On the opening day of Heim+Handwerk there was less activity than before the pandemic – and yet a long queue formed in front of Erhard Seiler’s house on Wednesday. Of course, this is also due to the fact that its four walls are so close together: the “Tiny House” by the Rosenheim company Orthodorn measures just 14.5 square meters, which the visitors of the fair enter in single file – and leave again after a few incredulous looks, to marvel at the miniature house made of stone pine from the outside.

Who buys such a tiny house on wheels that costs 78,000 euros fully equipped? “These are often people who give up everything,” answers Seiler, Managing Director of Orthodorn. “They want less overall. And some are also interested in saving energy.” If you order one of his “Zirbenheime” today, you have to wait months because of the rush. In the early days of his company it was very different. “We started with the tiny houses three years ago, when it wasn’t an issue for most people. It was a difficult time for us at the time.”

Which brings you directly to Heim+Handwerk itself. After a three-year Corona break, it was also “difficult” to organize their restart, says Dieter Dohr. With a view to the coming years, the head of the society for handicraft fairs should now hope for a development similar to that of the pine wood houses from Rosenheim. This year, however, the trade fair, which as usual takes place together with “Food & Life”, “is certainly not yet where we were before the pandemic”. This is not only reflected in the number of visitors: in the past, around 1000 exhibitors presented their goods and services, now there are 600 by Sunday – in five instead of seven exhibition halls.

Nevertheless, there is plenty for visitors to discover – such as a “home office in the hammock” at the stand of the Mira Art company from Bielefeld. The small family business has been making hanging chairs from organic cotton for centuries. And during the pandemic, when so many were working from home, the idea came up to convert these so-called dream swingers into office space using a neck support, side pocket and a seat cushion as a laptop pad, explains Managing Director Britt Haselbach.

For example, a hammock office where you can work in a “completely relaxed” way costs between 700 and 900 euros. “My daughter sits in there for hours,” reports the company boss. “She’s currently writing her master’s thesis.” The company has been a regular guest at Heim+Handwerk for 26 years, and Haselbach calls it an “absolutely important event for us”. she was “very grateful that the fair is taking place again”. Because “especially the personal contact and also the haptic, you just don’t have that on the Internet”.

It sounds similar with Walter Greul, who is in Hall B6 at the stand of the Franconian company Wema. “For us, such trade fairs are extremely important because our product lives on emotions,” emphasizes Greul – which may be irritating at first, after all, this is about wallpaper. But these are not glued on, but applied in liquid form with a trowel. “We have more than a hundred designs,” Greul explains to a couple who stopped by his stand. And even LED lights can be incorporated into the liquid wallpaper – “for a starry sky over the bathtub, for example.” As far as the trade fair is concerned, Greul is an old hand – he has already advertised his company’s wallpaper here a number of times. “I’ve seen people stand on each other’s feet because it’s so crowded,” he says.

Open detailed view

Open detailed view

At least on this Wednesday it’s quieter, although crowds of people form in front of several stands. Everything that has to do with saving energy arouses great interest – such as a manufacturer’s offers for insulation with wood fibers. But people also stop a few steps further in front of the probably energy-hungry whirlpools – even in front of an XXL jacuzzi, in the water of which a champagne cooler and bottle are floating.

The crowds in Hall A4 at Food & Life are significantly larger – and here especially in the “Food Startup Area”. Under the penguin logo with the lettering “Der Fredel” – the company name stands for fresh and noble – you meet Max Böttcher, who is just preparing pasta with pesto. Her start-up from Seeshaupt on Lake Starnberg produces the latter from fresh, high-quality ingredients before it is shock-frozen and sold in the form of a tab, reports Böttcher, who, like company founder Jamie Eckermann, is a trained chef. “Der Fredel” is represented at Food & Life for the first time; the start-up won the stand in a competition.

“We want to use the trade fair above all to increase our level of awareness,” explains Böttcher – and quickly repeats verbatim what Erhard Seiler said before his Tiny House. “Anyone who thinks that they will get rich at a trade fair like this is wrong,” emphasized the entrepreneur from Rosenheim. “But the follow-up business is mostly good.”