About Hotel Hesselet

Historically, the Nyborg area and Hesselet have always been the place where people meet. In wars, battles, love and lovemaking. Hesselet is an old Danish word for hazel forest and means 'where the small hazel trees grow'

The area bordering the Great Belt, just north of Nyborg, was thus named Hesselet. The Vikings lived here. The sailors on Bishop Absalon's ships used Hesselet for land recognition in the battles against the Wendish robbers. The strategic location in the middle of the kingdom led the Danish kings to choose Nyborg as the country's capital in the late Middle Ages.

In the years around 1200 to 1413, important historical decisions were made in Nyborg when the king summoned the country's great men to the Riksdag at Danehofslottet. In 1435, the Danish king gifted Hesselet to Nyborg's citizens and council. Wars, bloodshed and hard years during the Swedish wars continued to ravage the hazel forest. But in a strange way, it always rose again to grow strong. The more peaceful era began in 1801, when a small inn was built in Hesselet. In keeping with the spirit of the king's gift to the citizens already in the 15th century, the people of Nyborg held bird shooting in the inn's garden for a hundred and fifty years.

The guesthouse became a seaside hotel with everything that this entails: a bandstand, regimental music, ladies strolling around with tournures and gentlemen in lapel coats and top hats. Times and dress changed, and the seaside hotel in Hesselet became Christianslund. However, the idyllic lifestyle remained the same until that day in 1940, when everything changed with a bang.

With the German occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940, Christianslund was seized by the occupying forces and converted into a hospital. This proved to be the beginning of the death knell for the seaside hotel as a meeting place for the citizens. But as always, the spirit of the hazel forest prevailed – a new era followed the languishing years for Christianslund. The magic of the Hesselet area as a place where people meet and have done so for hundreds of years would prove to survive once again. This time in the form of a unique hotel of an international class that could also satisfy demanding guests from all over the world.

Listen, why don't we build a cozy little hotel here at Sct. Knuds Golf Course. Just a small one with 18 rooms, Karl Haustrup suggested one day to his good friend, Kaj Wolhardt, who was home on his two-month summer visit to Denmark. He had moved to Japan a few years earlier with his wife and had established an enterprising trading company in the Far East.

The friendship between the two men began during the occupation of Denmark in 1943, when they met at a race in Horsens. Both were keen sailors, and sailing in particular had a long tradition in Wolhardt's family. For many years he was chairman of KDY, the Royal Danish Yacht Club, and at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo he actively promoted Danish sailing. The age difference between the two men was large, and in many ways their business principles were very different. Perhaps these differences were part of the attraction. Part of the dynamic that the two personalities created together. “Karl, now you mustn't learn TOO much from Kaj…”, Lissi Haustrup remembers once saying to her husband. Karl – the second generation in the Haustrup dynasty behind the Haustrup factories in Odense – was the technician, the art enthusiast, the administrator.

Kaj was the merchant, merchant, as he insisted on being called. Kaj was a merchant for the lords, as some of his acquaintances put it. At the 1964 Olympics, Lissi and Karl Haustrup came to visit the Woldharts in Tokyo. Wolharts' stepdaughter, Lise Poulsen, was also visiting, and here the crucial foundation stone for Hotel Hesselet was laid. – We lay on the floor at the Hotel Imperial in Tokyo and built Hotel Hesselet out of Lego blocks, says Lise Poulsen, who herself has a hotel education and became the hotel's first reception manager. Today, she is the crown witness to the creation of the myth.

It is a fact that the two businessmen did not have a clue about hotel management. But they had two things in common: they were both perfectionists, and they had both lived with their wives in a sea of luxury hotels around the world. They knew how they wanted it. Karl Haustrup applied for a building permit at Sct. Knud's golf course, because it was still in connection with golf and the beautiful Sct. Knud's golf course that the idea of a hotel had arisen.

He was rejected for this application, and the trained business eye then fell on the old Christianslund at Nyborg's best beach. The Nyborg politicians' permission to raze the popular and enjoyable meeting and dancing place and in the summer a health resort hotel was met with some skepticism among the local population. The alternative – a luxury hotel without equal in the whole country – was perhaps not exactly what the people of Nyborg had imagined.

