Hermann Kraus Sr.
is a businessman, author, carnival prince and tour guide.
A portrait from our series "My Life".
Erding - Hermann Kraus senior still lives today.
in the house in the center of Erdingen, where he was born 77 years ago.
“Back then, home births were still the rule,” explains the senior manager of the Kraus fashion house, who, like his three years older brother Uli, saw the light of day with the help of the midwife Margarete Trinkl.
Father Hermann and mother Leni, née Billmayer from Wartenberg, were very busy running the Kraus department store, which has existed for 380 years, so a trained nurse took care of the children. Johanna Seelmann, affectionately called Deda by the boys, was the closest caregiver for her protégés day and night for over five years. “We had a very close relationship with our Deda, she even slept in one room with us,” Kraus remembers.
In the St. Antonius kindergarten on Prielmayerstraße he spends a good time “with a lot of Erdinger boys from the neighborhood” and then goes to the boys' school on the Grüner Markt. With teacher Franz Eberl, a class with 49 boys starts school life. Hermann Kraus particularly remembered the exciting school days when he visited the film room in the basement. "Films like 'Die Stadtmaus und die Feldmaus' or 'Storming a Medieval City' made a lasting impression on me," reports the former student with a smile.
Kraus likes to attend the Erdinger Singschule on Langenzeile and also receives piano lessons from the director Sepp Rubenberger.
"We had a piano in the house, and then it was said: 'You're learning to play the piano now,'" says Kraus, who was not really enthusiastic about it because it required a lot of practice time.
"Today I am glad that I persevered, because I still play the piano every day."
Communion: shorts and stockings
At that time, the playground for the Erdinger boys was often the “Dunscheberge” on the Green Market, which, due to the lack of a school gym, is used as the “Turnschulbergl” for physical education.
The boys also like to meet in the old swimming pool at the city park, because the entrance fee was still moderate at ten pfennigs back then.
He also remembers his first communion with a solemn procession to the parish church. "I was probably the only boy who still had to wear shorts with long stockings that were attached to a camisole with suspenders," says Kraus, explaining the process that was embarrassing for him.
A hard time began for ten-year-old Hermann when he switched to the boarding school at Kloster Heilig Kreuz in Donauwörth. Although Brother Uli is already staying there, they seldom met with 300 boarding school students. Without a reference person and without a place of retreat, it wasn't easy for him in a dormitory with 60 boys. You could only go home “all holy times”, i.e. Easter, Whitsun, summer holidays, All Saints' Day and Christmas. Visits to the parents in Donauwörth, 150 kilometers away, were also possible at most once a month.
The upbringing of the fathers was based on strict discipline, so you had to develop a survival strategy.
“Today I like to look back on that time.
The strict upbringing certainly helped me later in life, ”summarizes Hermann Kraus, who is still in close contact with former boarding school friends.
He is an acolyte at the boarding school, sings in the local choir and takes piano lessons.
The foundation stone for his later passion for the theater was laid here, when Hermann was allowed to take on his first roles in the theater group.
He will never forget the appearance in a Christmas crib play.
“As an angel of preaching, I had to wear an extremely ugly wig, and when I exclaimed, 'Do not be afraid!'
laughed the whole hall, "says Kraus with a smile.
Furnished carpenter
He completed the six-year secondary school in the boarding school with a secondary school leaving certificate. Actually he would have liked to become a teacher, but he is needed in his parents' business. His father Hermann died shortly before of a heart attack at the age of only 57, his mother now runs the department store alone, and so Hermann Kraus begins commercial training in Dachau in September 1960 in the Lerchenberger fashion store, where his mother had already worked. What a difference to the boarding school with lots of boys and men, now almost all female colleagues. “I became a furnished carpenter and now I enjoyed total freedom,” Kraus remembers enthusiastically. He made the weekend trips home to Erding with his moped, a Zündapp Combinette, and later with his first car, a light blue Fiat 600.
Then the corpse came with a request for a set or a hunter who quickly needed ammunition for a short-term driven hunt.
Hermann Kraus on everyday life in the Kraus department store
In addition to on-the-job training, the ambitious apprentice attended numerous courses at the Bavarian Trade Center in Munich. In 1965, at the age of almost 21, the retailer joined his parents' department store in Kraus. A renovation for modernization is urgently required here in order to be able to keep pace with the large competitor Kainz. Kraus is pushing ahead with the renovation plans, a lot of money is being raised, which is not a problem for him, but the debts weigh heavily on his mother. During the major renovation, the department store had to move to Langezeile / corner of Mühlgraben for half a year, then the new rooms with modern shop windows were inaugurated.
“Back then we had the entire range of haberdashery, coffin equipment, cigars and ammunition,” explains the senior boss, reminding himself of spontaneous customer visits on Sundays: “The corpse came with a request for a set or a hunter who needed ammunition quickly needed for a short-term driven hunt. ”Various modifications were to follow, and the mother is always scared when son Hermann walks through the house with the yardstick.
The range is also gradually concentrating on fashion.
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As the carnival prince with Silva Funke in 1968 - in this role probably the only one who couldn't waltz.
