Thanks to YouTube videos, Alfred Bauhaus, also known as “Scrapyard Fred”, became a celebrity in the Ruhr area.
© Matthias Lorbach
Scrap yard owner Alfred Bauhaus became a star in the Ruhr area thanks to his YouTube videos.
NRW – Alfred Bauhaus (65) has been running his “Bauhaus Auto Recycling” junkyard in Duisburg for 43 years. About a year ago, in February 2021, he began filming his everyday work at the junkyard in collaboration with TV author Matthias Lorbach (32) and uploading it to YouTube under the “Freds Revier” channel. Since then he has developed into a real Ruhrpott celebrity under the name “Schrottplatz-Fred”.
NRW: A unique piece in the Ruhr area is an internet star – “Fred’s Revier” reaches up to a quarter of a million people
Although everyday life in the junkyard is the subject of the internet clips, the focus is on Fred with his unfiltered and likeable manner.
His everyday work at the car recycling center starts with an orange jacket, a nicotine-free cigarette and a “scrapyard coffee”. “Bauhaus car recycling”, Fred says into his phone so often during the day that it comes out again in the evening. “In the evening my ear burns, I can tell you that”, he explains in one of his videos.
With this unfiltered and likeable Ruhrpott style, he inspires up to a quarter of a million viewers on YouTube. It is an extremely entertaining world of its own, explains producer Matthias Lorbach image. (More news from NRW at RUHR24)
NRW: Ruhr area unique “Schrottplatz-Fred” becomes an internet star – that’s how it all started
Before his career as a junkyard owner began, Alfred Bauhaus did an apprenticeship as a mechatronics technician at Mercedes. “It used to be called a car mechanic,” explains the 65-year-old.
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When he finished his apprenticeship at the age of 18, his grandfather asked him if he wanted to take over his junkyard. Fred’s answer to this: “Yes, of course, I’ll do that immediately,” he says enthusiastically to this day.
Matthias Lorbach from Krefeld came up with the idea of filming what happened at the junkyard: “At some point I thought it might be worth trying to start a YouTube channel.” This is now going so well that “people even recognize me on planes or at trade fairs. Crazy!” Fred marveled in conversation with the Image.
NRW: Unique piece from the Ruhr area inspires with its junkyard everyday life – “I’ve already found everything”
Fred is now a grandfather of eight and has already seen and told a lot at car recycling: “This is where cars come in, nobody wants to get in there,” says Alfred Bauhaus.
“Once, for example, I found a prosthetic leg in a purchased car.” This is quite bizarre and strange, but fortunately there was no body in any of the finds, he says.
TV stations have also become aware of the 65-year-old and reported on him. Among others Vox, DMAX, RTL2 and the WDR. As he says himself, Fred will stay with his viewers and the scrap yard in Duisburg for some time. Because even at 65, he is far from over.
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