The inn/guesthouse operated continuously until 1983, most recently run by Maria and Nikolai Schmidt.
At the same time, there was a petrol station from 1969 to 1983.
The couple took over the business from Maria’s parents, Christian and Christine (Didde) Andersen, who ran the inn and petrol station from 1926 to 1969.
For the last 15 years, Didde managed the inn alone after her husband’s death, with help from her daughter and son-in-law.
The building was first constructed in 1785, burned down after a lightning strike in 1885, and was rebuilt in its current form.
The property remained in the family’s ownership from 1785 to 1986.
The building at Kirkegade 1 has long been known in Broager as “Vognmand Lausen.”
Originally, it housed a school and a farm, but in 1912 all the town’s schools were consolidated on Vestergade.
After World War I, the house was sold to Andreas Lausen. He and his descendants ran a haulage business here for three generations, using horse-drawn vehicles, furniture vans, tractors, and trucks.
Since 1989, the building has served solely as a private residence.
The building, formerly the parsonage, is now the parish community center (“Sognegård”) and has been adapted for various purposes:
It is used for confirmation classes, numerous cultural events for local residents, and houses the church choir’s rehearsal room on the first floor.
A regional choir also uses the facilities, as does a reading group that meets here regularly.
Today, the pastor has a separate residence located directly by the church — Vestergade 36.In 1630, the pastor was relocated to this site near the church by order of the duke.
At the same time, he was granted land from the town and a neighboring village for the parsonage.
The property consisted of four wings — the main house and three farm buildings — and was built in timber framing with a thatched roof.In the 18th century, agriculture was modernized through land consolidation and outsourcing reforms, with pastors often playing a leading role in these improvements.
The pastors in Broager also lived up to this expectation.
They received a share of the agricultural surplus but were also responsible for maintaining the buildings, renovating them when necessary, and occasionally investing their own funds if their ambitions exceeded the available resources.
In such cases, their successors had to cover the expenses.
The house at Storegade 3 was the town’s first telephone exchange.
On a tall and sturdy mast in the garden, far from the street, the telephone wires of subscribers were gathered, and from the switchboard inside the house, connections could be made between them.
This took place between 1895 and 1906, and the mast suggests there were around 20–25 subscribers.In Sønderborg, the number of subscribers doubled every four years.
So when the post office across the street at Storegade 4 was inaugurated in 1906, a massive iron tower was built on its roof — ready for the many future telephone owners.
More and more operators were hired at the exchange, and when the number of subscribers passed 200, it became a 24-hour service.
Telephone wires stretched across the rooftops in all directions to the surrounding villages, vulnerable to ice storms and strong winds.
Eventually, thin wires were replaced by cables containing many lines, and during the 1950s and 1960s, the wires disappeared from the birds’ view.In 1965, the exchange was automated and the operators were dismissed.
Clicking relays took over the work in a 30 m² room.
Just a few decades later, the same technology took up almost no space and could handle thousands of calls in no time.
Today, landline telephones are rapidly disappearing and being replaced by mobile phones.
