Our story.
Two stories, one place: that of the time-honoured Schmokenberg and that of the Lewerken family, who built the ArtHotel here from a workshop and a boatyard.
We love to see you smile.
At the ArtHotel you are welcomed not by a chain and not by a concept, but by a family: Renate and Andreas Lewerken, Felix Goder and a team that treats this place as their own.
What drives us is simple: we want you to feel at home. So come stay with us, unwind, and let yourself enjoy every moment.
Built by makers.
In 1985, Andreas Lewerken founded a small workshop for wooden toys in Havelberg. From it grew Kiebitzberg — a furniture manufactory, and since 1998 also a boatyard where boats, catamarans and jetty systems are built.
The same hands that build furniture and boats shaped the ArtHotel. You can feel it in every corner: no two rooms are alike, the bathrooms are made from our own mineral composite, nothing is off the shelf. This isn't a hotel with art on the walls — it's a place built around one family's passion for art.
„Creating beauty — with lasting value."
The Schmokenberg.
Long before a hotel with art on its walls stood here, the Schmokenberg was a favorite excursion spot for the people of Havelberg: a wooded ridge on the edge of the Hanseatic town, with a café, restaurant, beer garden and music pavilion.
On old picture postcards it is proudly called the „Luftkurort Schmokenberg" (Schmokenberg climatic spa). People came to sit in the fresh air, listen to music and celebrate their Sunday — a place of hospitality, even more than a hundred years ago.
Where legend meets history.
The legend
According to legend, the name recalls dark days: during the great Wendish uprising of 983, after the storming of Havelberg Castle, prisoners are said to have perished on a rise amid the acrid smoke — „Schmok" in Low German. From this „Schmok", so the story goes, the hill took its name.
The documented history
The records tell it more kindly: the linen weaver Johann Joachim Schmok from Nitzow was granted permission by Frederick II to establish a damask factory here — against the stubborn resistance of the Havelberg weavers' guild. To this day the hill bears the name of this persistent man.
Handed down after Wilhelm Fubel and Sanitätsrat Dr Hartwich, Havelberg.
Where the old becomes art.
Over the years the old excursion tavern became a guesthouse and finally the „Hotel Am Schmokenberg" — until the building grew old. In 2010 the Lewerken family took over the site; they did not tear it down but rethought it: in 2011 the guesthouse opened, and in 2012 the main house with concert hall, winter garden and gallery. And so the ArtHotel Kiebitzberg came to be.
To keep the storied name alive, it lives on where it belongs best — at the table. Our Schmokenberg restaurant carries it forward to this day.
Milestones along the way.
Luftkurort Schmokenberg
Café, restaurant and music pavilion make the Schmokenberg a favorite excursion spot for the people of Havelberg.
The workshop
Andreas Lewerken founds a workshop for wooden toys in Havelberg — the beginning of Kiebitzberg.
The boatyard
The Havelberg boatyard joins in: aluminium boats, catamarans and jetty systems.
The ArtHotel
From the „Hotel Am Schmokenberg" emerge the guesthouse (2011) and the main house with the Schmokenberg restaurant (2012).
The KunstQuartier
Exhibitions, concerts and cabaret move in — culture becomes a firm part of the house.
A house that thinks as one
The Schmokenberg restaurant, the spa and our own jetty on the Havel — a stay, fine dining and culture all under one roof.
Art in our DNA.
Since 2013 the ArtHotel has also been a stage. In the KunstQuartier, exhibitions, readings and concerts take place — intimate and up close, with a conversation with the artists always part of the evening.
Our stage has welcomed Anna Rabinova of the New York Philharmonic, Dota Kehr, Florian Heinisch and Felix Reuter; in cabaret, Dieter Hildebrandt, Wladimir Kaminer, Max Moor and Denis Scheck have followed one another in quick succession. For us, art isn't a label — it's part of our everyday life.
To the KunstQuartier
