Today, our hotel operation with 8 guest rooms is the main focus of the business. Yet where hotel guests stay today, villagers, coachmen and travellers were already stopping more than 241 years ago. This page tells the story of the Goldener Ochsen through its inn, butchery, farming and later hotel operations.

What this page covers

This page brings together historic photographs, owners, building history, old documents and key milestones in the development of the Goldener Ochsen in Göppingen-Hohenstaufen.

  • Since 1785, the historic “Ochsen” has been documented; the 1865 building appraisal record, which describes the “alt Ochsen” as 80 years old, provides additional confirmation of this early date.
  • From the 19th century onward, the business is well documented in surviving archival material.
  • The house’s own farming operation was discontinued in 1960; woods, meadows and fields were leased out or sold from then on.
  • From 1965, the name “Goldener Ochsen” appears in the records.
  • Our restaurant currently has no regular opening hours. External guests may be served occasionally and at irregular times depending on operational availability. The restaurant may open for only a few hours, on individual days or on several days. Today’s current status is shown above on this page. The hotel remains open as usual.
  • The butchery has not been deregistered; active butchery operations are currently suspended for staffing reasons.
Because of its location at the foot of the Hohenstaufen, this page connects local history, the history of the house and the present-day surroundings.

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The Ochsen around 1877
The Ochsen before 1890
The Ochsen around 1900 – colourised view
Another view around 1900
Goldener Ochsen 1977 – view 1
Goldener Ochsen 1977 – view 2

Historical facts about the Goldener Ochsen

Name: Hotel Goldener Ochsen / formerly Gasthaus zum Ochsen
Location: Göppingen-Hohenstaufen, Ailstraße 1
Documented beginning of the historic “Ochsen”: 1785
Early known reference: 1804 as “Ochsenwirt” Georg Dannenmann
Historic uses: inn, butchery, farming and later hotel operations
Today: small hotel with 8 rooms in Göppingen-Hohenstaufen; active butchery operations are currently suspended for staffing reasons; the restaurant has no regular opening hours and service is subject to availability and staffing

Content reviewed on 27 September 2026

Detailed pages about the history of the house

This page gives an overview of photographs, owners, building history and important milestones. The early period up to the end of the 19th century is covered in greater detail in the detailed history of the Goldener Ochsen before 1900. The development in the 20th and 21st centuries – including farming until 1960, butchery, hotel operations, modernisation and the family business – is covered in the history of the Goldener Ochsen from 1900 onward.

Tradition that can still be felt

The Ochsen has been a family-run business for generations. Records, official documents and archive material show that it has long been a place to arrive, eat and meet others. That sense of hospitality still shapes the character of the house today.

Quick overview (timeline):

1. Historical pictures and information

The documented history of the house begins in 1785. Local archive holdings of Hohenstaufen and related sources document the later development of the Ochsen; an 1865 building appraisal record additionally described the then “old Ochsen” as 80 years old. The first expressly documented Ochsen innkeeper currently identified in the surviving material is Georg Dannenmann in 1804.

A house with a long chronicle

Many details become tangible through records, official files and archive material – and they tell the story of butchery, innkeeping and village life as a social centre.

2. Owners and family involvement

3. Building descriptions

The historic ground-floor layout is still recognisable

The basic arrangement described in the historic licensing records survives today, although the rooms have been modernised. The former main restaurant room remains the principal dining area, and both adjoining rooms are still present.

The larger adjoining room can be separated from the restaurant by a large folding partition or opened up to form one larger space. An internal door leads from this room into the smaller adjoining room.

The smaller room, measuring approximately 15 to 16 m², is known in family tradition as the “Kutscherstüble” — roughly, the coachmen’s snug. The name is part of the family’s oral history; the official records examined so far describe it simply as one of the adjoining rooms.

The corridor still provides separate entrances to the restaurant and directly to the smaller room, while another door links the smaller room to the larger adjoining room. This makes the historic division into a main restaurant room and two adjoining rooms readily understandable in the building today.

4. The history of the Ochsen and, since 1965, the Goldener Ochsen: butchery, inn and meeting place

The beginnings of the house now known as the Hotel Goldener Ochsen in Göppingen-Hohenstaufen continue to fascinate to this day.

