It is well known that life itself writes the most exciting stories. The documentary film series “Lebenslinien”, which is broadcast on Mondays at 10 p.m. on Bavarian TV, sheds light on interesting biographies: For this evening's contribution, the Dorfen master baker Martin Brugger was in front of the camera.
Dorfen - Backen is Brugger's (56) daily bread: at the age of six he was already in the bakery with his father, and in his early twenties he took over the shop from his parents - a small family business.
Today 112 employees work in nine branches in “Martins Backstube”.
“Real ingredients.
Real craft.
Real home ”, this is how the bakery advertises.
Brugger, a true village native and with a strong sense of home, relied on ingredients from the region early on: “The daily work was my role model.” Crispy organic bread and fresh rolls are on shelves and baskets, cakes and pies in the display.
But the local bakery also offers fine pralines and currently Christmas cookies - after all, the Bruggers don't live on bread alone.
The man from Dorfen could not have imagined any other profession as a baker. “My mother always wanted me to do my Abitur,” he says. But when his father fell ill, the then 15-year-old immediately jumped in and started his apprenticeship. His heart has always been attached to the loaf - he even experimented with bread recipes during his training. “I had to throw away a lot of new creations because they just didn't taste good. The mother already scolded. "
Today he is a master at baking bread: "Look at a farmhouse bread - you need strength and feeling when you bake it," says Brugger. It also depends on the right mix: “I'm more of the rough guy.” The “bread of the month”, such as organic whole-grain pumpkin ”in November, is where he puts all his craftsmanship into it. "Patisserie is too delicate for me, cakes too simple, and the added value is not right there," the pragmatist knows. Even though after completing his training, before he took over his father's bakery in 1988, he gained extensive experience in many well-known pastry shops and well-known cafés, for example in Bad Tölz and Munich.
In August 1989 Brugger met his wife Hermine. A year and a half later, the woman from Taufkirchen and Dorfen married, first son Bastian was born, then Quirin. There was always a lot to do for Brugger to keep the bakery competitive. Martin's wife and his two sons saw a man who stood in the bakery from 1 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and then continued to work as a pastry chef from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. “I saw the children in the evening, put them to bed. Whenever we went out, I almost fell asleep at the table, ”he recalls. And at some point it became too much for Hermione: "If nothing changes, I'll get a divorce," she is supposed to have said.
Since for Brugger "wife and children are the most important things in the world", he first hired a pastry chef, and other employees were added. His business began to expand. “I didn't have a business plan,” he explains, “we just kept getting bigger”. He and his two sons now operate nine branches, including at their home location in Dorfen, but also in Taufkirchen, Lengdorf and Erding. Hermine Brugger, a trained decorator, also got into the business "when the sons in kindergarten and school were gone". In 2011 the company finally moved to the new production facility at Brühl in Dorfen.
"The competition is fierce, more and more discounters are pushing their way onto the market with cheap baked goods, so it's not always easy for us," says Brugger, who has had to overcome several professional crises. In four years, at 60, the master baker wants to quit. Then he will transfer the business entirely to his two sons, but will continue to act “as a girl for everything” and step in where there is need, that is his plan. "I still do everything today, except for the staff," he says. However, his son Quirin takes care of the employees.
"I'm a bit exhausting there and have repeatedly squeezed the employees together when I discovered mistakes or things didn't go according to my mind - that is no longer the right management style these days," says Brugger with a smile.
BR editor Maike Conway lives in Schwindegg and comes regularly to Martin's bakery.
“She was so fascinated by our third generation bakery that she wanted to turn a lifeline,” says Brugger with pride.
