Fifty-three years after it was founded by a French soldier, Berlin’s legendary Paris Bar that has hosted stars such as Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio risks closing because of crushing debts and a criminal investigation.
Having been a firm fixture in the showbiz pages for years, the bistro on Kantstrasse in the west of the once-divided city hit the headlines for the wrong reasons after tax inspectors swooped last month.
It is being investigated for tax arrears, unpaid social charges and employing illegal immigrants, according to prosecutors in Berlin.
On top of that, the Paris Bar owes its creditors more than â,¬1-million, the legal administrators say.
”We don’t know the exact sum but it is going to be hard to pay,” Austrian owner Michel Wuerthle (72) said.
”We are expecting a group of friends of the Paris Bar to put in an offer that will satisfy some of our creditors,” added Wuerthle, who has been running the bistro for the past quarter of a century with fellow Austrian Reinald Nohal (67).
The pair took over the restaurant in 1979, 10 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It has been famous since the 1950s when it was run by Frenchman Jean Coupy, who settled in Berlin with his wife, a Danish opera singer.
After his death, it was taken over by his nephew until it was bought by the two Austrians who made the bar the place to go for visiting Hollywood stars, particularly during the annual Berlinale film festival.
At times it has proven too small to accommodate Jack Nicholson, Robert de Niro and the regular flock of German show-business personalities and politicians such as former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, prompting the odd outbreak of bad behaviour.
Madonna famously threw a tantrum when she was told she could not have the last table because it was reserved for veteran actress Gina Lollobrigida, who was attending the Berlinale.
”Who the fuck is Gina Lollobrigida?” she demanded, but nonetheless sat down for long enough to have a drink before the other star appeared, Wuerthle said.
The success of the bistro, where clients are greeted with a French ”bonjour” or ”bonsoir”, was such that Wuerthle in 2001 opened a bar in a neighbouring building called ”Le Bar du Paris Bar”.
He invested a lot of money in the venture, but says: ”We really believed that it would be a financial success but the opposite happened.”
The difficult economic climate created by the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States and the mushrooming of hip bars in the newly reunited Berlin added to the bar’s financial woes, dragging down the entire enterprise, which employs 49 people.
Shortly before the visit by the tax inspectors, Nohal resigned during a meeting of the associates, but Wuerthle says he will not follow suit.
”It is my life’s work. I do not know anybody else who could keep it going,” he said, adding that the bar and the restaurant continue to serve customers as though nothing has happened.
He said he hopes all the interested parties can come to an agreement to save the establishment.
The owner of the building, Horst Schaller, said he also wants to see a happy outcome.
”We should be able to find a new investor who is able to cover the debts and to continue to invest,” Schaller said.
And, he said, everybody wants to see Wuerthle and Nohal stay because one cannot imagine the Paris Bar without them. — AFP