For this house history, 1785 is an established date. It is therefore not presented here as “around 1785”, “approximately 1785” or merely as a calculated approximation.

A building appraisal record from 1865 provides an additional chronological reference: it describes the residential and commercial building of the time as the “old Ochsen” and states that it was 80 years old.

This appraisal record is important evidence for the age of the building, but the history of the house is not reduced to a simple retrospective subtraction from 1865. The established year 1785 is used independently as the starting year of this house chronicle.

The “Ochsen” stood directly on the former through-road of the village and on the way up to Hohenstaufen Castle. Its location helps explain the long connection with travellers, carters, merchants and visitors to the mountain, but location alone is not used as a dating method.

The earliest explicitly documented Ochsen innkeeper currently identified in the surviving records is Georg Dannenmann in 1804. The early development of the house as an inn, butchery, farming and supply business is described in more detail on the page history of the Ochsen before 1900.

Pioneering spirit on the mountain: the note “telephone no. 2”

When new technology arrives, it is often highlighted in advertising and directories – and this can also be observed in the history of our house. Historic directory entries and advertising material mention the inn and butchery “zum Ochsen” in Hohenstaufen together with the note “telephone no. 2”.

This strongly suggests that telephone accessibility was considered something special at the time and was deliberately emphasised. Historically, however, such short numbers must be interpreted with care: they were usually linked to a local exchange or local listing rather than to a later wider network system.

It is therefore no contradiction that equally short numbers could exist elsewhere. For Hohenstaufen, the core point remains clear: the “Ochsen” is documented there with a very early and remarkably short telephone number.

The important chronological point is that telephone number 2 already existed under Karl Mayer’s predecessor. It therefore cannot be used as evidence for the beginning of Karl Mayer’s period in 1907. Surviving material from Karl Mayer’s time shows that the established number continued to be used. Later forms such as “262” and eventually today’s “8062” belong to the longer telephone history of the house. Under +49 7165 8062, the hotel is still reachable today.

A surviving record that explicitly mentions the name “Ochsen” dates from 15 September 1804. On that day, the Hohenstaufen citizen Mateus Bidlingmaier sold fields to the then “Ochsen host” Georg Dannenmann.

Self-sufficient supply and craftsmanship

From the field directly to the table: for a long time, agriculture, livestock keeping, butchery, innkeeping and practical self-sufficiency belonged closely together – a pattern that shaped the house over generations.

From early on, the “Ochsen” was a versatile business and a meeting place for travellers, coachmen and local people.

The property once included not only its own well, pigsty, cow and chicken stalls and a spacious barn, but also woods and fields that supplied the house through its own cultivation.

The house’s own well was part of this earlier self-sufficient supply. In the course of modern requirements for hygiene and food safety in food operations, it was later taken out of service and filled in.

Pigs, oxen, cattle, calves and sheep were slaughtered on site, sausages were produced and goods were sold directly at the house.

The range was complemented by milk and homemade butter from the house’s own cows, fresh eggs from its own chickens, homemade bread, an in-house distillery producing spirits, and homemade cider pressed from the orchard of the property.

The history of the house is also a history of change: the inn’s own farming was discontinued in 1960; woods, meadows and fields were leased out or sold from then on. Over time, the focus of the business shifted more strongly toward the restaurant, the hotel and the butchery. The detailed development from 1900 onward is described more fully on the page history of the house from 1900 onward.

Guest rooms, hall and terrace – officially documented

The history of the inn is preserved not only in photographs and family memories but also in very specific official descriptions of the premises. A terrace belonging to the Ochsen is securely documented as early as 1906. Later restaurant licences show that outdoor service, hall use and guest accommodation were established parts of the business over many decades.

A licence from 1938, which refers back to the existing licence of 21 January 1920, records one main restaurant room and two adjoining rooms on the ground floor, a hall and two further rooms on the first floor, together with a restaurant garden and terrace and two guest rooms on the second floor. The document therefore shows the Ochsen at that time as an inn with several restaurant rooms, a hall, outdoor service and accommodation.

