Between Camera, Beach Taxi and Bierkönig: Patrick Hufen and His Love for the Island

Between Camera, Beach Taxi and Bierkönig: Patrick Hufen and His Love for the Island

How a claims adjuster from Duisburg made Mallorca his second home

If you walk through Portals on a gray winter morning, you hear the seagulls, the occasional clack of taxi drivers loading and unloading, and the voices of a small community that has its regular pubs and favorite spots, as in Why Sali swapped Düsseldorf for Mallorca. One of them is 55‑year‑old Patrick Hufen: a claims adjuster by day, regularly seen on television and a familiar visitor on the island.

His connection to Mallorca began early. At the age of three he joined his family on a first holiday — a feeling of the sea that never left him. Later his wanderlust took him to various places: Paguera in the 1980s, summers in Cala Ratjada, and in the early 1990s stays in Can Picafort. And in 2003, after a longer break, he returned to Playa de Palma with an amateur team for a football tournament. Such repeated trips often become more than mere vacations; they turn into bridges between everyday life and relaxation.

Professionally, Hufen remains anchored in Germany. Trained as an insurance clerk, he works at HUK‑Coburg, responsible for areas such as household contents, residential buildings and personal liability. His daily work revolves around careful scrutiny: do the documents match, do photos show the correct date, are the details verifiable? Such details determine whether a claim will be settled. This expertise also earned him a place in front of the camera.

At the end of the 2000s he was approached for television projects; this developed into a docu‑soap in 2009 in which he accompanies nationally noteworthy and spectacular cases. Unlike an actor, Hufen does not report to play a role but to investigate real claims. The shoots take him to portraits of false statements, to cases with dubious photos and to situations in which paths and documents do not align convincingly.

Television exposure also brought another side of public life: invitations, hosting gigs, appearances. For example, he recently hosted the show of a large circus program in Duisburg over the 2025/26 New Year. And on Mallorca the atmosphere at Playa de Palma inspired him: in 2023 he tried himself on the Ballermann stage and stood a few times in the Bierkönig with party schlager singer Jürgen Milski. Not a career as a singer, he admits — rather a look beyond his usual sphere, which the audience welcomed because the mood was right and the announcement was met with enthusiasm.

What the island means to him becomes clear in a private scene: the surprise party for his wife Sabine's 50th birthday on 26 September 2024 at Anima Beach Palma. Hufen describes the small staging: taxi ride, blindfold, white dresses, 45 friends, a sea of voices and an almost taken‑away breath at the surprise. Such moments are what make Mallorca for many a place they like to return to — not only for the beach, but for the people and the small rituals.

When the couple stays on the island, they often head to Portals. There is a compact, familiar community there; names like Holger Gerke or commentator Jörg Dahlmann are part of the circle of friends. Small harbors, cafés by the water and a restaurant collapse at New Year's Eve — these are the things that connect Hufen and his wife. At the same time his life shows how professional role and leisure intertwine: a job that demands accuracy, and a free time that brings together public life, the stage and good friends.

For Mallorca a guest like this is more than a celebrity: he brings stories from German living rooms, from insurance cases and from television sets that here become tales at small bars. Other contributions from Germans on the island include My Job Is Paying Off: A German Explains How Escort Works on Mallorca. The island benefits from people like Hufen choosing it as a place of social warmth — this strengthens local businesses, beach clubs and the connections between locals and long‑term visitors.

And what remains? The scent of fried fish in the harbor, the jingle of taxi keys in front of Anima Beach and the laughter after a successful performance in the Bierkönig. Patrick Hufen is someone who does not just pass through Mallorca but arrives. For the island that is a lovely, human expression of how holiday memories can become parts of home.

Travel note: If you happen to spot Hufen next to a café in Portals, it's wise not to ask him for a TV scene — but for a tip on the best tapa nearby.