Where Leaders Shaped the World over Schnitzel

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/legendary-restaurant-where-leaders-shaped-world-over-schnitzel-closes-a-862326.html



When Maternus closes for the last time this Friday in Bonn, the former West German capital, the lights will go out on an almost-forgotten piece of postwar history.

The guest list of this unpretentious restaurant, which has served basic dishes like Schnitzel and pot roast for 63 years, reads like a global Who's Who of the Cold War era: US Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan came here, as did French President Charles de Gaulle and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, not to mention German Chancellors from Willy Brandt to Helmut Kohl.

Its dark, wood-panelled walls discreetly soaked up their murmurs. While ordinary diners tucked into their dumplings, they could eavesdrop on Peter Ustinov regaling his host with anecdotes at the next table, or glance at ministers huddled in the corner forging the next government coalition.

The horsetrading, the plots and the gossip wafted around the tables like the cigarette smoke that has stained the ceiling a rich brown over decades.