Who got help?
For example Florian Teichmann from Artern. Actually, he had been active as a street food entrepreneur with his brother since 2016. But there was an argument. So he started his own company, now with an employee. The timing for this was unfortunate: Summer 2020. Because the company had no previous year’s sales – it didn’t even exist yet – the existing aid programs were out of the question. But the US Army field kitchen for burgers, fries, pulled pork and Co. cost money – as did the repair.
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And the major events that Teichmann normally goes to have largely been canceled. Retrospectively, the loss could at least be partially compensated for with a low five-digit amount – Teichmann paid for the rest with borrowed money and reserves. Things have been going well since this summer: “The last festival I set a record for this year: it was almost 200 kilograms of potatoes for french fries,” said Teichmann. Then there were several hundred burgers.
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Who was not a case of hardship?
The consumer hotels Dorotheenhof in Weimar and the mountain hotel in Oberhof would also have liked help, but the ownership structures oppose this. The houses are mainly intended for wellness visitors and tourists. Tourist visits were forbidden for a long time, so the hotels were 100 percent closed for months. “We had then already expected that the federal government would pay for at least part of the losses,” says managing director Sebastian Löser. But the hotels belong to the Zentralkonsum eG in Berlin, a large cooperative. It also includes retail stores and two industrial establishments.
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Overall, their losses were not high enough for Corona aid. “If we had different ownership structures, we would have been entitled to an amount in the millions,” he says, disappointed. More than two million euros in loss have accumulated over several months. Rents, leasing installments, heating costs, maintenance – all of this continues and then has to be absorbed by other members of the cooperative.
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Actually, we just want to be treated fairly.
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After all, the two hotels received a one-time fee of 75,000 euros from the Free State – from Löser’s point of view, a drop in the ocean. At least the utilization is now very good again. “But I can’t catch up in a hotel, the number of rooms is limited.” A loan secured the financing. That must now be paid off over years. Investing in the development of the houses doesn’t exactly make it any easier.
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Does the extension bank expect more help?
Yes. Over the past year and a half, more than 100,000 aid requests have been processed, as spokeswoman Montavon says. Some of the programs continue to run. And no one can know how autumn will develop. It is possible that as restrictions increase here and there, companies will again falter.
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