César Ritz

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César Ritz 1897

César Ritz or Cäsar Ritz (born February 23, 1850 in Niederwald in the canton of Valais ; † October 25, 1918 in Küssnacht am Rigi ) was a Swiss hotelier and founder of the "Hotel Ritz" of the same name. He was known as an innovative and successful hotelier of the luxury class and was dubbed the "King of Hoteliers and Hotelier of Kings" by the Prince of Wales , who later became King Edward VII of England.

Life

César Ritz was born in 1850 as the thirteenth child of the Niederwalden mayor Johann-Anton Ritz and his wife Kreszentia. In summer he tended the goats, in winter he went to school. After primary school he attended the college in Sion , where he learned some French. After three years his father took him out of school because of his laziness and let him work as a coffee waiter at the Hotel Couronne et Poste in Brig . However, as his patron told him after a year that he would be of no use in this trade - “You will never become anything in the hotel industry. This requires a certain talent and a special flair. The seventeen year old left Brig in 1867 and traveled to Paris, where the world exhibition had just opened.

At the Hôtel de la Fidélité , he first worked as a shoe cleaner, then as a porter and finally as a room waiter. Because of a love affair, allegedly with a Russian baroness, he was chased away. He then applied for an apprenticeship at the first-class hotel Le Voisin , where the now twenty-year-old got to know the profession from the ground up. He also experienced the “fine world” there and came into contact with many famous personalities such as Sarah Bernhardt , George Sand and Théophile Gautier . There he made friends with the then famous master chef Auguste Escoffier , who helped him to make numerous contacts.

César and Marie-Louise Ritz 1888

In 1873, at the age of 23, César Ritz moved to Vienna, where he came into contact with numerous crowned chefs in the French restaurant Les Trois Frères Provençaux . He later worked for the Grand Hotel in Nice , then for the Hotel Rigi-Kulm on the Rigi again in Switzerland, where he was director for the first time. There, the hotelier and architect Maximilian Pfyffer entrusted him with the management of the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne, which he had built. Ritz recognized early on that all guests expected more and more comfort and therefore introduced "private bathtubs, electric lights, room telephones, fine linen, beautiful furniture and spacious cupboards". Together with Maximilian Pfyffer and Auguste Escoffier, Ritz ran the hotel between 1878 and 1890 so successfully that guests came from all over Europe. Since the National was closed in winter - winter tourism was not yet common - Ritz initially ran hotels in Cannes , Menton , Nice and Biarritz during the winter months . Others came later; At times Ritz ran ten hotels at the same time. In 1888, Ritz acquired the Maison de la Conversation hotel and restaurant in Baden-Baden , where the celebrities present made his name known. At the age of 38, Ritz married Marie-Louise Beck, a native of Alsace. The couple had two sons; René, the younger, who died of an accident a few months before his father in 1918, and Charles, who presided over the Ritz for many years after the death of César.

César Ritz, Max Pfyffer, Auguste Escoffier

Until 1893, Ritz was constantly on the move, traveling between London, Cannes, Monte-Carlo, Aix-les-Bains, Rome, Biarritz and Frankfurt am Main. In London he built the Carlton Hotel and the Savoy , in Rome the Grand Hotel , in Frankfurt the Frankfurter Hof and in Salsomaggiore Terme the Grand Hotel des Thermes . He lent his name to numerous hotels in Palermo, London, Biarritz, Menton and Wiesbaden, was involved with numerous others and advised hoteliers from Europe and the USA as an internationally recognized specialist. During this time he founded the Society for the Spread of the Hotel Industry , which planned further hotels in Cairo, Madrid and Johannesburg.

In 1898 he converted house number 15 on the Place Vendôme in Paris into a hotel and gave it his name. He entrusted the management of the kitchen to Auguste Escoffier. After the grand opening of Le Ritz , the founding of the Ritz London and Ritz Madrid followed .

In 1903 his working life came to an abrupt end due to a physical breakdown. He then suffered from a long-term deep depression from which he did not recover until his death in 1918. The work was continued by his wife Marie-Louise together with their son Charles Ritz. After 16 years of suffering, César Ritz died on October 20, 1918 (according to other sources on October 23 or 24) at the age of 68 in a clinic in Küssnacht am Rigi. César Ritz was buried together with his son René, who had recently died, in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris . His wife Marie-Louise Ritz died on January 8, 1961 at the age of 93. At her request, she was buried together with her husband César and their son René on January 14, 1961 at his birthplace in Niederwald.

In 1986 the Institut Hôtelier César Ritz named after César Ritz was founded in Le Bouveret , from which the César Ritz Colleges Switzerland emerged .

literature

  • Adalbert Chastonay: Caesar Ritz. Life and work. Edited by the Caesar Ritz Foundation (Niederwald). Rotten, Brig 1994.
  • Louis Gaulis: Swiss pioneers in the hotel industry. (Original title: Pionniers suisses de l'hôtellerie. ) Editions de Fontainemore, Paudex 1976, ISBN 2-88004-003-5 .
  • Werner fighting: Caesar Ritz. A life for the guest. Rotten, Brig 1991.
  • Nina Liv Liechti: Caesar Ritz's life. Life and Visions of Caesar Ritz. Goms Tourism, Fiesch 2002.
  • Louis Mettler: Caesar and Marie-Louise Ritz. Hôteliers des Rois. Brunner, Luzern 2001, ISBN 3-905198-59-2 .
  • Marie-Louise Ritz: Caesar Ritz. Translated into German by Eduard Seiler. Hallwag, Bern 1939 (discussed in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 16, 1939, No. 2139, sheet 4).
  • Bernard Truffer:  Ritz, Caesar (César) Johann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 672 f. ( Digitized version ).

DVD

  • Frank Garbely: Ritz, King of Hoteliers and Hotelier of Kings: Documentary film about the life of the hotel pioneer Cesar Ritz. R-film Zurich 2007, ISAN 0000-0000-62E8-0000-U-0000-0000-L

Web links

Commons : César Ritz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Niederwald and Caesar Ritz. In: VCS HOSPA-SOFT CH. Retrieved August 3, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Markus Lischer: Max Alphons Pfyffer von Altishofen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 2, 2011 , accessed August 3, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Tomothy Shaw: The world of Auguste Escoffier. From the English by Eva L. Wahser, Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-08036-X , p. 37
  4. ↑ world online
  5. ↑ Ritz Edu ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ritz.edu
  6. ^ César Ritz Colleges
personal data
SURNAME Ritz, César
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritz, Caesar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss hotelier
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederwald , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1918
Place of death Küssnacht am Rigi , Switzerland