Surviving room layout: the basic arrangement described in the historic licences can still be recognised today. The former main restaurant room remains the principal dining room. The two adjoining rooms also survive; they have been modernised over the decades, but their fundamental position in the building has remained.

The larger adjoining room can now be separated from the restaurant by a large folding partition or opened to form one larger space. A further door leads from the larger adjoining room into the smaller room.

This smaller room, measuring approximately 15 to 16 m², also survives. In the family tradition of the house it was formerly known as the “Kutscherstüble”, roughly the coachmen’s snug. The name is preserved in the memories of older generations of the family; in the official records examined so far, however, the room is simply listed as one of the adjoining rooms.

The way the rooms are reached can still be understood as well. Separate entrances lead from the corridor both into the restaurant and directly into the small room, while the small room is also connected to the larger adjoining room. The historic division into a main restaurant room and two adjoining rooms can therefore still be recognised in the building today.

The restaurant licence from 1965 describes the spatial arrangement in still greater detail: six guest rooms on the second floor, a 66 m² main restaurant room and a 32 m² adjoining room on the ground floor, a 115 m² hall on the first floor and a 36 m² south-facing terrace.

The same year also provides direct documentary evidence for the change of name: the trade registration from January 1965 still calls the transferred business “Gasthaus und Metzgerei zum ‘Ochsen’”, while the restaurant licence from April already uses “Goldener Ochsen”.

The documents also record a change of address. Older restaurant licences list the Ochsen at Hauptstraße 37; by 1965 the address is already Ailstraße 1. The change therefore took place while Hohenstaufen was still an independent municipality and before its incorporation into Göppingen in 1971. The exact date on which the street name and house numbering changed cannot yet be established from the records examined so far.

In connection with Wilhelm Raabe’s novel Christoph Pechlin, the officially documented hall is especially interesting. Raabe referred in 1873 to the Tanzsaal des Ochsen, the dance hall of the Ochsen. The later licences of 1938 and 1965 independently confirm that a hall did in fact exist in the Ochsen. These documents alone do not prove, however, that it was architecturally the very same room described in the novel.

Current classification of the butchery

The current restriction of the butchery is also part of the recent history of the house. The butchery has not been deregistered; active operations are currently suspended for staffing reasons. Shop sales, production and slaughtering are suspended until further notice.

There are currently no sales, including through the restaurant. There are also no online sales, no party catering, no other catering services and no production.

Current classification of restaurant operations

Our restaurant currently has no regular opening hours. Service for our overnight guests is also subject to availability and staffing. Whether food is available in addition to drinks likewise depends on availability.

External guests may be served occasionally and at irregular times depending on availability and staffing. The restaurant may therefore open for only a few hours. Today’s opening status is shown on the website; when the restaurant is open, it is also indicated on site by our clearly visible “Open” sign in the window.

Our hotel remains open as usual. Even when restaurant service cannot be offered at all times, we are pleased to welcome guests to Hotel Goldener Ochsen.

Strategic location at Hohenstaufen

An important trade and transit road once ran directly past the house, and even today the old path still leads guests up to the historically significant Staufer castle ruins.

The historic importance of the Ochsen as a resting place at the foot of Hohenstaufen is also reflected in literature:

Wilhelm Raabe and the “Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen” in Christoph Pechlin (1873)

A particularly interesting literary source relating to the “Ochsen” comes from the 19th century. Wilhelm Raabe set an extended passage of his novel Christoph Pechlin, published in 1873, in Hohenstaufen. He not only names the village and the castle hill but also explicitly distinguishes in the story between the two inns, “Ochsen” and “Lamm”.

This is especially interesting for the history of our house because the historic “Ochsen” is documented in archival records long before the novel was published. Raabe’s text is, of course, literature rather than an official chronicle. Nevertheless, the repeated and unusually specific references show how the “Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen” appears in the novel as an inn, a possible place to stay overnight, a wedding venue and a place with a dance hall.

