Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Zimmermann’s Lübecker Hanse, Kolk 3-7, Lübeck.
Photos © Jan-Erik Nilsson, Cheryl M. Cordeiro for CMC, 2009

Walking distance from the Marktplatz of Lübeck, Germany, right in the middle of the An der Undertrave and An der Obertrave, about a hundred meters into the Old Town or the Kolk, you’ll find one of the most romantic coves of the city. The buildings in this historic spot are conserved in their original form from the Medieval times. It is here, along the narrow, charming cobbled streets of the Old Town that you’ll find Zimmermann’s Lübecker Hanse, a restaurant with warm dark wooden interiors and service captains that will bend the menu backwards for you, if you so wish it.

Kolk, a cozy part of the city with heritage merchant houses.

The restaurant is located along the same street as the city’s Theater Figuren Museum, a puppet museum that houses more than a thousand theatre pupppets from 3 continents. Puppets from Europe, Africa and Asia are displayed and more impressive, they have been collected from different centuries.

A few meters ahead from Lübecker Hanse is the Theater Figuren Museum (TFM).

Just a quick note and digression from the Lübecker Hanse to the theatre puppet museum across the street; the puppets on display were fantastic to behold, everything from glove and finger puppets, to stick puppets and marionettes. Shadow figures, the kind that I’ve become familiar with whilst growing up in Southeast-Asia were also on display.

400 year old merchant houses line this street, where the Lübeck Theater Figuren Museum is found.

What I found most interesting with the puppets was how the puppets reflected each country and its culture in its make, with culture specific facial features, clothes and expressions, where it is known today via behavioural research that facial expressions are hardly global in nature, even though we are all humans. Chinese theater puppets were more than distinct and distinguishable in dress, make-up and style of make, from an Italian carnival puppet, and African stick puppets, I thought, came absolutely in their own world.

Outside the door, to the right, a display of handwritten menus from Zimmermann’s Lübecker Hanse.

When it comes to Zimmermann’s Lübecker Hanse that sits in this idyllic quarter of the medieval town, the first tantalizing eye candy is really the hand-written menus, written in German and displayed in a signboard against the rustic white painted walls, outside of the restaurant.

Front cover of the menu, Zimmermann’s Lübecker Hanse.

And if anyone wondered if the cozy tavernous interior of this restaurant is as warm and personal in service as the hand-written menus, then they would be delighted to know that, it is.

The weather was uncertain on the day of our visit, with a brief downpour that got us all drenched. What I really wanted was a steaming cup of hot chocolate when I first settled on a cushioned seat at the restaurant. But they had no hot chocolate listed on the menu.
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The Niederegger Arkandencafé in Luebeck, Germany.
Photo © Jan-Erik Nilsson and Cheryl M. Cordeiro for CMC, 2009

The Niederegger Arkadencafé in Lübeck makes for the perfect place to sit, relax and soak in the impressions and history of this cozy town. The café itself has a long standing history, beginning in 1806, founded by Johann Georg Niederegger.

A view of the Niederegger Arkadencafé, from the market square looking in.

The café is located right at the Markt or the market place, which is a large buzzing square lined with cobbled stones, next to the Town Hall. The market place itself is ancient in terms of existence and use, where excavations of the site as recently as in the 1990s showed that the square had been in continuous use since prehistoric times and might have even been considered a sacred place of worship in times before Christianity.

History as it shows up on the pillars and walls of the arcade and market place.

The buildings surrounding the square feature architectural designs from eras gone by, the copper roofs, concrete pillars and bricks all marked by moving in history, through time.

The outdoor section of the café that faces the market square.

Our visit to Lübeck coincided with the Harley Davidson weekend in the small town, so the café was filled with people waiting in anticipation for the Harley concert that was to begin at about 6 pm that evening, in the square.