Kanitz freight company: transporting instruments for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Berlin bluntness meets classical music. Tattooed lads and people wearing tailcoats and suits. Does that work? Sure it does! And for Kanitz freight company and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra it's a perfect fit.

 – Martin Heitmann

Heavy metal meets classical music.

Whilst strong men sit at the wheel who, they say, prefer to listen to heavy metal or rock guitar in their leisure time, behind them there's a whole orchestra stowed: with violins, xylophones, timpani and clarinets. “We transport Stradivaris and even a 16th century harp,” says Martin Heitmann. He has been working for Kanitz for 30 years as a driver and packer. What is the value of an orchestral transport? Heitmann winks and makes a movement as if he were sealing his lips with an invisible key and throwing it away.

He and his workmates know how the value of the instruments cannot be measured. And not only in money terms. Working together with the Philharmonic for decades has created a basis of trust that is worth more than money can buy. Some musicians will only entrust their treasure of treasures to Kanitz. Touching from outsiders: unacceptable. “You're our transport angels,” Heitmann recites proudly, something one of the members of the Philharmonic once said.

Also, each truck at Kanitz has a personal musical guardian angel. Company boss Jörg Noster baptises each new vehicle personally with a bottle of champagne and gives it the name of a composer. These are then enthroned on the front windscreen, easy to read for everyone: Ludwig van Beethoven, Georg Friedrich Händel, Peter Tschaikowski and Edvard Grieg.

The Ten Commandments of Kanitz.

But first the Philharmonie: they have arrived at the concert hall and go confidently to the lift that takes the team to the artists' area. First floor: the canteen. In the background you can hear cutlery on china plates and quiet murmuring filling the room. The men have a short break to buy something to eat at the counter. They as good as belong to the ensemble. While they are waiting for their sausage with fries, ketchup and mayonnaise, more and more musicians come up to them. Hands are shaken, shoulders are patted and they all chat warmly and are on first-name terms.

Back to the lift, second floor: the storage and rehearsal rooms. Somewhere you can hear musicians tuning instruments. Heitmann and his colleagues quietly start packing. A kettledrum goes into a special case. This looks tricky. How much does the whole thing weigh? “Oh, not too much,” they joke and laugh whilst wheezing a little. One of the company maxims is: “A member of the Kanitz staff only lies in answer to one question: Is it too heavy?” This saying hangs on the wall at the company headquarters, together with the nine other commandments. Another one is printed on the T-shirts: “A Kanitz worker never gets bruised: on the head, the cart or the box.” The Berlin workers always have a joke to laugh at. Which is a good thing. Kanitz and the Philharmonic – at first glance, those are contrasts like Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg or major and minor. But it's precisely these contrasts that go to make up a perfect composition. In this case such a special one that you can still enjoy listening to them after more than sixty years.

Photos: Kristian Barthen