A traditional restaurant is available for lease

The Pohlenzschänke, which belongs to Leipe and is located in the middle of the Spreewald, is looking for a new tenant.

The Pohlenzschänke, as it is known today, was built exactly 100 years ago as a brick building by the Lübbenau construction company Trüstedt & Balke. Previously there was a log cabin on the same site and then a simple little stone house. The origins of the restaurant can hardly be traced, especially as the house was under Saxon administration until 1815.

The restaurant belongs to the district of Leipe and therefore to Lübbenau. It is named after the Pohlenz generation of owners and was handed over to the Fittkau family in 1966, who still own it today. In the meantime, there were several tenants with well-known names in the Spreewald, such as Callin or Starick. In the last decades of the GDR, the restaurant was used as a children’s holiday camp.

The Pohlenzschänke is one of the most remote restaurants in the Spreewald and is therefore an idyllic destination for barge tourists, cyclists and paddlers. Until the 1960s, the house was only accessible via the waterway, but now a cycle path leads from the direction of Burg to the Pohlenzschänke, with branches to the Waldhotel Eiche. The Wotschofska restaurant can also be reached via a bumpy paved path from the Pohlenzschänke.

In its history spanning several centuries, a number of events and people have been remembered. The restaurant was home to Karl Albinus (deceased 1889), who, together with the Lübbenau teacher Paul Fahlisch, made a significant contribution to publicizing the Spreewald through publications in Berlin newspapers. The Wendish poet Mina Witkojc, who later became famous, was born in 1893 as the illegitimate child of Fritz Pohlenz and a maid and grew up for a time in the Pohlenzschänke. In the 1950s and 1960s, the GDR peace ride team regularly recovered here after the tour in the solitude of the Spreewald.

The new generation of owners

Marco and Sophie Fittkau are the new generation of owners and have been running the traditional restaurant since January 1, 2026.

The Fittkau family at Easter 2026 in the Pohlenzschänke beer garden.

In the meantime, the Pohlenzschänke has been taken over by a new generation of Fittkau owners. Sophie and Marco Fittkau do not currently live and work in the Spreewald and are currently unable to run the house in the Spreewald themselves, although they have occasionally opened the house and entertained guests, most recently over Easter. A tenant would help them run the day-to-day business, while the owner couple would focus on renovation and reconstruction. 100 years have left their traces on and in the building, which are to be gradually erased.

Sophie Fittkau: “We are looking forward to working well with the future tenant to restore our historic inn to its former glory and breathe new life into it.”

The current and somewhat restricted opening hours can be viewed at pohlenzschänke.de.

More about the history of the restaurant

Peter Becker, 16.04.2026