Attic with Small Exhibition @museum.de

So you’ve found your way up here, all the way to the top? And climbed up the steep attic stairs? You're jolly brave. Up here in the attic, as you can see, everything's a little skewed. The Süßes Löchle is simply a really old house.

In the past – oh! – more than 50 years ago, when I was just a young girl, Herr Wehrdt, the piano teacher, used to sleep up here. But that wasn't very cosy. Because the little rooms surrounding this space were storage rooms. That was where my Auntie Gertrud used to park everything she didn’t need any more – and later on, I did the same! And then ... if the children – my own niece, for example – if they were disobedient, I made them sleep up here in the attic. That was severe punishment, believe me!

These days... these days, it looks much more homely in here. Ah yes, the coffee and biscuit boxes, they were always nice to look at. And now, they're real collector's items. And over there, at the back... oh, it’s the old baking tins and measuring cups and whisks and biscuit cutters... and the moulds for making Easter bunnies! I always had such a hard time putting those together.

Well, we soon stopped making them. The last red sugar bunnies... give me a minute... when were we making those? some time in the early 1940s, that would have been. Then food became scarce, and after the war, people only wanted to buy the stuff they made in factories. But they still enjoyed coming to the café. "Oh, Frau Seidl," they’d said, "in here, it feels as if I’ve been transported to another time!" Well, I love it when people like my café.

Because I devoted my whole life to the Süßes Löchle. And my customers have always appreciated that. Now that I’m getting on, they’ve set up an association to rescue the Süßes Löchle. Other people run the café now. I'm too old for it. But the association has made sure I can live out the rest of my life here. That's really wonderful, and something I’m very grateful for. But I wonder what this place will look like when I'm no longer around? Will the skewed and crooked little house be torn down and replaced by a new building? I wonder ... will people still be able to have a coffee here? Who can say?

And that’s the end of our story. Hildegard Seidl died in September 2015... but her café is still here! It’s been lovingly restored and still welcomes customers, same as ever – for tea and coffee and cake... for exhibitions, recitals and family parties. No doubt Mrs. Seidl would be very happy to see what has become of her Süßes Löchle!