Toni Bartl
Producer, director, musician, film-maker, inventor
At the age of 10 Toni Bartl Jr. took his first steps in learning to play the diatonic accordion.
Only at the age of 17 was Toni really inspired by the accordion and then began to take lessons in the Styrian accordion under the instruction of his father, Toni Bartl Sr. His first recording came only 3 years later and in 1993 he participated in the Diatonic Accordion World Championships in Castelfidardo, Italy. On his first attempt he came in second place. When he took part a second time in 1996, Toni managed to secure the championship title with a score of 99 out of 100 points. His unique playing technique which allows him to play three different melodies at once gave him the edge he needed to taken first place.
In 1999 Toni Bartl won a bet on Gottschalk's famous television programme "Wetten dass...?" by proving a harmonica can in fact be played with a 20-tonne digger. A few years later a TV-magazine listed the bet as one of the six best bets of all time.
1999 was also the year when Toni Bartl began experimenting with alternative musical instruments. His idea of taking everyday items and modifying them to be used as comical instruments paved the way for a number of appearances in cabaret shows, earning him countless awards.
Toni soon began to specialise in putting on short programmes with his company Toni Bartl Showconcept, the first to be booked for all manner of industry events. There are also touring public shows such as Knedl & Kraut and Alpin Drums.
Between 2016 and 2017 Toni Bartl built a quaint mountain lodge named "Kaiserschmarrn-Alm" above the Partnach Gorge in Graseck near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The mountain lodge was built based on historical designs using scrap wood and rubble, and has become a popular tourist attraction.
As with many of the unique curiosities of the Kaiserschmarrn-Alm, all of the instruments and scenery for his shows are also created by Toni himself. As a result he devised a practical tool which is now patented and in production. The multi-purpose tension system "FixButler" was released in 2017. Toni Bartl's company, "ToniTools", now has four patents for the tool market.
What's more, the eventful life of his father, Toni Bartl Sr., has also made something of a film-maker of Bartl Jr.
Toni wanted to preserve the memory of his father's life experiences and released a DVD documentary in 2012 titled "Toni Bartl Sr. - Hannesla - A Werdenfels Legend". Once he learned the ropes, more documentaries followed such as "Andreas Baumann - A Life for Traditions" and "Schweizer Bartl - The Bavarian Gearloose".