Little Hermann was certainly not a model student, he was a good morning, with a head full of practical jokes, and at the age of nine he mischievously indulged in the prank of rushing out of the school in the village of Baiersbronn-Mitteltal to secretly buy cigars in the forest with his companions smoking. “A friend’s father had an entire drawer full of Burger Stumpen, the short, fat Swiss cigars. We stole them, inflated them and then they smelled terribly, and then of course we got beaten up,” Hermann Bareiss remembers that escapade 71 years later as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.
The extraordinary career of the young do-nothing
The teachers at his primary school were very strict and very old, they didn’t understand fun at all and the cane was always loose. Student life was tough in other ways too, two classrooms for all classes, a craft room, a toilet block, nothing else, says Bareiss and smiles, very calmly and thoughtfully, full of humility and without any trace of triumphalism, which has with a clear conscience and with everything seen the double irony that fate has granted him. As the young scoundrel has become one of the most triumphant hoteliers in Germany and his primary school has become the home of an institution that is largely responsible for this success and which puts people at the center.
No other question of fate has plagued the German hotel and restaurant sector as much as the lack of human resources, at least since the pandemic.Finding good, loyal, motivated and committed employees is becoming increasingly difficult for almost all companies, and this dilemma brings many to the brink. Opening hours are inevitably reduced, services are reduced, quality standards are lowered because there is no other choice. Complaints about poorly trained young chefs and young hotel professionals, rudimentary specialist knowledge, stunted manners, lack of empathy and blatant complacency have also increased dramatically. There’s a good reason why it’s no longer just big companies that fight for qualified young talent as fiercely as football clubs compete for talented young stars.
Disagreement is not a solution
One can respond to this complaint with fatalism,misanthropy or quarrelsomeness,dismissing today’s youth as lost and throwing the gun into the grain of rudeness. But you can also take an example from the Hotel Bareiss in Baiersbronn-Mitteltal, which for decades has promoted and trained its employees in a more systematic and empathetic way than almost any other hotel in Germany. On average, 100 young people simultaneously train at Bareiss in five professions – a number that is probably unique in the German private hotel sector.
“For the guest there is no no.” This was the motto of Hermine Bareiss, the mother of the mischievous Hermann, who opened the Kurhotel Mitteltal in her home town after the Second World War, thus laying the foundations for one of the best and most luxurious holiday hotels in Germany and in 1973 passed the witness to his son. In order to meet her standards, Hermine bareiss needed collaborators so good that they would not capitulate to any guest requests, whether due to lack of interest or incompetence. Because of this very reason he invested a lot of time and money in qualification programs, which Hermann Bareiss significantly intensified and finally institutionalized with the founding of the Bareiss Academy.
Corinthian capitals in the training rooms
Ten years ago he purchased the old village school from the community and made it the headquarters of the academy. Since then he has resided in a typical late 19th-century Black forest house with a red sandstone base and wooden shingle facade, with carved gables and massive iron columns decorated with Corinthian capitals in the former and present-day classrooms. training rooms. And the old school is – the symbolism couldn’t be more appropriate – the first thing you see of the Bareiss universe when you arrive at the hotel from the city center.
The tasks of the academy are almost as diverse as those of a university. For apprentices it is considered an addition to the vocational school, it deepens and broadens their knowledge and prepares them for exams – with the pleasant success that Bareiss apprentices are almost always the best in their year and their failure rate tends to zero. Additionally, like all new hires, they are taught the history and mission of the Bareiss company, rules of conduct, dress codes and telephone interaction and are also required to chew dry bread as well as the basics of fire protection or regulations hygienic during food storage.
Champagne training for waitresses
The most pleasant academic exercises include regular training on tea and coffee, ham and cheese, vegetables and spices, fish and meat. You will learn to flambé, fillet and carve, and in cake lessons you will learn that the cut surface must always face the guest. And since Bareiss does not tolerate experienced idiots, almost all courses are open to all employees – even waitresses can participate in the champagne course, which does not necessarily have a demotivating effect on them.
Father and son share the same idea of the hotel industry: Hannes and Hermann Bareiss (right).Marco Kaufhold