1911: Market house is built - the nucleus of gastronomy around Wilhelmsplatz
The beer is foaming, the wine is sparkling, the espresso is fragrant. Napkins are unfolded, knives are cut, forks are speared: around Wilhelmsplatz, gastronomy is as concentrated as in a wine-soaked excursion destination on the Rhine. The square is surrounded by a ring of restaurants, each with its own character. The ring has become wider since the innkeepers have been pushing their tables and chairs further and further out into the open.
The abundance is a product of recent times. It has developed gradually. But Wilhelmsplatz was already a center for refreshments and hospitality in the past. This probably began as early as the second half of the 19th century, when the city grew eastwards and residential buildings framed the former cemetery.
Wilhelmsplatz gastronomy probably gained momentum when the first traders left the old marketplace further west and set up their fruit and vegetable stalls in a new location. Because a market makes you thirsty. Anyone who stands there for hours and sells their wares has to sit down, needs to warm up or cool down, wants to count their pennies in peace. However, you will rarely find women shoppers taking a break. Ladies in an inn, that was not appropriate. Market women, on the other hand, did stop in. Of course, no one drank outdoors. Open-air catering belonged to the excursion restaurants on the outskirts of the city.
When it wasn't market day, however, the innkeepers relied primarily on evening business. At Karl Deininger's "Stadtschänke", for example, newspapermen liked to call it a day in the post-war years. In the early hours of the night, when the day's work was done, the rotary press was running and the city was getting sleepy. Wilhelmsplatz was then on the way home. And if it wasn't on the way, people would take a detour to relax, discuss the Kickers line-up and city politics, swap gossip stories or babble about trivial matters.
There was the "Deutscher Hof" on the eastern long side, where you could meet established master craftsmen with their ladies in the evening. On the corner of Wilhelmstraße, the "showman king" Wilhelm Laudenbach established a second foothold in stationary gastronomy. But then the lively Frenchman André appeared on the square and blew into the established structure like a gust of wind.
The Frenchman conquered the little market house, which had been built in 1911 for the market administration and was peppered with places of convenience. Schnitzel and ribs were not necessarily to the taste of the short, thin and tongue-tied Frenchman. And nobody called him a prude either. He gave his restaurant in the Markthaus the name "Clochemerke". This was inspired by an amusing French novel by Gabriel Chefallier about a public toilet block. The house for emergencies is to be built next to the church in a small town, and a scandal ensues in which even the military intervenes. The German translation of the novella, published in 1934, was a widely read book in the "Don Camillo and Peppone" genre in Germany around 1960.
André is remembered as an original who attracted regulars and enlivened the square in his own way. Since this Frenchman appeared there, Wilhelmsplatz has increasingly acquired something like French charm. Because the "Clochemerle" only had a limited amount of space, its landlord was one of the first to set up tables and outdoor seating in front of the door.
This did not disappear when the Frenchman gave up after a few years. Today, the square with its many open-air eateries is somewhat reminiscent of the Parisian lifestyle. Because when the name "Clochemerle" disappeared from Wilhelmsplatz, a new generation of restaurateurs had already discovered the square. With young ideas and new concepts, they are trying - in and around the Markthaus - to do justice to what they recognize as changing guest wishes.
This ensures variety and increases choice. But it grows out of a tradition that is older than all living The Wilhelmsplatz is a long bar with history and many memories. by Lothar Braun.