The Hotel Hesselet consortium was formed and came to consist of Lissi and Karl Haustrup, who together owned 75% and Kaj Wolhardt, who entered with his >usual <25% Usual, because Wolhardt's business principle was, according to his accounting manager for several decades, Preben Haugård Nielsen, quite simply: – I want to be involved. But I don't want all of it or half of it. – If the other co-owners are in a situation where they have to take good care of their own, then they will also take good care of mine. And then things go their own way when you can't be there much of the time. A close friend of Wolhardt also remembers a dialogue that told a lot about the difficulties of hotel management: – It's strange, because the share I have invested in Hesselet is the investment I am most happy about, said Kaj Wolhardt. – Well, why is that, asked the interested party

The country's most well-known and used hotel architect at the time, Bent Severin, was given the task of building >Denmark's most perfect hotel<. His technical advisors were the civil engineers Axel Nielsen, Odense, and Helge Jacobsen and Mogens Balslev, Copenhagen. The construction company Islef & CO was the main contractor, and the furnishings were mainly supplied by Lysberg, Hansen and Therp, Copenhagen, and Odense Stole- og møbelfabrik. Only a single Nyborg company, the installers Kruse and Bech, was involved.

The end result was an angular building, built on two floors of red brick and black woodwork, so that it harmonized with the surroundings. A building that is today described as a pure example of classic Danish architecture in the 1960s. 42 rooms were furnished, most with views of the Great Belt.

With Wolhardt's connection to Japan, the Far Eastern touch became dominant in the interior design. Later changes increased the number of rooms to 46. The decision to call the hotel >Hesselet< was agreed upon by Karl Haustrups and Kaj Wolhardt. A piquant feature, preserved since the hotel's opening in 1967, is the hotel's logo. Executed in Karl Haustrup's handwriting, which was easily recognizable and very characteristic.

Amidst elaborate speeches and wide-eyed expressions, Hesselet was officially inaugurated on March 19, 1967. Rarely has an architect had so LITTLE to say. But what a fun project it has been, said Bent Severin in his speech on the inauguration day. A remark that clearly showed that the consortium's directors were used to taking responsibility and running a business.

Critical voices that the new super-hotel was for everyone other than the people of Nyborg and Funen have later proven to be unfounded. At the time, the criticism was met with the design of the pastry shop in a wing of the hotel, which gave Hesselet a section where the people of Nyborg could have a cup of coffee and a piece of pastry on their Sunday stroll along the Great Belt, just like at the old seaside hotel. However, the pastry shop later had to be abandoned.

The real draw was the eight Japanese girls – geishas, imported directly from Japan by Kaj Wolhardt. It was truly a rush from the big world. Wearing silk kimonos, these girls served at the restaurant's tables, handed out steaming hot terry napkins and smiled the mysterious smiles of the East.

A Japanese chef cooked in the open Tranquebar grill, so that everyone could admire the art and afterwards enjoy the man at the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory Tranquebarstel (Tranquebar was a Danish colony on the East Coast of India from 1616 to 1845). If you needed a Japanese massage, yes, a girl was also imported to take care of that department. Newspaper articles in many of the country's newspapers suggested that the daughters of the sun were for something more than serving in the restaurant, and Hotel Hesselet suddenly found itself in the middle of a cultural debate. Later, the employment of geishas developed.

In itself a trade union issue. The girls could not have their work permits extended and were sent back. Two of them, however, stayed in Nyborg and both married local men. The exotic element in the Hesselet culture was, as mentioned, a consequence of Wolhardt's close connection to the Far East. A connection and an inspiration that was unusual and revolutionary for the Danes at the time.

Karl Haustrup, on the other hand, was the representative of the Funen influence on the hotel's interior design, operation and style. Karl Haustrup's lively interest in art, especially in the Funen painters, resulted in an art collection at Hesselet that quickly assumed impressive dimensions, purchased at auctions both at home and abroad. He made one of the most concentrated purchases of the best Funen paintings when the collection at the then Funen Community Hall was advertised for sale.

For several years the owner of the community center had collected Funen painters such as Fritz Syberg from Fåborg and Niels Hansen, who lived on Thurø. In this special collection there were pictures whose sheer size prevented them from being sold to private homes. The most talked about painting at Hesselet, however, is >Eliza<, painted by the English royal portrait painter Norman Hepple. Karl Haustrup bought the picture at an auction in England as a confirmation gift for his daughter.

Eliza, whose likeness has been compared to female figures from Twiggy to Brigitte Bardot throughout the ages, was given a dominant position in the library and was chosen as the cover of the hotel's menu. Eliza is still the girl that another "fair lady" proudly meets the discerning Hesse guest with a challenging look. - A menu with a pretty lady on it stimulates the appetite, Karl Haustrup once said.

He and Lissi Haustrup ate in the hotel restaurant at least 3 nights a week. It is therefore not surprising that great demands were made, not least of the kitchen, and it is understandable that quality control was carried out in the most constant and efficient way. It is a tradition that is still followed at the hotel, and it is probably one of the reasons why Hesselet's restaurant ranks among the best on Funen.

