When Tim Mergelsberg came across the birch bark in 2004, he had already been living in Siberia for almost a year, where he was doing his community service in the Istok social village project did. Here, he ran the wood workshop and, together with those in his care, sawed up what felt like all the birch trees in the taiga into firewood with the help of the drushba („friendship“), a handsaw that can only be operated by two people.
Fortunately, the taiga is larger than human perception and so there were still enough of the white trees to donate their bark for the first vessels.
After Joachim Heinz When Istok asked him to make birch tins for the European market, Tim immediately fell in love with this material, which reminded him of wood, was as supple as leather in his hand and gave a lot of warmth, and not just to those in his care.
Without further ado, together with his friend Jakob Steigerwald, he set up a workshop in which the people under his care could carry out therapeutic work and produce consistently high quality products for the Siberian and European markets, and in sufficient quantities. This involvement of people with so-called intellectual disabilities in the value creation process was a novelty in Russia and is still a role model today.
After returning to Germany, Tim began to study languages, economics and cultural area studies in Passau. Here he also learnt Colin Bertrand who was actively involved in sagaan for many years. At the same time, Tim faced up to economic reality and learnt, among other things, what a phyto certificate is and how to pay import sales tax. He also found many loyal customers and partners. These have kept him enjoying his work with birch bark to this day.
Since 2007, Tim has been travelling to Siberia every year, sometimes for several months, in search of birch bark. He not only visits Lake Baikal and the production sites in and around Irkutsk, but also the Tomsk region, where most of the birch bark is produced today. Production takes place. In the summer of 2012 and 2013, he spent extended periods harvesting in the relevant areas and trained in the processing of birch vessels, making him a recognised expert in the processing of birch bark.
Tim has made it his mission to preserve and pass on this knowledge. Since 2012, he has increasingly been giving courses and seminars on the processing of birch bark and the background to the material, sometimes in collaboration with Ulrike Bohnet. In this way, they want to raise awareness of this timeless material and demonstrate new possible uses.
At sagaan, he not only manages the operational business, he is also the face and Contact person for all matters.