Home » News » The Hotel-Restaurant Zum Werdersee closes forever at the end of January – Bremen Links der Weser: District Courier

The Hotel-Restaurant Zum Werdersee closes forever at the end of January – Bremen Links der Weser: District Courier

Ingeburg Möhlenkamp has sold her hotel-restaurant Zum Werdersee. (Petra Stubbe)

For the last time, old Bremen chicken soup, grandmother’s beef roulade, roast goose or venison goulash: you can still buy the usual take-away dishes at the Hotel-Restaurant Zum Werdersee. But at the end of January the traditional house at the foot of the Erdbeerbrücke in habenhausen closes its doors forever.

Owner Ingeburg Möhlenkamp has sold the business. “It had to be done,” says the woman who is known in Arsten and habenhausen like no other. When she begins to list the reasons for the sale, it quickly becomes clear that it was not a light-hearted decision. “I’ve lost my family in the last two years,” Möhlenkamp begins.

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First her husband Thomas Möhlenkamp, ​​who died unexpectedly in April 2018. Her father Horst Möhlenkamp, ​​who took over the business in 1966 and rebuilt it, died just three months later (see below). “He was a passionate cook and chef,” she describes him in retrospect. When she had to carry her mother Marie Luise Möhlenkamp to her grave in May 2019, she was all alone with the then well-running restaurant business.

“You can run a business of this size on your own, but that’s a 24-hour job, seven days a week without vacation,” says Möhlenkamp. 46 employees, including 20 permanent employees, the restaurant, the hotel with 20 rooms and then also the numerous celebrations and celebrations in the house: she thinks she could have managed that somehow.

Big investments

But it was also clear to her that she had to modernize the house. “The last time it happened 18 years ago, I should have invested 500,000 euros – and it would take me ten good years to get it back,” explains Möhlenkamp. A difficult decision at the age of 58, she thinks. “And then there was Corona,” Möhlenkamp describes the point at which it became clear to her: At least now, things can no longer go on.

The drinks that she actually stored for the cabbage trips in March 2020 are still piling up in the cellar to this day. She can accommodate 350 people in the house if she is fully booked. Now she has to see whether she can still recycle the surplus goods in the company.

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When looking for buyers, restaurateurs would quickly have given up because of the pandemic, but residential construction on Lake Werdersee, several interested parties could imagine that. “In the end it was a gut decision to sell the house to the project development company Holzdamm 104,” says the hotel owner.

Hotel will be demolished

It’s not much that buyers are revealing about themselves at this early stage. According to their information, it is a merger of two habenhauser craft companies, a project developer and an architect. Whether you want to realize condominiums or assisted living in the coveted location on the Werdersee has not yet been determined due to the short planning time, you can send us in writing. The hotel will probably be torn down, and construction will start in 2022 at the earliest.

Anyone who counts half the village among their regular guests and is also considered an institution beyond the city limits knows that the closure will affect many people. Especially in a district of the city in which there are only a few restaurants where the residents can still come together to celebrate and chat after club sports. “Some of our guests have celebrated their entire lives here – from baptism to wedding and beyond,” she knows. And Möhlenkamp had been there since she was four. She lived in the house until recently, and when she was twelve she stood behind the counter for the first time. She was there when families came together to welcome new children, celebrate confirmations, or mourn the dead.

Only one stuffed lion is allowed to sit at the counter until it closes.  Because of the lockdown, the regulars from Arsten and habenhausen have to say goodbye from afar.

Only one stuffed lion is allowed to sit at the counter until it closes. Because of the lockdown, the regulars from Arsten and habenhausen have to say goodbye from afar. (Petra Stubbe)

All of that is now over “and I think it’s three times a shame that we can’t really say goodbye because of the lockdown,” Möhlenkamp regrets. She also knows that it is difficult for her employees to lose their jobs – some have been employed in the company for well over 30 years.

Now the house is closing exactly 55 years after her father took it over. Möhlenkamp: “But that’s okay with me now, that closes the chapter for me and I thank our guests for the longstanding loyalty.”

Down to business

The history of the traditional company on Werdersee

Already at the end of the 18th century opened “Schmidt’s Coffee House” on the site of today’s restaurant. On November 11, 1966, Hans Walter Schulze and his son Horst Möhlenkamp took over the location at Holzdamm 104. In 1967 his wife Marie Luise Möhlenkamp joined them. In 1969 a bowling alley and a hotel were added. Conversions and additions were carried out on an ongoing basis. In 1972 the hall, previously used as a warehouse, was set up and put into operation.

In 1984 the daughter Ingeburg Möhlenkamp joined the company and took over in 2002. In the same year she carried out a major renovation and had a winter garden added. The company was then jointly managed by Ingeburg Möhlenkamp and, until his death in 2018, by husband Thomas Möhlenkamp. The hotel will be sold on January 31, 2021. Most recently, the company said it had around 3,500 guests per month until the pandemic and up to 7,000 guests per month in the main business months.

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