Nina and her girls
Their names are Helene, Hilde, Paula, Catharine, Dorothea, Anni and Ursula. Just like the ships of the Bertling shipping company, which was founded in Lübeck in 1865. Today, however, neither ships nor ladies are bearers of these names. Today these are the names of the rooms in the new Hotel Garni “Die Reederin” in Große Altefähre 23. In the immediate vicinity of the port, the traditional shipping company Bertling had its headquarters. For more than 150 years, work was carried out in the offices with their massive cabinets and heavy safes until the shipping company moved its headquarters to Hamburg. What remained was a vacant historic building in a perfect location in Lübeck’s seafaring quarter. Simply a treasure that Nina Dietze had to lift to make her dream come true – the dream of her own hotel, which bears her signature as an empathetic and warm-hearted hostess. The hotel will finally welcome its first guests from mid-January.
Between sugar store and hotel dream
After graduating from high school, it was clear to Nina Dietze that she would first complete an apprenticeship as a restaurant manager. The industry was what Nina had been looking for. Nina’s choice was hotel management as a field of study. She placed a focus on event management and sales. Reservations and group bookings were her everyday business.
Since 2012, Nina Dietze has lived with her family in the former sugar warehouse in Engelswisch. The desire to run her own hotel, where she could offer her guests an unforgettable stay in Lübeck, matured rather slowly within her. As chance would have it, the building in Große Altefähre was vacant after the Bertling shipping company moved out and the two properties were also adjacent to each other. In the meantime, the offspring was almost out of the woods. So what else was there to wait for? The time for the realization of the hotel dream had come.
Maritime ambience in midnight blue and oxide red
For the interior design of the house, located near the river Trave, Nina Dietze developed an inspiring reinterpretation of the maritime style. The shades of midnight blue and oxide red set the tone. The rooms radiate a restrained warmth, which is mainly due to the fact that the history of the house and its owners and visitors is allowed to unfold: The owner skillfully mixes historical furniture and found objects from the shipping company’s offices, such as historical cabinet doors – now reworked into headboards for the beds – with lovingly selected furniture. There are, for example, the bedside cabinets that she bought in Sweden or small chairs that came from an auction in Denmark, which she reupholstered herself.
You just want to fall right into the COCO-MAT natural beds, especially since no bedspread or decorative pillows need to be put aside. Modern touches like the small containers that serve as luggage storage and stylish little tables and stools lighten up the atmosphere.
The bathrooms offer a special surprise – also with a reference to the theme of the port and shipping: cut-up and newly coated container doors and side walls serve as room dividers to the walk-in shower and to attach the suspended washbasins. It took some very strong men to carry up the container parts, Nina Dietze reveals with a grin.
Home for a time
Nina Dietze leads me through “Die Reederin” and can’t get out of the storytelling. There are the historic stair railings and staircases, in some places still the former floor tiles and the doors with leaded glass windows, which e.g. also Willy Brandt used, who at that time still completed his training as a ship broker here as Ernst Frahm. One led to the cashier’s room, where for decades marks, Rentenmarks, Reichsmarks, German Marks and most recently Euros passed from hand to hand. A washbasin set into a wall in the hallway reminds us of the captains who came straight from the ship and quickly washed their dirty hands here before meeting the shipping company representatives in the office.
I can feel how much she has fallen in love with the building. It is a matter close to her heart to deal as sensitively as possible with the history of the house and still ensure lightness. Nina Dietze believes that it is important not to have too rigid a concept. She says that you have to remain flexible in the face of surprises that come with uncovering roof beams and historic masonry and to trust your own inspirations.
The Hotel die Reederin offers seven rooms on three floors. Under the roof there is a suite namUrsula with magnificent exposed beams, which is very suitable for a family or two couples traveling together, as it has two separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms.
Wedding night with Hilde
The windows offer magnificent views of the neighbouring houses, red Old Town roofs and brick gables. The imposing tower of St. Jakob’s and the spires of St. Mary’s can be spotted when looking out of the window in the Paula room. The ship that gave the room its name was once an express steamer that ran between Lübeck and Magdeburg from 1922.
Hilde is the name of the spacious bridal suite, the only room with a bathtub. The name fits so well, the hotel owner thinks, because Captain Hugo von Pein, who sailed the seas on the “Hilde”, drew a congratulatory card for the wedding of the son of the company’s founder, Consul Jacob Bertling, a copy of which still exists today.
The Cognac Room – the name is ancreation of Nina Dietze’s husband – serves as the house bar, where guests are welcome to make themselves comfortable with a drink. Nina Dietze attaches great importance to the fact that her temporary residents can move freely around the house. Because there is no classic reception desk, Nina Dietze, as a good hostess, remains available by phone at all times for questions and requests and can quickly scurry over to her guests from her home next door if necessary. She is very happy to make her own office space available as a coworking space if needed. There you can also relax by the fireplace and indulge your own thoughts.
In the large event room on the ground floor there are two sofas that can be moved flexibly. Guests enjoy à la carte breakfast in the room next door. Here, an the former buffet of the husband’s great-aunt was integrated as a matter of course. These two rooms, which are also dominated by the colours from the guest rooms, will also be available to non-hotel guests for coffee and cake or for family celebrations in the future.
Scandinavian light
At the end of our tour we stand in the breakfast room overlooking the garden. From the outside, the brilliant autumn light falls through the windows, drawing bright pictures on the walls and conjuring up a fascinating atmosphere reminiscent of the watercolours by Swedish painter Carl Larsson. It is precisely this lively, cheerful atmosphere that Nina Dietze wants for her heart’s project and for the interaction with her guests.
After my visit I am firmly convinced that she will easily succeed in creating this feeling with her positive and optimistic attitude.
