From a high-quality restaurant to a charming city hotel
As early as 1758, Johann La Haye, who came to the Rhine with the French during the Seven-Years War, established a high-quality restaurant for officers and distinguished citizens in the market place and inscribed the front with the words “King of Prussia”. The restaurant remained under family ownership for more than a century, most recently under the Hövelmann family, the heirs of La Haye.
Following the Hövelmanns, Karl Franken, who had previously managed a printing works at the “Kapital” in Xanten for many years together with his brother, acquired the building at the beginning of the 1920’s and continued the hotel under the established name Hövelmann.
When 85 percent of Xanten was destroyed in spring 1945 at the end of the Second World War, Hövelmanns also suffered. Well into the 1950’s, all that was to be found on the site was an undeveloped area rather than a hotel, before partial rebuilding was carried out. It was not until 1978 that Hövelmann’s Restaurant & Hotel was gradually given its current appearance by the then owners, the Peters family.
In the 1990’s, the Gerstner family from Xanten acquired the building and initially leased it. Since 2004, the fortunes of the building have been under the joint management of Andreas Scholz and Ulrich Gerstner.