Early in the hotel's existence, he wanted to ban children from the restaurant. After much deliberation, the hotel staff convinced him that this was a bad idea. He placed great emphasis on ensuring that the hotel's atmosphere was stylish and exclusive. Was it the guests' dress code or the head waiter's heavy duty to make the guest aware that >The dress code

Many Americans came to the hotel at that time, completely unprepared for this external formality. – We are on vacation. We don't have a tie, was the typical remark. After several episodes where rich Americans had to be refused entry to the restaurant because they were not wearing a tie, head waiter Eddie Van Der Brekel decided to introduce a special tie drawer with an appropriate selection of colors and patterns. The idea of the tie drawer eased many tense situations where guests had to adapt to Hesselet's pace and tone.

For many years, you couldn't say Hesselet – without also saying Eddie. The name Eddie Van Der Brekel evokes smiles and warm flashes – and a string of anecdotes. With his charming, Dutch accent and infectious joy for life, he has become one of the main characters in Hesselet's staff gallery for 30 years. Eddie retired in 1996, but continued part-time during peak periods. – My motto, which I have passed on to the young people, has always been: You can be angry. But the guests must not notice it. Smile at the world, and the world will smile at you. That way it becomes easier to work – and to live, says Eddie, who left the Netherlands in 1960 to first try his luck in West Germany and later ended up at Hesselet. Another central personality in Hesselet's staff history was Zvonko Tresoglavic, who was restaurant manager at Hesselet from 1967 to 68 – and then took over the overall management of the hotel until 1993.

1983 was a watershed year for Hesselet. Kaj Wolhardt died, and Lissi and Karl Haustrup became sole owners of the hotel. Preben Haugaard Nielsen, who managed Wolhardt's estate, met Karl Haustrup for lunch at Munkebjerg shortly after Wolhardt's death. He had just bought a new Jaguar.

Both children were doing well, and now it was time to be a little good to yourself, while you were "having yourself", as he said. Only three weeks after this meeting, Karl Haustrup fell ill and died shortly afterwards.

His wife remembers how Karl Haustrup, shortly before his death, was very focused on getting all the paintings hung in the right places in the hotel. It was as if it was part of a life's work that he wanted to complete. Lissi Haustrup was now suddenly left as sole owner of Hotel Hesselet.

It was a difficult time with ever-increasing problems for hotel operations. Changed deduction rules and rising VAT threatened to stifle hotel and restaurant operations. The following years therefore became a vacuum for Hesselet with no prospect of investments or future plans.

After much deliberation, Lissi Haustrup made a difficult decision in 1992. Her beloved Hesselet was put up for sale. Director Tresoglavic consulted with restaurateur Kurt Vøttrup, restaurant Divan 2 in Tivoli. Vøttrup had just sold his own Hotel Mayfair in Copenhagen to an investor group through Global Finans, and Tresoglavic wanted to investigate this possibility for Hotel Hesselet. As so often before in Hesselet's history, it was a game of chance – fate, if you will – that had arranged the cards for a new development.

In England, a native of Funen, Mogens Fenne Frederiksen, lives with his English-born wife, Audrey Fenne Frederiksen. Mogens Frederiksen, who comes from modest circumstances in Svendborg, is a completely self-made businessman. In 1970, he and a partner started a toy equipment production company, which from a pioneering beginning developed into the well-known listed success story Kompan A/S in Ringe. This has made Mogens Frederiksen what was called a solid man in the old days.

Mogens Frederiksen moved to England in 1985 with his wife and their two daughters. The main goal was to give the two daughters an English school education. Mogens Frederiksen continued his very active participation in Kompan's international activities, which included regular meetings at Kompan's headquarters in Ringe.

Mogens Frederiksen had already become acquainted with Hesselet in 1973, as the then German sales agent for Kompan often stayed at the hotel. The well-traveled German agent, a true Hanseatic grand seigneur, considered Hesselet to be the best hotel in Europe, and he loved the combination of business, golf and Hesselet's beautiful atmosphere.

After moving to England in 1985, Hesselet took on a new meaning for Mogens Frederiksen, as he himself stayed at the hotel as often as possible when he was at a meeting in Ringe. “I have stayed in several hotels around the world, but when I consider everything, Hesselet is my favorite hotel,” Mogens Frederiksen once said to the aforementioned hotelier Kurt Vøttrup, who is married to Mogens Frederiksen’s cousin.

Mogens Frederiksen knew through his friendship with the Vøttrup family how difficult it is to run a hotel in Denmark. “A hotel owner is the last thing I would like to be. It would be nice if Hotel Hesselet was for sale,” he jokingly said to Kurt Vøttrup.