1. Staying at the Ochsen – and a wedding, music and dancing

Even before the principal wedding scene, Raabe explicitly names the Ochsen as a possible place to stay and links the inn directly with the festivities:

„Im Ochsen ist Hochzeit, Musik und Tanz, und hineingucken werde ich jedenfalls“

English translation: “There is a wedding, music and dancing at the Ochsen, and in any case I am going to take a look inside.”

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 16: original passage at Projekt Gutenberg

2. The wedding is explicitly at the Ochsen

From the castle hill, the characters hear music from the village. Raabe makes explicit which of the two inns is hosting the wedding:

„das Getön der Hochzeit im Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen; – im Ochsen, nicht im Lamm!“

English translation: “the sound of the wedding at the Ochsen in Hohenstaufen – at the Ochsen, not at the Lamm!”

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 17: original passage at Projekt Gutenberg

3. Raabe explicitly names the “Tanzsaal des Ochsen”

In the following chapter, Raabe again contrasts the two inns and expressly calls the hall at the Ochsen a dance hall:

„Je lustiger und wilder es im Tanzsaal des Ochsen zuging, desto stiller und stummer lag der im Lamm da“

English translation: “The merrier and wilder things became in the dance hall of the Ochsen, the quieter and more silent he lay there at the Lamm.”

The novel then describes the hall at the Ochsen with dancing guests, members of the wedding party and musicians. The dance hall is therefore not merely mentioned in passing; it forms a central setting of the scene.

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 18: original passage at Projekt Gutenberg

4. Sir Hugh has rooms arranged at the Ochsen

For the history of accommodation, Sir Hugh Sliddery is especially interesting. Raabe places him clearly at the “Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen” and refers to rooms arranged there:

„Sir Hugh saß … im Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen, allwo er wieder einmal chambers bespoken hatte“

English translation: “Sir Hugh sat … at the Ochsen in Hohenstaufen, where once again he had arranged rooms.”

Elsewhere in the novel, Raabe himself makes clear that chambers bespoken means rooms that have been engaged or reserved.

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 19: Sir Hugh and the rooms at the Ochsen
Explanation of the phrase in chapter 10: “chambers bespoken” at Projekt Gutenberg

5. The Ochsen as a closely described celebration venue

In the following chapter, Raabe again brings Sir Hugh to the Ochsen. He is seated in the middle of the wedding party, and the scene describes the hall, the doorway, tables and the musicians’ platform.

„Da saß er ganz behaglich zwischen dem Brautvater und dem Küster“

English translation: “There he sat quite comfortably between the bride’s father and the sexton.”

Later, according to the novel, the commotion spreads from the hall down the stairs and out in front of the house. The Ochsen is therefore an unusually vividly described setting within the Hohenstaufen episode.

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 20: original passage at Projekt Gutenberg

6. Ochsen, Lamm and the village street

The relative position of the two inns also plays a part in the story. The wedding party moves from the Ochsen through the village street in the direction of the Lamm:

„die Hochzeitsgesellschaft aus dem Ochsen … die Dorfgasse“

English translation: “the wedding party from the Ochsen … the village street”.

Raabe therefore repeatedly treats “Ochsen” and “Lamm” as two separate inns whose positions within the village relate to one another.

Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Pechlin, chapter 22: original passage at Projekt Gutenberg

What can reasonably be concluded historically? Our “Ochsen” is documented in archival records long before 1873. Raabe explicitly names an “Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen” in his novel and describes it across several chapters in connection with accommodation, a wedding celebration and a dance hall. It is therefore reasonable to regard an actual Hohenstaufen inn as a local reference used in the story.

What does the novel not prove? A literary work is not a building file or restaurant licence. The novel alone cannot prove, for example, that every celebration described actually took place or that every architectural detail exactly matched the real building at the time. The reference to the “Ochsen zu Hohenstaufen” itself and the specific literary descriptions are, however, clearly present in the text.

Direct sources for the Hohenstaufen and Ochsen passages

Further early house history and archival evidence can be found in our detailed history before 1900.

Current hotel information

This page is a historical archive page. For current room information, directions and general contact details, please use the current English hotel pages. Reservations and arrival arrangements are handled by telephone and in German.

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6. Disclaimer

Despite careful checking of external links, we assume no liability for their content. The operators of the linked pages are solely responsible for their content.