Eberfing - It is Sunday morning shortly before 11 am in front of the “Gasthof zur Post” in Eberfing.
The quiet of a lockdown Sunday reigns in the village.
The invitingly laid table on the small meadow in front of the traditional restaurant is particularly eye-catching.
District administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß, Eberfingen mayor Georg Leis, district chairman of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) Peter Kuchler and the couple Bernhard and Maximilian Schmidt-Pauly have gathered around the table.
With the festive table, the landlords take part in the nationwide “Gedeckter Tisch” campaign, with which hoteliers and restaurateurs from the North Sea to the Zugspitze want to draw attention to their precarious situation and demand an opening perspective for their hotels and restaurants.
As a silent protest, they put a made bed or a table in a public place.
In addition to the “Post” in Eberfing, other restaurants in the district have also taken part in the campaign, such as the “Drei Mohren” inn in Steingaden.
If this were a normal Sunday, the Schmidt-Paulys would now be busy making the final preparations before their restaurant opens: “Sunday is of course our main business day,” says Maximilian Schmidt-Pauly.
Instead, the “Gasthof zur Post”, which they leased from the Eberfing community, has been closed since November 1st.
If the Eberfinger would not continue to order and collect, then the landlords would not have made any business.
And they don't know when to open again.
“We need perspectives and a timetable,” says Bernhard Schmidt-Pauly.
He doesn't know how long this lockdown will last.
"It is important that there is a perspective for the catering trade," says Mayor Leis.
The municipality has accommodated the tenants in that the lease payment has been suspended for a year.
“The goal is clear to bridge this difficult time together.” She hopes that the restaurants will be able to open again soon, says District Administrator Jochner-Weiß.
As in the retail sector, there were sophisticated hygiene concepts in the catering industry.
"I think these are not the sources of the contagion." She feared the end for many traditional Bavarian restaurants if this situation continues for a long time.
