The Offenbach Stuben
by George Lewinski
Eastern Germany is littered with factories and huge industrial complexes that are either closed or on life support...dependent on subsidies from the state. There are some big
investments, for example, Dow is trying to resurrect the chemical industry in Stade and GM's subsidiary, Opel, has the most modern car factory in the world in Eisenach.
But generally most of the enterprises are fit only for the scrapheap...unable to compete in world markets.
Also, the the first few months and years after unification, eastern Germans were greedy to enjoy the products, services and food they couldn't have under communism. They got rid of their boxy Trabants and bought brand new Volkswagens or Fiats. They went for the Big Mac instead of sausage.
Caught up in the rush to try western goodies, the few good eastern enterprises got hurt too. Foreign editor George Lewinski visited one of these in the eastern half of Berlin.
The brochure in the hotel said: Offenbach Stuben or Offenbach bistro - Berlin gastronomy with tradition and character.....in the eastern side of Berlin....
Gutschau: "We opened the restaurant 27 years ago. It was the first here in Berlin."
The first private restaurent points out Klaus Gutschau. He's the co-owner of Offenbach. It's named after the nineteenth century composer of operettas.
Gutschau says it took more than a year for East German authorities to decide that it was politically correct to allow this kind of private enterprise.
But they refused to allow Gutschau and his partner to open near what passed for East Berlin's downtown - near the hotels and theaters - and told them to open in at the blue-collar district of Prenzlauer Berg. Being a restauranteur in East Berlin in 1970s posed some problems...like how do you compete with state-owned establishments.
Gutschau: "Only big hotels had big pockets, but this was private."
That means little clout with the state-owned suppliers and a tough time organizing a menu
Gutschau: "The big problem was the menus. We had to give money here or give money. We are going to the market, we must pay it extra, extra,extra, extra... a lot of money."
But customers came:
Gutschau: "Twenty-five years ago, and 20 and ten years ago, you must order a table here one month ...or two months..it was all reserved, no..."
People would get in line well before Offenbach opened at five pm. There'd always be people crowding into the tiny bar, hoping for a table in one of four small dining rooms. In those days, says Gutschau, there were plenty of customers, or guests, as he prefers to call them, but it was hard to get the right kind of food. Now, after unification, there's plenty of supplies, not enough customers.
Gutschau: "Only, Friday, Saturday and also Sunday coming a lot of people. But Monday, Tuesday, perhaps ten, or twenty. Why? I think we have more restaurants here in Berlin....Greek restaurants or Turkish."
...And, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Italian, just about every kind of food imaginable. The variety means that braised oxtails or roast duck with red cabbage, traditional hearty Berlin dishes, are a little passé.
Then, there's the other problems of a free market economy, like rent:
Gutschau: "You must pay now, for these restaurants a lot of money. Before the revolution, it was only 100 or 200 marks, and now it is four thousand marks rent."
Gutschau says that just before the Wall fell, there were all of nine privately-owned restaurants in East Berlin. Now, Offenbach's the only one left. And then there's post-unification labor costs. Offenbach sould afford a staff of 20 in the old days. Today, Gutschau can only afford four people in the kitchen.
George Lewinski is MARKETPLACE foreign editor. He is in Berlin covering European integration for MARKETPLACE as it broadcasts during the first week of June from the new German capital in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Marshall Plan.
