Butcher's apprentice at 67

Created: 09/28/2022, 07:00

By: Gerti Reichl

He still wants to learn: Heinz Waldenmaier (r.) started an apprenticeship as a butcher with Stephan Hagn in Rottach-Egern.

© Thomas Plettenberg

Heinz Waldenmaier is 67 and probably Germany's oldest trainee.

He wants to be a butcher and has recently started an apprenticeship with Stephan Hagn in Rottach-Egern – out of curiosity and conviction in the responsible handling of animals.

Rottach-Egern – It's just before noon.

It smells of smoked food, fresh white sausages are brought in on a rack.

Heinz Waldenmaier strips his hands off his white rubber apron and adjusts his white cap.

He rolled up the sleeves of his white and blue striped shirt a long time ago.

He is in white rubber boots.

"I just scrubbed and cleaned the floor," says Waldenmaier and is also a little proud of it.

Sure, even that is part of an apprentice's job, even if Waldenmaier is an exceptional apprentice.

At the age of 67 he now wants to become a butcher.

He worked in other professions throughout his life, and after completing his training in the administration of justice he worked as a lifelong civil servant for the Federal Border Police for 30 years.

In addition, since 1978 he and his wife have been running the "Anzengruber" guest house in Rottach-Egern and the Garni-Hotel "Ludwig-Thoma" in Tegernsee-Süd - with holiday apartments and a total of 70 beds.

Almost nobody wants to know and see what happens in the entire production chain.”

Heinz Waldenmaier

Waldenmaier is not someone who sits back.

He was managing director of the Rottach-Egern tourist office for nine years and is also a member of the Bavarian Economic Advisory Board.

Because the topics of animal welfare and organic meat have been on his mind for a long time, he wanted to find out more about what actually happens in a slaughterhouse.

"In Germany, you only know the purple cow and the steak. Almost nobody wants to know and see what happens in between in the entire production chain." Waldenmaier does.

Butcher's apprentice at 67: It all started with a course in the slaughterhouse

He applies to the slaughterhouse in Kulmbach and successfully completes the "Slaughtering" course in order to then also receive the relevant certificate of expertise from the Miesbach District Office, Department of Veterinary Medicine.

Further internships follow - among others with Mirko Göttfert in his steak shop in Kreuth, where he can continue to expand his knowledge in the future.

And he doesn't even miss an insight into Islamic slaughterhouses in Dubai, where interested parties of all ages can follow the processes behind glass panes.

Waldenmaier wants to help ensure that the butcher's demanding work is given more public appreciation, "because the Rottacher believes that he responsibly processes an animal into a 'means of life'.

"And if, in the event of a possible next meat scandal, the call is made again that you should buy from your trusted butcher, then it could be that this will soon no longer exist."

So Waldenmaier goes one step further and decides to do an apprenticeship.

Since the beginning of September it has been in Stephan Hagn's EU-certified butcher's shop in Rottach-Egern every day.

The 59-year-old master butcher, who is also a chef and brought his father's butcher's shop back to life in Kalkofen in 2015, has previously worked alone here - probably due to a lack of suitable apprentices.

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Hagn is one of the few butchers on Tegernsee who still butcher themselves.

"50 years ago there were about ten butcher shops with their own slaughterhouses in Rottach alone," says Waldenmaier.

He is now taking an apprenticeship with the only one left, namely Stephan Hagn.

Stephan Hagn's butcher's shop in Kalkofen: Everyone can shop here

It's about regionality and about the fact that the animals are slaughtered and processed as gently and quickly as possible and in compliance with legal regulations.

Which is the case with Hagn.

"The animals are delivered here by local farmers," says Stephan Hagn, pointing to a door in the slaughter room, one of two large areas of the butcher's shop, which also has different cold rooms, storage and packaging rooms.

50 types of sausage are made here, as well as dishes such as roulades, shish kebabs or stuffed roasts with sauce, which only have to be thawed and heated at home.

There are also cuts of meat and sausages that Hagn sells to Muslim markets -- since there's no pork.

Even if there is no shop:

"If I were 30 years younger, I would establish an open, transparent, transparent butcher's shop in the Tegernsee valley, possibly as a cooperative, like the natural cheese dairy," says Waldenmaier.

Because transparency is what moves him, just like animal welfare and the various processes that take place after the animals arrive at the slaughterhouse.

Butcher's apprentice at 67: With 15 to 17 year olds he has to go to school

Heinz Waldenmaier has to go to the vocational school in Rosenheim every Thursday.

He goes to school there with 15 to 17-year-old boys and girls.

"We are only ten apprentices in the class, plus four trainees in sales," reports Waldenmaier and says that this reflects the current shortage of trainees.

Then he has an anecdote up his sleeve: "Registration was only possible online and up to the age of 1962. Because the program doesn't allow for such old apprentices, I'm now registered as being born in 1962." The reduction of the apprenticeship period from three to two years was already approved.

He is currently negotiating whether he has to come to subjects such as German, religion, economics and social affairs, “because during my police service I was able to

to teach these subjects myself” Except on school days, he is on the mat with Stephan Hagn on workdays from the early morning.

"I can cutter, i.e. make sausage meat," says Waldenmaier, "as well as fill intestines.

Now I am in the process of learning how to release pieces of meat.”

His boss is extremely satisfied with his apprentice, knowing full well that Heinz Waldenmaier simply learns things faster – and above all wants to learn.

"He'll get the hang of it in six months," Hagn is convinced.

Scrubbing the floor remains with him – even as a journeyman at 69.

You can read more interesting stories from the region here.

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