Exciting family history

The Hotel Barbarossa has been owned by the Miehle family since 1874 and is now run by the 5th generation, Florian Miehle and his wife Christiane. Perhaps one day one of their 3 daughters will follow in their parents' footsteps and become the 6th generation to continue running this wonderful house.


In 1874 Martin Miehle bought the house and ran it as an inn with a good, traditional restaurant. His parents had the "Kreuz" inn in Blumenfeld - unfortunately we don't know why he didn't take it over and come to Konstanz to buy the Barbarossa.

His son Karl Miehle then took over the house from his father and carried out many construction measures around the turn of the century. The decisive factor was probably the purchase of the third house "Zum grünen Gatter", which adjoined the other two houses to the west in the small Obermarktgasse. He also expanded the 4th floor with rooms and added the distinctive little tower to the main building.

His son Fritz Miehle then took over the house with his wife Lore. Unfortunately, Fritz Miehle, Florian's grandfather, died of a boil in the Sigmaringen military hospital during the war years. Unfortunately, the penicillin smuggled from Switzerland did not help. So Lore Miehle was left to fend for herself with her two children Wolfgang and Renate.







The house was occupied by the French army after the end of the war. The wine, which had previously been walled up in the cellar, was lost in a betrayal. The hotel was occupied until 1949. In the post-war years, Lore continued to run the house. Her son Wolfgang was supposed to take over the management and was sent to Munich to study business administration. After his studies, Wolfgang met the love of his life on Lake Constance near Langenargen. She came from Lünen, near Dortmund, in Westphalia and was a baker's daughter. The bakery had been a family business since 1899 and a man was needed to take over the bakery. Wolfgang therefore told his mother that he was leaving Konstanz for love and would not continue the business in the hotel. His mother was so disappointed that she stayed away from her son's wedding, even though he negotiated a lease with a long-established family of innkeepers from Konstanz.


After three long years in which Lore continued to run the hotel, she finally signed the lease in 1967. After the tenant Alfred Wiedemann died, it was leased to his son Jürgen, as up to that point no member of the Miehle family wanted to take over the business.

After Florian Miehle completed his training as a hotel manager at the Parkhotel in Düsseldorf and met his wife Christiane during this time, they decided to take over the business at Barbarossa one day. After years of professional travel with stops in New York, Cologne, Munich and England, both attended the hotel management school in Heidelberg before moving to Konstanz in 2007. In October 2010, the time had come for a member of the Miehle family to take over the management of Barbarossa again after such a long time. Christiane and Florian Miehle are thus carrying the family tradition forward into the future.











"A truly hospitable house in a historic location"

This motto of the Barbarossa founder Martin Miehle is brought to life every day by great-great-grandson Florian Miehle, his wife Christiane and their daughters Katharina, Klara and Karlotta and by the entire Barbarossa team. We want you to feel at home with us. In our house, with its many historical details, you can feel the eventful history of Constance. Thanks to our location in the middle of the old town on the Obermarkt, Constance can be easily explored on foot.

The Obermarkt was already an important center in the Middle Ages - the scene of public justice as well as a trading center for wine, wood, labor and a place for public games - in 1183 the German Emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa, is said to have made peace with the Lombardy League of Cities around Milan on the Obermarkt.