Our History

The limited liability company EIKA Einkaufsgesellschaft für gemeinnützige Einrichtungen mbH (www.eika.net) was established in 1989 by Mr Holger Lauterbach, a long-standing Waldorf school managing director, and initially catered to the specific needs of Waldorf schools.
A very close cooperation with the Diakonie, a large independent Christian institution, began in 1992. This gave rise to a major expansion of our product range, now covering the demands of nursing and children's homes and welfare centres.
In 1993, the company got in touch with an architect, who used to design a number of buildings for the Diakonie along with a hotel for one of his clients in Bad Muskau. The EIKA company got, upon delivering the canteen kitchen, completely drawn into the turmoil of the hotel's initiating insolvency. However, and in spite of all adverse circumstances, the recovery of outstanding debts was successful during the following years. Holger Lauterbach even managed to purchase a forest plot bordering the hotel in the course of a settlement with the owner in 1997.
Three other leaseholders tried their luck after the owner's insolvency. Now and then in-between, and definitely as of 2002, the hotel was entirely vacant.
Our own idealism can be summed up in this way: at Easter 2004 we stood in front of this beautiful, yet for many years’ vacant hotel and thought of all the many nature and culture-loving people who could be accommodated there. Trying to find a working scheme for its operation we realized that in the first instance, we would have increase the awareness of the park and the hotel among a larger group of people. We thus quickly decided to offer free accommodation for guests who stayed at least a week. This helped us covering the operating costs at least to a good part through the restaurant's profit margins in the start-up period, which lasted from 2005 to 2008. However, this approach did not leave much room for reasonable investments, let alone to pay a salary to the operators. We therefore made some changes to this offer. Trusting the good reason of our week renters, we placed the decision on the price beginning with the 2009 season in your hands: you determine the price! Rooms can be booked via the website of the registered society Der Osten lädt ein e.V. (www.Der-Osten-laedt-ein.de) for stays from Saturday to Saturday (no daily room service). At the end of your stay you can decide yourself how much you want to pay. Based on our current calculation of operating costs, we need € 18.00 per person and stay on average. This amount can be used as a point of reference for your assessment.
We are hoping for many guests from the East and the West. After more than 25 years following the peaceful 'Wende' revolution one thing became clear: the German reunification is not just an unparalleled act in history, it also opened a path to bring together people from all over the world. We would like to invite you to walk a part of that path with us here in Lusatia.

Lucia & Holger Lauterbach