A guided tour of the market and the cellar

A market veteran and caretaker from the very beginning: Bernd Maier is a co-founder of Markthalle Neun—and has been passionate about markets since childhood. Growing up in Augsburg, with one of the most beautiful weekly markets in the country right on his doorstep, he knew early on: Someday, I want to run a market myself.

But that also means dealing with cold storage facilities, fire alarm systems, electrical panels, and basement logistics—and, inevitably, a light that won’t turn on somewhere. There’s a lot to keep running smoothly at a market. What you rarely see is part of his daily routine: waste management, maintenance, the workshop—and the big question of whether water will flood the basement again during the next heavy rain.

A market needs more than just pretty stalls and good food. It needs people like Bernd and the maintenance team. In this tour, he’ll show you just how much technology, planning, and improvisation go into keeping the market hall running smoothly—and why the BMZ sometimes beeps.