Over 200 years at the harbour
The story of the LEXOW.
From the Rostock-born shipowner Joachim Lexow around 1800 — through the Becker and Hans families — to us today. The story of a grand house at the Tönning harbour.
Over 200 years at the harbour
From the Rostock-born shipowner Joachim Lexow around 1800 — through the Becker and Hans families — to us today. The story of a grand house at the Tönning harbour.
At the harbour, opposite the Tonnenhof, a now nearly 150-year-old stately house towers over all neighbouring buildings. With its grand rooms and spacious cellar, it once stood comparison with the patrician houses of the great medieval trading cities.
Joachim Lexow, a man from Rostock, arrived in Tönning around 1800 during his voyages as a seaman. He established a household here and rapidly built up a substantial fortune as a shipping and marine insurance agent. When his old house at the harbour fell victim to the flames, he could afford to build this — for Tönning standards — pompous house.
When England a few years later, in its struggle against Napoleon, closed the Elbe and Weser ports, an era of economic prosperity began for Tönning. The small harbour town at the mouth of the Eider attracted the entire North Sea trade and became the most important transshipment port. Joachim Lexow used this development to expand — he eventually operated 22 ships of his own, set up a ropewalk, a shipyard and a grain trade.
After the Becker generation, in 1970 Ove and Anneliese Hans bought the residential house at Am Hafen 36-37 — the beginning of a new family era at the Tönning harbour. Ove Hans started several projects in Tönning, from a general store to the Hotel "Zum Goldenen Anker".
The 1st of May 1982 is a special date in our family history: on that day, Günther Korsilack opened the Café & Restaurant Hafenblick next door — and on the very same day his son Niels-Ove Korsilack was born. The Restaurant Hafenblick still exists today — right next door, with a view of the harbour. More about Restaurant Hafenblick →
In 1998 Antje Hans-Korsilack and Günther Korsilack bought the Lexow house from Anneliese Hans — Antje's mother. They gradually transformed the venerable building into a hotel business. In 1999 they purchased the neighbouring building from a neighbour, allowing the hotel to grow.
In 2002 son Niels-Ove Korsilack joined the hotel operations. Around 2005 Günther Korsilack stepped back due to illness. Since then Antje Hans-Korsilack and her son Niels-Ove run the hotel together — a true family business in the third generation Hans/Korsilack.
Daughter Nina Jaber (née Korsilack) successfully runs the Café & Restaurant Hafenblick next door. Two family businesses, side by side, recommending each other.
The house that Joachim Lexow built around 1800 still stands at the harbour. Behind its old walls we have created a modern hotel: hotel rooms, apartments with fully equipped kitchens, flexible Self Check-in and a generous breakfast buffet. But our values are the same as 200 years ago: personally run, connected to the harbour town, with genuine hospitality. We are a family business welcoming you to one of the most beautiful places on Germany's North Sea coast.