Current operating information
Restaurant: no regular opening hours
The restaurant currently has no regular opening hours. Service for hotel guests also depends on availability and staffing. External guests may be served occasionally and at irregular times.
The restaurant may open for only a few hours, on individual days or on several days. Whether food is available in addition to drinks also depends on availability.
Is our restaurant open today?
Our restaurant is closed today.
When the restaurant is open, a clearly visible “Geöffnet” (“Open”) sign in the window also indicates this on site. The hotel remains open.
Parking spaces at the property:
The parking spaces at the property are intended for hotel operations and overnight guests. They are not public parking spaces.
Butchery: active operations are currently suspended
The butchery has not been deregistered. 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, event catering, other catering services or production.
Current hotel operation: 8 guest rooms
Today, the main focus is our hotel operation with 8 guest rooms. Room enquiries, reservations and arrival arrangements are handled exclusively by telephone and in German. E-mail is intended for general enquiries only. Payment is cash only.
Four surviving images from the historical hotel guide
The surviving material shown here consists of the cover and three selected inside pages. The inside pages are numbered 14, 16 and 34. The entry most important to the history of the house appears on page 14 under the place name Hohenstaufen. Click or tap an image to open a larger view.
The Ochsen entry in full
On page 14, under the place name Hohenstaufen, the “Ochsen” has its own framed advertisement. The transcription below reproduces the wording that remains legible today; the historical abbreviations are retained.
Telefon Nr. 2
Hohenstaufen.
Telefon Nr. 2
Gasthaus und Metzgerei z. Ochsen.
Schöne luftige Zimmer; auch für längeren Aufenthalt; vorzügl. Küche;
reelle Weine bei mäßigen Preisen. Gute Bedienung.
Bes.: Karl Mayer.
Meaning in English
“Telephone no. 2. Hohenstaufen. Telephone no. 2. Inn and butcher’s shop ‘Ochsen’. Pleasant, airy rooms; also suitable for longer stays; excellent cuisine; genuine wines at moderate prices. Good service. Proprietor: Karl Mayer.”
The English rendering is provided for understanding; the German transcription above remains the historical source wording.
The explicit reference to guest rooms is particularly significant. The advertisement does not merely promote food, drink and the butchery; it also offers accommodation and even states that the rooms are suitable “for longer stays”. The guide is therefore direct historical evidence that accommodation formed part of the business.
Statements such as “vorzügl. Küche”, “reelle Weine” and “Gute Bedienung” are historical advertising claims from the original entry. They are reproduced here as source material and are not presented as a current assessment.
Hohenstaufen on page 14: Lamm, Ochsen and Café Georg Hommel
Page 14 is also interesting for the local history of Hohenstaufen because the “Ochsen” does not appear in isolation. Immediately above it, under the same place name, is the “Gasthaus u. Metzgerei z. Lamm”, with Karl Hommel named as proprietor. That entry advertises rooms, cuisine, wines and, among other facilities, a bathroom.
Directly below the “Ochsen”, again under Hohenstaufen, is the “Café & Konditorei Georg Hommel”. The surviving print includes advertising phrases such as “Alkoholfreie Weine”, “Feinste Schokolade” and “Angenehmster Aufenthalt”.
Taken together, the three entries show that travellers and excursion visitors to Hohenstaufen could choose between several hospitality businesses. For the history of the “Ochsen”, this matters because the guide documents the house as part of a local hospitality landscape rather than as the only establishment in the village.
Telephone no. 2 and the house chronology: two separate pieces of evidence
The advertisement brings together two historical facts in one document: Karl Mayer as proprietor and telephone no. 2. For dating purposes, however, the two facts must be assessed separately.
Telephone no. 2 is documented for the “Ochsen” from 1894 and therefore predates Karl Mayer. The hotel guide shows that this established number continued to be used during his period. It does not prove that the telephone connection was first installed under Karl Mayer, and the number must not be used as evidence for the beginning of his period as proprietor or operator.
Independently of this hotel guide, Karl Mayer is documented in the house chronology for 1907–1919. The guide entry is consistent with that period, but without a securely established publication year it does not provide a more precise date within those years.
What the guide securely proves – and what it does not
- Business description
- “Gasthaus und Metzgerei z. Ochsen”
- Proprietor
- Karl Mayer
- Telephone
- No. 2 – this number is documented for the Ochsen from 1894
- Accommodation
- “schöne luftige Zimmer”, also advertised for longer stays
- Other Hohenstaufen businesses
- The Lamm and Café & Konditorei Georg Hommel appear on the same page.
The guide itself does not establish its exact publication year, the beginning of Karl Mayer’s period, the original installation date of the telephone connection, the number or equipment of the guest rooms at the time, the actual occupancy of the rooms, the number of overnight guests or the objective quality of the services advertised.
Telephone no. 2 must not be used to date Karl Mayer’s takeover. The number is documented from 1894 and therefore predates Karl Mayer. Its appearance in the hotel guide shows that the established number continued to be used during Karl Mayer’s period, but it does not establish when that period began.
Dating the historical hotel guide
The exact publication date of the surviving guide is not securely established from the images currently available. This page therefore deliberately gives no publication year.
The reference to Karl Mayer is an important clue. When compared with the independently documented house chronology, the entry is consistent with his documented period 1907–1919. The guide itself does not permit a more precise dating within those years and must not be used to redefine the beginning of his period as proprietor or operator. The same applies to telephone no. 2, which predates Karl Mayer.
The wider operator chronology and the development of the telephone numbers are treated separately in the English history section and in the historical postcard collection.
Historical room advertising and the current hotel
The hotel guide is direct evidence that the former “Ochsen” already offered rooms to travellers. It does not state how many rooms existed at that time and says nothing about today’s room facilities.
Today, Hotel Goldener Ochsen operates 8 guest rooms. For current hotel information, only the present-day details on our rooms page apply.
Note on the image display
The enlarged view is provided solely to make the historical original pages easier to examine. Small typographic details, place headings and advertisements are easier to read in the larger images. The transcription on this page is limited to the Ochsen entry that is central to the history of the house; the other advertisements are discussed only where they are directly relevant to the Hohenstaufen context.