HARDY KRÜGER

In 1960 after many months of filming “Hatari” the “African Dream” got into his blood and interrupted Hardy Krüger’s new and promising Hollywood career, as he decided to settle in Africa. By buying Momella Farm - the setting for the movie, Hardy Krüger realized a childhood dream. For over 13 years, Momella became his much loved home, and his children were raised there. His son, Hardy Junior, spent 4 years of his childhood at the foot of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.

In 1961, following Nyerere’s suggestion, Hardy’s “Bush Hotel” was built on the farm where “Hatari” had been filmed.  This hotel, small, quiet and peaceful, soon turned out to be a good investment. After the construction of Kilimanjaro International Airport, an increasing number of European visitors to Tanzania, mostly German visited Arusha National Park. Momella had become an important part of each guest’s safari in Tanzania. 

At the same time, Hardy Krüger concentrated on the development of his farm.  He built the most modern meat processing plant  - importing all the necessary equipment and a German butcher for the production of German sausages.

At the end of the 1970’s however, frustrated by Nyerere’s socialist reforms and the nationalisation of private companies and farms, Hardy Krüger, heartbroken, abandoned his dream.  He returned to Germany, and later to the United States.  Krüger’s farm fell into ruin. The meat processing plant became derelict.