As of: March 28, 2024, 11:09 a.m
By: Melina Staar
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Snack board as far as the eye can see: Annelie and Peter Brandau from Sachsenkam have had their stand at the Tölz Easter market for 30 years. © Arndt Pröhl
They are among the first exhibitors: Annelie and Peter Brandau have been at the Tölz Easter market with their specially engraved snack boards for 30 years.
Bad Tölz/Sachsenkam
– Annelie and Peter Brandau are a well-rehearsed team where every move is perfect. You can currently see this for yourself at the Tölz Easter market. The couple was one of the first exhibitors: they have been there since the Easter market began 30 years ago, and they have had their wood engraving business based in Sachsenkam for almost 40 years. Her specialty is personally designed snack boards.
The market had just started on Friday and the first customers were already stopping by the Brandaus. A child is thrilled by the horse motif on a snack board. “Mei, look, that would be something for grandpa,” says another passer-by. Another lady gets specific: “The name should be on it, please, and a 50. And maybe a flower.”
Peter Brandau nods. He cleverly holds the blank board under his engraving machine. Depending on how he holds it, different images, words or names emerge. The motifs are burned into the wood by the frictional heat. “He is the last person in Germany to work with this engraving technique,” says his wife Annelie. The special thing is that he doesn't work with a soldering iron like wood pyrography artists. He applies a process known from glass engraving to wood. Many years ago, he had an acquaintance in Münster teach him the technique “more for fun,” reports his wife. At the time, the couple was looking for a new business idea. “We had just rejected the idea of starting an organic farm,” reports Annelie Brandau. They started their own business with wood engraving and have continued to do so to this day.
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The early days were not easy. “We initially traveled in pedestrian zones.” In order to build up the business, it was also necessary to take part in daily markets. When the first Tölz Christmas market took place in 1993, the Brandaus were already there. The first Easter market followed in 1994. “That didn’t exist anywhere back then,” says Peter Brandau, who remembers resistance. “The priest at the time in Tölz didn’t want the Easter market to also take place on Easter Sunday and Monday.” So for about ten years it ended on Holy Saturday. “At some point the restaurant stalls protested: They said that people would walk through Marktstrasse on both days and complain that the huts were closed.” So there was a survey, which resulted in it finally being open until Easter Monday. The Brandaus personally “don’t think it’s good”. But they have found a way for themselves: “We go to worship in the morning on Easter Sunday and Monday and only open our stand afterwards.”
In addition to the Tölz Easter market, the markets in the annual repertoire of the Brandaus include the Munich Christmas market, the Auer Maidult, Jakobidult and Kirchweihdult as well as the Almabtrieb in Mayrhofen in the Zillertal. In order to prepare enough snack boards for the Munich Christmas market, Peter Brandau is busy for four months. He engraves more complicated motifs such as animals, cartoon characters or the like into the boards in advance. This is otherwise not possible in the hustle and bustle of everyday market life. Especially in Munich it is often “piecework,” says Annelie Brandau. Her husband then adds the desired names live on site.
Two years. The two of them want to continue for as long as possible. “You have to know when it’s time to stop,” says Annelie Brandau. “What we do is increased joy: we earn our living with our craft and enjoy it. Our customers are happy about the boards with individual engraving. And if you give it away, the next person will be happy. So the joy is always passed on.”
The Tölz Easter market
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