Laura Kampf: From Caravan Workshop to 859K Subscribers

Channel: Laura Kampf   Who: Laura Kampf, Cologne maker   Subscribers: 859K (as of 15 November 2026)   Niche: workshop builds, vans, tiny houses and making

As of 15 November 2026 Laura Kampf's channel, youtube.com/@laurakampf, has 859K subscribers and 555 videos. The banner reads "I am Laura" / "I make videos about making." She started in 2015 with seven subscribers — people she already knew — and has posted a video every week since 2016.

A caravan workshop in Cologne

Anna Laura Kampf was born on 15 August 1983 and grew up in Wiehl, Germany. She is based in Cologne and describes herself as a maker. School was a struggle, especially maths. She trained as a media designer, worked as a camera assistant for three years, and studied communication design at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences from 2006 to 2012.

Bored of working at a computer, she taught herself craftwork. Her first machine was a small tattoo machine that barely worked, made in a college class. She learned repairs from YouTube tutorials. Her first tools were a soldering iron, then a jigsaw and a welder. In 2010, after quitting a job at an apparel company, she moved out of her apartment and set up a workshop with a caravan in Ehrenfeld, Cologne.

Seven subscribers, then a weekly habit

She started her YouTube channel in 2015. The first video was wordless: she built a lamp from walnut wood. "At first, I had seven subscribers, seven of which I knew." She took a bar job to fund her projects. Those early wordless videos helped her reach people outside Germany. She has posted weekly since 2016. By August 2016 YouTube was her full-time job, and Popular Mechanics called her a "rising star among DIYers on YouTube."

She began collaborating with Simone Giertz in 2016 and has done so often since. Her 2016 star key was inspired by Jimmy DiResta. In 2017 she told Make that her favourite build was the "Happy Machine", a children's carousel made from a bicycle wheel. She had 200,000 subscribers by May 2017. That month she appeared with Adam Savage on Tested's One Day Builds, making a tape dispenser that holds several rolls.

Tiny houses, a beer-keg sidecar and TV

Her television debut was KiKa's Schrott or Not, which she co-hosted for 16 episodes from April 2017. Since the 2018 Christmas season she has hosted "Lauras Machgeschichten" on Die Sendung mit der Maus. From September 2017 she built the "Tiny House Trailer" from a construction trailer, and it became her home. In 2018 she converted a camper van.

In January 2019 she built a beer-keg bicycle sidecar. It was unstable and didn't really work, yet the video passed 6 million views within a year. That same year she built Mad Max-style battle cars with Giertz on Adam Savage's Savage Builds, and worked on Giertz's Truckla, a Tesla Model 3 turned pickup. Since 2019 she has co-hosted the podcast Raabe & Kampf with her childhood friend, author Melanie Raabe.

She had 500,000 subscribers by 2020. She won the 2020 Goldene Kamera Digital Award (Best of Education & Coaching) after a 2019 nomination. "Fire Up 2021" with Savage won a 2021 Webby People's Voice award. In 2022 she bought a 120-year-old house near her workshop and named it Liselotte after a former resident; its renovation became a big focus of her videos. By 2023 she ran a production studio with two employees and a workshop in Oberbergischer Kreis near Cologne, and her videos averaged about 200,000 views. She appeared on Sesame Street in May 2023. She married Corinne Brinkerhoff in 2024.

Every defect gets respect

The workshop slogan is "every defect gets respect", a lyric by Peaches. The videos run about 4–5 minutes, are mostly in English and unscripted, and she edits them herself with about 200 cuts each. Her dog Smudo often appears.

YouTube is her income, because the builds are not made to sell. She takes a few sponsors — Lincoln Electric is one — and only ones that give her creative control. She has Patreon supporters who get blog posts and livestreams: in 2017 about 600 patrons gave about €1,670 (about US$2,000) a month. She also sells merchandise with her logo.

What other creators can take from it

Seven subscribers she already knew, a weekly upload, and videos that work without a shared language. A beer-keg sidecar that failed as a vehicle still pulled 6 million views. The through-line is not polish — "every defect gets respect" — it is showing up in the shop. She funds that work with YouTube, a handful of sponsors who leave her in charge of the video, Patreon supporters who get blog posts and livestreams, and merch. You do not need 859K subscribers to offer the same extras: the posts, the photos, the extra video, the chance to talk.

On Yaff you can run tiered memberships with posts, photo dumps, videos, ebooks, group chats and DMs. Starter is free with a 5% platform fee; optional Creator ($19/mo) and Pro ($99/mo) plans drop the platform fee to 0%; payouts go to your bank daily via Stripe. Start your free Yaff page and publish your first post, see pricing, or read how to fund your expedition or adventure with memberships and add Yaff to your YouTube channel.

More origin stories: From Useless Robots to 2.9M Subscribers: Simone Giertz, From Model Maker to 7M Subscribers: The Adam Savage Story and From Toy Designer to 2M Subscribers: Jimmy DiResta.

Watch Laura Kampf on YouTube