© Private
Despite all the work, Hermann Kraus creates space for himself.
In the carnival season 1968 he becomes the carnival prince at the Narrhalla.
Together with the doctor's daughter Sylvia Funke, the prince couple "Hermann IV. Vom Krauseck and Sylvia I. vom Kidney Stone" appear at numerous events, but the dance grouch consistently refuses to play the traditional prince's waltz.
"As an alternative, I preferred to tell a few jokes and make people laugh," said Kraus.
For decades he has also brought his humorous talent to the tower talks at the tower slide ball of the friends of the city of Erding and comments on Erdingen's local politics with Michael Heindl and Karl-Heinz Bauernfeind.
1988 turns into a fateful year
At a carnival event in Dorfen, he met Hermine Schmid from the Schmid shoe store, and the two married in 1974. At the same time, the then 30-year-old took over the management of the fashion house, his mother supported him.
The young family quickly expanded with the children Stefan (1975), Eva (1976), Hermann (1978) and Wolfgang (1980).
Fate strikes cruelly when their son Stefan dies of sudden infant death at the age of only three months, a difficult time for the couple.
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With mother Lene Kraus and Brude Uli (left) in 1946.
© Private
According to the motto “A woman belongs in the business”, the wife and mother work fully in the fashion house, there are staff for the children and the household. The fateful year for Hermann Kraus was 1988. In the spring, the separation from his wife Hermine took place. Shortly afterwards, mother Lene Kraus suffered a severe stroke, which made her a need for care. For Hermann Kraus, a fall on a bike tour to Salzburg ends with a fracture of the ankle joint with restrictions that lasted for months. Not an easy time for the businessman, because the mother dies the following year.
The resourceful entrepreneur has come up with numerous campaigns for his fashion house over the years. Hermine Kraus organizes highly successful fashion shows. Jazz morning pints during the Jazz Days attract many visitors, and special exhibitions such as the antique chamber pots bring business into conversation.
The theater trips organized by the theater fanatic for regular customers are an absolute hit. Kraus welcomed 100 participants on the first bus trip in 1990 to the “Circus Roncalli” in Munich. "It really hit the mark, we made five to nine trips a year," he reports enthusiastically and has figures ready: a total of 219 trips up to Corona drove over 21,000 participants to the crime theater, marionette theater, or the Iberl stage in the Kleine Komödie im Bayerischer Hof. The always perfect organization of the companies, which Kraus personally took over, was already known. "It is always a lot of effort beforehand, but I am very sorry that we cannot make the trips at the moment," said Erdinger regretfully.
He also organizes numerous city trips for his customers.
But no matter whether it goes to Vienna, Prague, London or Moscow, a cultural event is always planned.
It was important to the customers that the boss was personally present as a tour guide.
The fact that customers naturally also needed a new outfit for the theater or city trip was a positive side effect, as Kraus admits with a smile.
In his private life he also undertakes various trips to America, China, Tibet, India and Nepal or with the Trans-Siberian Railway to Irkutsk.
Multi-day bike tours with a regular group of men on the Rhine, Moselle, Main or Danube were on the program for almost 30 years.
"That was a great thing, always fun together, but also sporty," enthuses Kraus, who usually also took on the organization and planning.
The "Prince of Schrannenplatz", as he is also called in the circle of friends, loves socializing and visits various regulars' tables. The fixed date in the morning at 9 o'clock is the “Huber-Fanny-Stammtisch” for the discussion of current events, currently being relocated to SchokoOh at the Schönen Turm. Then there is the Speak Easy get-together, the golfers, the Red Cross on-call get-together and the badminton clique. “We really missed the meetings,” says Kraus, who had to be content with the company of his 17-year-old cat Hansi during the lockdown.
Five years ago he handed over the management to his son Wolfgang.
Erdinger, who is interested in history, uses the time he has gained to research his book on the history of the fashion house with an autobiography.
“Those were exciting but also arduous years,” he explains.
Hermann Kraus dedicated the book to his children and grandchildren Stella (6) and Hermann-Paul (3.5).
In it, he humorously reports on his time as a porter for the Erdingen fire brigade, when he had to unlock the Frauenkircherl used by the fire brigade on Schrannenplatz in the event of a fire alarm.
Parade roles: pastor or judge
In his prime role as Nikolaus, Kraus not only blew the fire fighters on the march, the municipal kindergarten, the Fischer's nursing home and numerous Erdinger families were happy about the visit of St. Nikolaus Hermann Kraus.
In this role he even appeared in a BR show about "Christmas in Germany", which was broadcast in many countries.
As a member of the Volksspielgruppe Altenerding, Kraus was often seen on stage.
“For Sepp Beil, I mostly played the pastor or the judge,” he says.
As a participant in the Titanic performance, he was also one of the co-founders of the Erdinger Seemannschors.
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The pastor was one of his star roles in the Altenerding folk game group - here at the 2009 Swedish Games.
© Private
When Hermann Kraus looks back on his eventful life, he is satisfied: "It was fun, we always had good staff on our side, and I had many encounters with nice people".
Gerda and Peter Gebel
"My Life" series
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