Germany offers cash for everyone

IT WAS SHAPING up to be a bumper year for the Hotel Esplanade in Dortmund. On February 13th its owners threw a big party to celebrate a €2.5m ($2.7m) extension, and to mark the moment that Katja Kortmann took over as manager from her retiring father. Two weeks later the cancellations began: first a trickle, then a tidal wave of up to 300 a day. On March 27th the Esplanade will close its doors to guests and send its 40 staff home. The plan is to reopen on April 19th, but Ms Kortmann doubts that will happen. “It’s just tragic,” she says.