Der IT-Ritter - Backstage im Europa-Park | Die Freizeit-Helden (Folge 2)

My name is Hans-Jürgen van Akkeren and I'm an IT administrator at Europa-Park. Leisure Time Heroes Administration A normal working day starts at 8am, but I usually arrive a little earlier so that I'm already prepared. When you arrive at the office in the morning, you don't know what you're going to encounter today, what tasks you're going to face. That's what keeps things exciting. Good morning. It is very important to check first thing in the morning which are the most important tasks that need to be addressed today, so that the park operations can start smoothly. These are administrative tasks that have to do with the guest, such as cash register systems in shopping or catering, for example. Our co-workers at Europa-Park write us orders or fault reports via our ticket system. A lot of it can be done here directly at the workplace. We can also access various systems remotely. But of course, there are also certain issues that we can't resolve here on the computer, which we then have to resolve on site. We are here at a distribution hub for various offices, where the ports are patched to the patch panels. When a new workstation is set up, we look at the network socket, find it here and then patch it to the port and then set up the corresponding VLANs for this port. We have over 500 of these distributors throughout Europa-Park, main distributors and sub-distributors spread over 400 locations in the entire park. We have routes of fibre optic cables to sub-distributors and other things, that's several hundred kilometres. If you would count all the copper ports on site, you'd get to over 23,000 of them. In the beginning, there were just two of us in IT Service. We used to have far fewer employees that we had to look after. Today we are split into several teams and we have a lot more people. I have a personal nickname for him. I think I'm the only one allowed to call him that, because we've known each other for so long. It is: The Department Grandpa. I'm also known as the IT Grandpa. I think it's quite funny and I feel flattered when my young colleagues come and ask "Hans-Jürgen, tell me how this works, you know your way around". It's really nice to be able to look back over a long period of 23 years. He knows all the people in all the departments and of course also the systems that he has managed from the beginning. The IT Grandpa knows everything. People come to me and ask, and I think that’s great. Here I have a photo of the management. I once did a historical tour of Balthasar Castle for them. This is Jürgen Mack, Roland Mack is also there and I can be seen here in medieval garb. If I would do a tour in civilian clothes, there would be a spark that's missing. Dressing up is something completely different. It shouldn't look like a carnival costume, because you also want to show people how people were dressed in the Middle Ages. Greetings! Lichteneck Castle is the perfect place for me to give guided tours. You can see the castle from afar here in the region, people drive past it. It was a symbol of power for the Counts of Freiburg. It's very special to do guided tours up there. Come on in. I would like to welcome you all to today's castle tour at Lichteneck Castle. My name is Hans-Jürgen van Akkeren, I have lived in Kenzingen for a long time, I work in the IT service department at Europa-Park, and I would now like to invite you on a nice trip into the past. I enjoy it when people ask questions, or when we have a bit of fun and cheer people up, that's the great thing about the tours. This is about my tenth tour here, because I always come here when I have visitors. Today I was here with my grandson who was excited to see a real knight. I've known him privately for quite a long time now. He's a great artist. He knows a lot about history and really cares about it. It's always interesting to hear him talk. As soon as the topic is castles, he’s in his element. And than he can just keep talking. What you see in knight films everywhere, in cinemas, where they clash their swords, didn't exist in reality. I wouldn't want to break my sword by having two blades clash and then there are serrations all over the blade. I had this made for myself by a swordsmith. A so-called custom sword. He stamped a beautiful saying on the shaft in Latin which means something like ‘I place you under my protection’. It's something very special to hold a real sword in your hands. When the little kids say to their parents "look, Dad, there's a real knight". For me that's a great thing, when you can inspire the little ones with this. We'll learn a bit more today, because when the time comes you can tell them something in school. Well, and if not, then ask me again. I can give you a few tips. I like to see the beaming faces when I can inspire people. Giving something as a gift also brings you joy. Thank you very much for your attention and for going through Lichteneck with me. Thank you very much. Thank you. IT is not just sitting in front of a computer screen. The hardware we buy for example must be prepared, too. We also need space for that. This is our IT warehouse, where we store the hardware that we ordered for installation. Different types of plugs, different fibre optic cables. These are things that we always need to have in stock in a certain quantity. There is a locked door behind this. It is a danger zone. You can now clearly hear the Euro-Mir going past. If we open it, the security team will be here in seconds. This is a control board for our turnstiles at the front of the main entrance or in the hotel area. These are our own developments, we make in-house at the park. I have soldered on additional connections for our control board. Depending on how delicate the things are, you have to be careful not to solder the connections to others at the back, so that there is no short circuit on the board. You need a lot of patience, I find it very relaxing, like meditation, when I do these facsimiles. I write by hand with iron gall ink and a goose quill. The client sends me high-resolution photos, and the result should look to the viewer as if it was the original in front of them. I always enjoyed drawing and painting as a child, but it was all for myself until I did an exhibition in Kenzingen where I depicted the town of Kenzingen as it looked in the Middle Ages in watercolour. As an artist, you have to be self-taught and experiment a little and then you find new art styles that are very exciting and interesting. You can combine both history and art so beautifully. My personal favourite painting is the Song of the Nibelungs, the Book of Kriemhilden. The initials that are painted with mineral pigment colours and the gold leaf work that is in there, that actually combines everything in the medieval art of book illumination. Customers are often communities that run a museum, or our boss Michael Mack. This is the founding document of the Adventure Club of Europe, which hangs in the exit area of Pirates in Batavia. Founded in 1716 with a seal, It is ACE, and then it's written out on the outside. It makes me feel proud, yes, when you have a hobby like this, and you can produce a piece for Europa-Park. it's really great. IT-Service, Van Akkeren good afternoon. Yes, I'll have a look at it straight away. I'll be right there. See you soon. Bye. By the way, this would be very interesting for our visitors interested in history Our chapel is older than Europa-Park itself. It was built in 1954 by the last Baron Böcklin von Böcklinsau and the burial place is here to this day. This is the Vogtshaus, the oldest half-timbered house in Germany, which was saved by the Mack family. It was built in 1474 When the half-timbered house was delivered to Europa-Park, I came here every lunch break to see how they worked on it. It was really something special to watch. It really gave me goose bumps. I loved watching that. So, the camera here seems to be defective. I will probably have to replace it. Looks like the cable is broken in here. If a visitor suddenly realises "oh I've forgotten something in the car" he has to go back. The ticket is scanned and he is photographed so that the ticket stays valid, he can re-enter the park at another point for the day. The new camera goes back on here. The job is done, the camera is running again, the guests can use the turnstile again and on the way back, let’s go past Balthasar Castle, where I want to show you something else. We have some really great exhibits here. Originals from the Barons von Böcklin von Böcklinsau, who built this castle here in the 15th century. The Staufer sword that was found here in Balthasar Castle in 1910 during construction work, I had a copy made, as the original was in the State Archives in Freiburg. An original, even if it is this rusty now, is something entirely different, because it is a real one from the Staufer period, from the end of the 12th century. There is a big contrast between the modern technology in my job and what I do as a hobby. But I think they belong together somehow, because if the present is important to you, you report from the past. People talk about the good old days, but there are also good times today. When you see the faces of the guests as they come in the park and are happy to be here. it feels great, and it's also good for me personally to see that the people who come here are happy. They're happy to be here and that they're having fun, and because of my work, they got in a little bit faster. I think that's the reason why I do this job. So that it had a purpose, because just lying around lazily on the beach is not my style. I want to create something for the people, for the people who are around me. Right, enough with the history, now it's back to the technology. Let's go back to the office and see what other tasks there are to be done. Leisure Time Heroes