Berthold Kempinski

Berthold Kempinski

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Berthold Kempinski (born October 10, 1843 in Raschkow , today Raszków, † March 14, 1910 in Berlin ) was a German-Jewish wine merchant and restaurateur. He is the namesake for the " Kempinski Hotels", which are represented worldwide today .

Life

Berthold Kempinski graduated from the Catholic high school in Ostrowo . After high school he joined the founded by his brother Moritz in 1862, a wine shop in Breslau, under the name M. Kempinski & Co. changed its name.

In 1872 he moved to Berlin with his wife Helene Heß (1855–1932). With the approval of his brother, he had a wine shop entered in the commercial register under the same name. The shop with an adjoining wine bar, which became the “Stammhaus”, was located at Friedrichstrasse 178 at the corner of Taubenstrasse. Success quickly set in and the name "Kempinski" was known far beyond the city limits. You could expand and later take over the company in Wroclaw .

In July 1889, a restaurant with several halls was opened in a four-story building at Leipziger Strasse 25, which at the time was the largest in Berlin. All classes came and went here because Kempinski pursued the idea of ​​“socializing luxury”. There were half servings for half the price. On some days they counted up to 10,000 guests.

The heir Frieda married the banker Richard Unger (1866–1947) in 1900 . His son-in-law joined the company and soon took over the business, which continued to run under the Kempinski name.

Berthold Kempinski died in 1910 - long before his company was " Aryanized " by the National Socialists in 1937 . His name was taken over in 1970 by Hotelbetriebs AG, which has operated under the name of Kempinski since then and manages numerous luxury hotels worldwide.

Berthold Kempinski's grave of honor is in field T2 at the Weissensee Jewish cemetery .

literature

• Horst Bosetzky : Kempinski conquers Berlin: Roman . Berlin 2010, Jaron Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89773-640-5
• Alfred Herzberg:  Kempinski, Berthold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 487 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Michael Klein: Aschinger Group - Aschinger's Aktien-Gesellschaft, Hotelbetriebs-AG, M. Kempinski & Co. Weinhaus und Handelsgesellschaft mbH. (PDF; 1.5 MB) (introduction, overview and summary). In: Landesarchiv Berlin: Find aids . Bd. 34. Stock group A Rep. 225. Berlin 34.2005.
• Jochen Kleining: M. Kempinski & Co. - The "Aryanization" of a traditional Berlin company. Diplomica, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8366-6194-2 .
• Elfi Splendor : M. Kempinski & Co. Nicolai, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-87584-458-0 .

Web links

• Martin Sprungala: Berthold Kempinski . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)
• Destroyed diversity. Berlin 1933-1938-1945 : Richard Unger