"I'm shocked": Centuries-old beer garden has to close due to a neighbor's complaint
Created: 05/05/2022, 11:05 am
By: Janine Napirca
Can the people of Augsburg not sit together comfortably in the chestnut garden this summer?
© Anton's Inn & Chestnut Garden
Because a neighbor feels disturbed, the outdoor area of the "Antons" beer garden in Augsburg has to close.
The other neighbors have started a petition.
Augsburg – “When the weather is nice, you can sit in the chestnut garden with friends and family.
You tell us what you want and we will take care of it.
Because celebrating is so easy at Antons.” This is how the Antons inn in Augsburg, including the chestnut garden, advertises on its website.
But that should be the end of it now.
Hospitality at Sulzerstraße 20 has a long tradition.
For years, locals and tourists came and went in the "Mohrenkönig" restaurant until the operator retired.
In the meantime, the inn with the adjoining outdoor area in the Antonsviertel, which has now discarded the name with negative connotations influenced by colonial history and is now called Antons, is in the hands of the landlords Michaela and Michael Häuser.
Beer garden in Augsburg lacks planning permission - neighbor complains
After a season shaped by Corona, the couple wanted to really get going this spring and summer.
However, a complaint from a local resident could thwart the innkeepers' plans.
Because although the inn with outdoor catering has been running for over 100 years, there is no building permit for the beer garden.
We always adhered to the requirements meticulously, for example we didn't use a beer table set and ended on time, after 10 p.m. no more plates were cleared and no more pillows shaken.
Michaela Häuser, Landlady Antons Gasthaus & Kastaniengarten
Landlords take over Gasthaus Antons with a building permit issued by the city
The previous tenant had to file for bankruptcy, whereupon the Rieger brewery, lessor of the restaurant, applied for a building permit from the city of Augsburg - and was granted it.
Michaela and Michael Häuser leased the Antons, including the chestnut garden, knowing that the city had granted planning permission for the beer garden.
Due to the lawsuit, which, according to a report in the
Augsburger Allgemeine
, was successful before the administrative court, the Riegele brewery withdrew the building application.
Anton's innkeepers cannot understand the neighbor's displeasure
Neither the guests of the Anton nor the operator can understand why the neighbor feels disturbed by the beer garden, which has a tradition there for decades.
Especially since the innkeepers always follow the rules exactly: "We always meticulously adhered to the requirements, for example we didn't use a beer table set and ended on time, after 10 p.m. no more plates were cleared and no more pillows shaken," assures the landlady Michaela houses.
This is how the Antons informs visitors on its homepage
GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD
Because Antons is in the middle of the district and people not only live and laugh around us, but also sleep, the Kastaniengarten closes at 9:45 p.m.
Always and without ifs and buts: on a full moon as well as on warm summer nights.
Because only well-rested neighbors are happy neighbors.
Of course, our guests can also sit together after 9.45 p.m. and continue partying - inside in our cozy dining room.
The operator of the inn with beer garden also explains that the plaintiff neighbor admitted in a conversation that his complaint related to the previous tenant, who probably overdid it with the beer garden.
A celebration in which a beer garden was dismantled also recently escalated in Schwabach near Nuremberg.
His lawsuit had nothing to do with the Hauser couple, but there was a fear that a building permit would give future tenants a kind of “free pass” who would run the beer garden more excessively again, as the
Augsburger Allgemeine
reported.
A building permit regulates exactly how many square meters and seats the beer garden has and up to what time catering is allowed.
Michaela Häuser, Landlady Antons Gasthaus & Kastaniengarten
However, according to Michaela Häuser, this fear on the part of the neighbors is unfounded, because "a building permit regulates exactly how many square meters and seats the beer garden has and up to what time catering is allowed".
Future tenants would also have to comply with these requirements.
In 2020, the couple's houses separated off a part of the area, so that there was only room for 66 guests in the chestnut garden - the neighborhood should never again be disturbed as it was with the operator before.
© Anton's Inn & Chestnut Garden
Michaela Häuser explains that the previous beer garden had seating for up to 120 people.
However, the building permit from 2020 separated part of the chestnut garden, so that there was only room for 66 guests.
It can therefore never be the same as with the previous operator.
(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria. Register here.)
Augsburg is attached to its Antons with beer garden – petition started
Since the plaintiff was only one neighbor, but all the other neighbors had no problems with the Antons, a petition was launched.
Numerous people sign there, which is why Anton's chestnut garden may not be closed.
A neighbor who lives in the immediate vicinity of Anton writes: “We want our beer garden back.
This chestnut garden has been a beer garden for decades and I am shocked, to say the least, that something should change because of the complaints of individuals.” Can the beer garden – like the Klosterhof zur Post in Bayrischzell – be allowed to stay?
Another comment draws attention to the fact that the catering industry has already suffered enough from Corona and that it is sad "when restaurants and pubs have to close for flimsy reasons".
Another signer also says that he is signing because "the beer garden has existed longer than the neighbor has lived there".
It remains to be seen whether the popular beer garden will be allowed to open again in summer, or whether another piece of old Augsburg will go down in history.
You can read about the beautiful beer gardens in Munich here.
(jn)
