical engineer, technical manager of the park and has now been there for four years: “In 2015 I only wanted to help out for two years, then I went to the German Aerospace Center as a doctoral student – and was here again in 2020”. Without a doctorate, but satisfied: the atmosphere in the team is good, everyone would feel more comfortable in the fairytale forest than in their previous work. And Timo Wecker, sales manager for 13 years, is even clearer: “I work 4.5 days a week, have great colleagues with whom I can swap shifts at any time if necessary.” He has a lot of variety, a pleasant employer and is “always in the fresh air.” As a wish for the future, Wecker, 40 years old and one year old, says: “Retire here.” So is the fairytale forest an oasis of good mood? The operators, Franziska and Daniel Diessl, make it clear: it doesn’t work without hard work.
Franziska and Daniel Diessl run the Wolfratshausen fairytale forest
(Photo: Gregor Miklik/OH)
“We really do it with joy and conviction,” says Daniel Diessl (47), “but it’s good that I never had a life without a fairytale forest.” His wife Franziska (37) adds: “During the season we work seven days a week.” Her son doesn’t know any different either, but of course he notices that his friends go on vacation during the school holidays.
The Wolfratshausen fairytale forest traditionally opens at the beginning of the Easter holidays and closes after the third Sunday in October. “15 permanent employees are here all year round – and on the weekends or during the holidays, up to 15 schoolchildren and students work as temporary workers,” explains Daniel Diessl. He lists what is necessary to run the park: they checked a total of 59 stations every day, including the breastfeeding room, baby changing room and toilets; the paths would be swept, rubbish bins emptied, the rubbish disposed of. In addition, twelve rides are operated. To do this, the till has to be staffed and the administration has to be taken care of: telephone service, personnel planning, orders, marketing and accounting. And at the attraction called Thieving Magpie, one thousand kilograms of agate and pyrite would be buried in the sand every year – treasures that the children then dig up again – that’s a must. The technical manager Markus Hohenreiter reminds what else can happen: “If damage occurs somewhere, it has to be repaired as quickly as possible”. This can often be done by the company’s own staff, but in an emergency external craftsmen are needed, who are more expensive and do not necessarily have time at short notice. He also mentions watering when it is very hot (“That only works in the evening, half of it evaporates during the day”) and the hail in June 2021: “Mei, half the forest was on the ground, in the middle of the season, no one can do it make rules”. It is therefore clear that the operators have to have some heavy equipment available in addition to a storage and workshop area: There are two self-propelled sweepers, a wheel loader, a telehandler, a lifting platform up to 16 meters high, for example for tree trimming, a tank trailer, one tractor and a truck.
Part of the machine park in the fairytale forest.
(Photo: Gregor Miklik/OH)
Anyone who thinks that the workforce can sit back and relax after the end of the season is wrong: the pressure is much higher in the winter months. In the summer there is a load, but usually no time pressure, explains Daniel Diessl; With the end of the season in mid-October, a tight schedule begins until the opening of the next season. “And we have to do the planning beforehand, in the summer, during the season.”
After the season finale, all the rides are winterized for two to three weeks: Some are just wrapped in tarpaulins, but many moving parts have to be dismantled and stored in a dry and frost-proof place. Since one station is renewed every year, the old one has to be demolished, disposed of and the new foundation laid before the frost. All painting and varnishing work is also dependent on frost. Some measures such as tree and shrub pruning, felling and new planting, in some cases the procurement of materials and personnel planning can be postponed to spring in an emergency – but not the leaves, which have to be disposed of from the rain gutters, swept together on the ground and then removed cubic meters by the cubic meter. In December and January there is a shutdown so that employees can take vacation and overtime.
Of course there are also slides in the fairytale forest.
(Photo: Gregor Miklik/OH)
From February 1st, work will be intense again: the stored material will be set up, serviced and repaired if necessary so that the obligatory TÜV inspections can take place – ideally before the start of the season. And there is also a fixed date for the new building: After the Easter holidays, proven graffiti spray artists from Holland have been coming to Wolfratshausen for many years: “They are simply good and are worth the effort – but if they stood around doing nothing because we are not finished yet, we couldn’t afford that,” explains Franziska Diessl.
Although the technical operation alone obviously demands the Diessls intensively, they also think about content and fundamental things: “The amount of stimuli in everyday life tends to overwhelm the children anyway,” he says. “With us, the children should be allowed to be childlike”. And the adults should participate as long as they wanted. “But sometimes it’s really nice to just sit down, hear the children with just one ear and know: nothing can happen to them here.” Franziska Diessl adds: “We don’t want to be overwhelmed – but we do want a challenge; it can’t all be fun.” With “Soupenkasper”, for example, adults can get a 2:1 impression of how strenuous everyday life is for a small child when they climb onto a chair; the “pacifier tree”, on the other hand, invites small children to say goodbye to their pacifier. Certainly a sense of achievement – if it works. And the main attraction, the “Oachkatzl” roller coaster, is designed in such a way that the children find it exciting, while the perhaps more relaxed grandparents are not overwhelmed.
The Spierling family from Altötting visiting the park with (from left to right) Isabella (9), Carolina (7), Marita and Manuel Spierling.
(Photo: Gregor Miklik/OH)
Other principles of the Fairy Tale Forest operators relate to treating employees with respect, striving for sustainability and regional connections; Markus Hohenreiter: “I always have short distances in planning – if I know 90 percent of my partners well, then that makes the work easier – especially when there’s suddenly a fire somewhere.”
Many things in the Wolfratshausen Fairy Tale Forest seem more tranquil than dynamic to visitors, more traditional than modern. Even if it’s the other way around for those who keep the park running. What unites the people in front of and behind the scenes, however, is that everyone makes a happy impression.