Every day until December 24th, we present people who provide enlightening moments or bring light into the darkness under the motto "Rays of light in Advent".
Today a candle maker.
Brunnthal
– Roland Hofbauer can't imagine anything worse than being idle.
That's why the pensioner usually wakes up early in the morning, changes his clothes and drives to his wooden hut in Brunnthal.
Here, covered in snow, is his candle making workshop.
The beekeeper brings the beeswax up to temperature, grabs a wick and the Advent production begins.
Hofbauer, 66, is a candle maker.
He cultivates a centuries-old craft.
He has been pouring and growing candles for almost 40 years.
"I started beekeeping as a balance to work," says the former bus driver.
Making candles then comes automatically.
Even as a pensioner, Hofbauer sometimes jumps in as a bus driver - if not, he's in his hut or at the Christmas market.
There he sells his candles.
+
100 percent manual work: Hofbauer pours the wax into a mold – which later becomes a pine cone.
© Max Wochinger
He offers 80 different shapes, angels, owls, pyramids – or pine cones.
He also casts one today: Hofbauer takes the silicone mold and puts a wick through it.
Then he grabs the pot with the warm beeswax in the water bath and fills it into the mould.
An hour and a half later the cone has hardened.
Some days he spends ten hours in the hut, which smells of the bitter-sweet smell of beeswax.
"A good wick is the be-all and end-all," says the beekeeper.
Hofbauer owns a whole box of cotton threads, the right one for every candle shape.
The inventor has built a clever pull system so that he has to handle the wicks as little as possible.
And of course the beeswax is also important: it has to be clarified and should contain as little pollen as possible.
"It's a huge job," says Hofbauer.
He prefers to buy it from the wholesaler than granules, 50 kilos a year.
His bee colonies could not produce this quantity;
a colony produces around one kilogram of wax per year.
It doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot of work for the bees.
+
Candles, candles, candles: the pensioner offers 80 different shapes at Christmas.
© Max Wochinger
So-called candle-making also takes a lot of time and effort.
A wick is repeatedly put into the wax bath and hardened;
the process is repeated until the desired thickness is reached.
"You need almost 20 turns for Christmas tree candles," explains Hofbauer.
He spends a whole hour doing it – real manual work.
Only a few people still maintain the tradition, Hofbauer is one of them.
Of course, his candles are also burning in his house.
But Hofbauer doesn't have time to enjoy the candlelight during the Advent season.
He is constantly on the move, on the way to the next Christmas market, to the wooden hut or on the public bus.
On Christmas Eve, however, the great hour of his candles strikes, then they burn on the decorated Christmas tree.
"For me, that's just part of it," says the Brunnthal candlemaker.
About the series:
Every day until December 24th, the Münchner Merkur will open a little Advent door under the motto "Glimmers of Light in Advent".
People are presented who provide enlightening moments or bring light into the darkness.