A few years later – in 1992 – Mogens Frederiksen was called in England by Kurt Vøttrup. – Now Mrs Haustrup wants to sell Hesselet. If you want to buy it, I will help you. But I would advise you not to go into hotel management, because it is hopeless in Denmark, said the experienced hotelier. But if there is anything that can tempt Mogens Frederiksen, it is to embark on a task that others find hopeless.

Audrey Fenne Frederiksen knew from her marriage to her husband and Kompan how demanding it is to be the driving force in a business. She was therefore very skeptical about the idea of becoming a hotel owner, even though she is also a >hotelomaniac< and enthusiastic about Hesselet. Passion won over reason. Over the following months, a deal was negotiated, after which Audrey and Mogens Frederiksen took over the hotel on February 15, 1993.

Now history is repeating itself – only with new players. The new owners – like Wolhardt and Haustrup – have no training in hotel management. They have also stayed in numerous hotels on all continents and experienced the service and luxury that cannot be experienced at all in Danish hotels.

As passionate globetrotters, they know what demanding hotel guests want. Like the Haustrups, they are very interested in art, and they simply cannot help but acquire additional paintings and antiques for the Hesselet collection. They are also perfectionists who understand the importance of quality down to the smallest details.

Therefore, they threw themselves into the challenge with all the energy and financial capacity that Hesselet needed. A thorough renovation was carried out throughout the hotel, with the aim of once again establishing Hesselet as Denmark's best hotel. As in the Haustrups' time, furnishing and running the hotel became a marital passion, where it was Audrey Fenne Frederiksen in particular who became the driving force in finding and choosing fabrics, furniture and colours. This time the inspiration came from England.

London's fashionable interior design shops were combed to find the right ideas. Fabrics for curtains and furniture were purchased from England, France and Italy, wallpapers from the USA. Specially produced carpets were ordered from Denmark.

Granite for a classic renovation of all bathrooms was delivered from Italy. The 30-year-old hotel received new roofing and a completely new pipe system for water and heating supply. District heating was installed.

The famous library has been carefully renovated and combined with an elegant and classic bar with the nostalgic name TRANQUE-BAR. Two new luxury conference rooms have been designed for executive and board meetings, where creative thoughts and plans can be developed. The hotel has recreational facilities by virtue of the indoor swimming pool with sauna, the two new astro-turf tennis courts, the location right next to one of the best beaches on Funen, close to one of the country's most beautiful golf courses and in the middle of a paradise for cyclists. And hiking enthusiasts.

With the opening of the new Storebælt Bridge, Hesselet has moved an hour closer to Copenhagen. Audrey and Mogens Frederiksen make no secret of the fact that the hotel always strives for a level that also satisfies demanding business and international guests. This may well lead some to believe that staying at Hesselet is expensive. – But we don’t think that’s correct, say Audrey and Mogens Frederiksen. When you consider the level of quality and all the facilities that Hesselet offers, you really get value for money.

And at a similar hotel in a big city you can easily pay double or more for the same service. In 1994, Hesselet was admitted as a member of the international hotel organization >Small Luxury Hotels of the World<, which includes more than 200 luxury hotels in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

In addition to the joint international marketing of the hotels, the organization contributes through strict quality requirements and mutual inspiration to support and develop the quality level and cosmopolitan orientation of the member hotels. – It is an organization we feel at home in, and which fits well with Hesselet -, We are a Danish hotel with a predominantly Danish audience, but we think it is important that we constantly measure ourselves against international standards. – On the other hand, it is equally important that we, as long as we can, maintain Hesselet's distinctive character and keep us free from the uniformity and >industrialization<, som præger de store hotelkæder og > conference factories. That is why Audrey and Mogens Frederiksen are committed with conviction and joy to the Wolhardt – Haustrup hotel concept, which exudes culture and class. – The founders wanted to create a hotel that could be compared to a real mansion with a unique homely atmosphere.

We try, as far as possible, to follow this concept – with the gentle adaptation and renovation that is necessary. – A hotel must of course keep up with developments in society, but in a time when everything has to be bigger and everything has to go faster, we need breathing holes, where size and time assume more human dimensions, and where the surroundings breathe calm and harmony. Then there will be time for smiles and humanity, and then at least the external framework is favorable for successful management meetings and flourishing social gatherings. – Hesselet is a place where people meet. A hotel you talk about when you have been there. And a hotel you always look forward to coming back to.

Gourmet stay on Funen

Rent the entire hotel

Stay

Meetings and conferences

The story of Hesselet

Time was against them.

Once upon a time...

An idea - a hotel

Consortium – 25% versus 75%

Hotel Hesselet is being built

The inauguration in 1967

Traction patch from Japan

The art collection at Hesselet

Stylish and exclusive atmosphere

Hotel as a hobby

A difficult year

Hotel Hesselet for sale

History repeats itself

Welcome to Hotel Hesselet

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