Big men on a small lake: the shipbuilders from Markt Schwaben
Created: 01/10/2022, 8:00 AM
From: Friedbert Holz
Michael Lang (left) and Nico Peter with two of their ship models.
© Johannes Dziemballa
Men meet regularly at the Schwabener bathing pond market and let ships sail.
A visit to two hobbyists from the ship model building interest group.
Markt Schwaben - "It is not an obligation for us that someone has to build a ship", is how Michael Lang from Ottenhofen (Erding district) relativizes his membership of the IGS.
He sees himself in the role of a board member, leads the Ship Model Building Interest Group (IGS) Markt Schwaben, behind which a loose alliance of 16 men is hidden.
Most of them lost their hearts to ships and nautical science as children, and they rave about almost everything that moves on the water.
Markt Schwaben: Meet on the second Friday of the month
When the country is not dominated by a virus, they meet on the second Friday of the month in “Il Lago”, the restaurant on the Swabian bathing pond, where they occasionally show off their ship models, for example while showing off.
Lang received the Bazillus Modellbau from his grandfather Hermann von Poelnitz: “He once replicated a bus on the Nuremberg city lines true to the original, only with an umbrella to compare measurements.
I myself began my creative career at the age of twelve with the construction of 'Elke', a commercial fishing cutter construction set. "
Big or small - these ships are fine: Could be a poem by Pumuckl.
© Johannes Dziemballa
Other ships of all sizes and types followed, but the 65-year-old is now mainly buying older, already built models from others and lovingly restoring them.
For example, the legendary research ship “Calypso” by marine researcher Jacques Cousteau or a fireboat called “Düsseldorf”, which he almost sank himself, as Michael Lang explains: “When I presented this model at an exhibition in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, the one from his cannons could really splash water, I only noticed very late that this water was flowing back into the boat and it almost went under. "
Markt Schwaben: Hobby since childhood
His long-time friend and co-shipbuilder Nico Peter, who comes from Berlin and has lived in Bavaria for 22 years, also had early experience with miniature replicas. However, the trained businessman already indulged in this hobby at the age of six, building his first ships from cardboard. Hardly at school, he built the sailing yacht "Rohrspatz" according to plan. “But then there was a break. It wasn't until I was 16 that I started building 'Tön 12', a North Sea shrimp boat. At that time, "the 52-year-old recalls," the only tool I had was a Swiss officer's knife.
Today everything is different - "80 percent of the time in ship model building now goes to tool and mold making, if someone copies a ship according to shipyard plans, 20 percent then goes to the actual construction," explains Nico Peter.
That is already the high school of this leisure activity.
On the Schwabener bathing pond market since 1998
Peter's private fleet at home in Ebersberg includes 74 miniature ships.
They hang on all the walls in his study and even decorate the dining room.
And sometimes he goes out with some of them, for example to the model building exhibition in Prague, to present these filigree and fascinating pieces to other fans.
"Unfortunately, Corona gave us a longer forced break, but we want to exhibit again this year," hopes Michael Lang.
The IGS has been established in the Schwabener See market at the sports park since 1998.
As far as possible, the community of interests would like to introduce young people to this hobby as part of the children's holiday program.
“Like many other associations, we too have a problem with young talent.
We would be happy to see boys and girls who have fun building a ship, ”say Lang and Peter.
Interested parties are also welcome to come from completely different model building sectors - such as Nico Peter, who had "had a slip" in the so-called RC car scene for many years.
There, remote-controlled touring car or buggy replicas are used to drive races on a private or even semi-professional basis, right up to the European championship.
In the meantime, however, he is clearly interested in vehicles with water as the subsurface.