Since November 11th, 2005 another music bar was added to the scene in Bremerhaven,
which carries a history of a hundred years behind its walls. Reopened in the fourth
generation, the "Hotel Metropol" [Photo 1], close to the
Fritz-Reuter-Platz, was built with the thought to be Gesine and Johann Frommer ´s
provision for their old-age [Photo 2].
The house soon becomes meeting point for teams and crews from the NDL (Norddeutscher Lloyd) and
the American occupying troops, who make it to “their” club. Business flourishes, and another event
causes positive mood in the family, the birth of their son Hans.
In 1943 the hotel is shut down by the agriculture department. Shortly after that, it is hit by a
bomb, eight people die, among them Gesine Frommer.
Hans, directly ordered to the front-line from the Lessingschule, is able to escape from the war
confusions with the help of his Sergeant, who is also from Bremerhaven, so he can help his father
remove the bomb rubble [Photo 3]. When reopened in 1946, again the allied troops are
the first to show up, seize the hotel and rename it the “Club Tug Boat Inn”.
Rudolf Frommer now takes care of the heating room, working in his own house, while his son Hans
does the waiter job. Just natural, they know to use the advantage given to them by the Americans,
US Cigarettes and Whisky, an inestimable wealth in those days.