Casino Baden-Baden
The Baden-Baden Casino is a casino in the spa of Baden-Baden .
history
The history of Casino Baden-Baden is closely linked to the history of Baden-Baden and its rise to an international health resort. Little Baden, as it was then called, already had a reputation as a spa in the late Middle Ages and later during the Renaissance, and the margraves had chosen the New Palace , located directly above the city at the thermal springs, as their residence. But the town did not become a glamorous resort until the early 19th century.
By the end of the 18th century
As in other places with thermal springs, a summer society quickly found itself in “Baden bei Rastatt” at the beginning of the 18th century. However, the spa company and the entertainment on offer were still manageable at the time: It was good form to dine together at a “table d'hôte” or to go on excursions in the area. The goals were the Geroldsauer waterfall or the Lichtenthal monastery . On the way there, some inns invited people to stop for a break. In some of them an adjoining room was reserved for gambling. In a decree of 1748 , the then Margrave Ludwig Georg allowed some bathers to organize the gamble - under the supervision of a margravial gaming committee. The game met with increasing acceptance. His successor, his brother Margrave August Georg , built the so-called Promenade House across the river Oos in 1766 . At that time it was an undemanding, rural ballroom for locals and visitors; Today the Kurhaus stands here with the distinctive pillars, which houses the casino. Here the summer visitors (mainly from the area) played the card games Rouge et noir , Ecarté and Whist, which were valued at the time . No reliable list of foreigners has survived from this period before 1790; Historians assume, however, that there were only around 500 summer guests visiting the bathing inns of the time each year. That changed after the Rastatt Congress of 1797–1799.
At the end of the 18th century, not only did the name Baden-Baden replace the traditional “Baden bei Rastatt”. The place was also developed into a health resort by the Baden state. Baden-Baden was still small in number with around 2,100 inhabitants. But the place grew after Napoléon I promoted his allied, Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden , to Grand Duke. The country grew tenfold and stretched from the Main to Lake Constance. Baden-Baden became one of the political and cultural centers, as Karl Friedrich chose the place as his summer residence in the last years of his life (he died in 1811). With the secular rise of the sovereign, so did Baden's importance as a gambling location. At the end of the 18th century there were around 1,500 guests in Baden-Baden, with the end of the Napoleonic wars their number increased and in the 1820s they reached over 10,000.
Gambling played a role that should not be underestimated - as a visitor magnet and source of finance.
19th century
From 1801 the first licensed and monitored games of chance took place in Baden-Baden hotels. In 1807, the tenant of the Promenade House, Francois Chévilly, was granted a license to offer games of chance in the larger hotels "Salmen" and "Sonne". At the same time, authorities set about regulating and monopolizing gambling. They feared that gambling would slip out of their control and were interested in income: Chévilly had to pay a gaming tax at the behest of the ministry in Karlsruhe. It benefited the Badfonds, which the authorities used to finance roads and paths. In Baden-Baden, for example, the Oos was channeled and bridged in several places.
The promenade house soon proved to be too small. As a result, the Jesuit college , which previously housed the margravial grammar school, was rebuilt from 1808 by the Baden builder and architect Friedrich Weinbrenner. On June 16, 1812, a casino opened there under the supervision of the authorities. The permit went to two French officers; In 1815 it was given to the Berlin trader S. Oppenheimer - also for 15 years (the casino moved into the newly built right wing of the new conversation house on the left side of the Oos in 1824, in 1862 the former college became the seat of the town hall and the administration to this day).
Grand Duke Ludwig was responsible for the relocation of the gambling in Baden-Baden. In 1821 he decided to replace the old promenade house. It is too small - and not representative in comparison to the health resort competitor Wiesbaden. In 1824, Friedrich Weinbrenner converted the Promenade House into the new Conversations House (now the Kurhaus). The city wanted to cover most of the financing from income from the casino tax. The central building of the Kurhaus became the architectural landmark of Baden-Baden. The vestibule supported by eight Corinthian columns, adorned with a red and white griffin frieze, becomes what connects international guests with Baden-Baden to this day.
The old 1766 promenade building became the left wing of the new building, with a theater in the right part. Game tables were set up in the connecting middle section. The game room was today's Weinbrennersaal behind the pillared vestibule of the central building. At the end of the Napoleonic era there were two public casinos in Baden-Baden. However, after the Weinbrenner conversion of the promenade house into today's Kurhaus was completed, it was only allowed to play there. From 1812 to 1821 the casino tenants in the conversation house were Jean-Jacques Bernard and Joseph de Ballathier, with a ten-year contract. Their license until the end of the season in 1821 was for Roulette, Rouge et Noir and Pharaoh. From 1824 to 1838 Antoine Chabert took over the license with a term of 15 years. The banker became the only casino tenant in town. However, he wasn't just entrusted with gambling. He was also responsible for offering an event program in the conversation house in addition to the casino.
The Bénazet era
Chabert (and his son and partner Josef Antoine) was followed in 1838 by Jacques Bénazet (1778–1848). At the same time, in 1838, the “citizen king” Louis Philippe in Paris closed the casinos in the Palais-Royal quarter. The tenant of several of these venues was Bénazet. The son of a farrier from the Pyrenees received the license for the casino from the Ministry in Karlsruhe in 1838. He was willing to pay a higher rent than Chabert's predecessor.
Bénazet was a financier with charitable leanings. With the casino, that was his idea, all of Baden-Baden should flourish. So he took care of the expansion of the Lichtentaler Allee as well as the cultural life, which was mainly enriched by French artists under his direction. Writers and feature writers came from Paris. They found gold on the nightstand every morning so they could gamble. The result: You wrote about the small town from a French point of view with the words: It was "Like Paris ...". The Baden-Baden slogan "Summer Capital of Europe" was born.
The new casino leaseholder took over the tried and tested from Chabert. On the one hand, this was the "cercle des étrangers", a private club for upper class players. On the other hand, he continued the costume balls called "bals parés". The Frenchman also lent a hand in the construction: For example, the large dining room in the Kurhaus (today's Weinbrenner Hall) was too “prosaic”, too sober. So he had it furnished with precious chandeliers and mirrors and added smaller suites. Bénazet's esprit also had an outward effect: representative hotel buildings were built along the Oos. Bénazet died in the revolutionary year of 1848. The lease of the casino went to his son, Edouard Oscar Bénazet. Now Baden-Baden's big time began, its Belle Epoque. It ended in 1870 with the Franco-German War. Until then, the seaside resort was the haute volée Treff. She resided in one of the numerous villas or stayed in one of the grand hotels for summer vacation.
Many stately guests made the place the summer capital of Europe. Paris was the winter capital. Russian state councilors, English lords, planters from Java and members of the Paris jockey clubs with their friends from the opera ballet were guests in Baden-Baden. International horse races have been taking place on the Iffezheim racing course since 1858. Initially, these were organized by the patron Edouard Bénazet and financed with income from the casino. In 1872 the International Club Baden-Baden, founded in the same year, took over the organization of the horse races. Son Edouard was as generous as his father. Baden-Baden owes Edouard not only the racecourse and the theater on Goetheplatz, built in 1862 by the Parisian architect Derchy, to the donation of the Kurhaus and drinking hall. The new gaming rooms in the right wing of the Kurhaus, inaugurated in 1855, are also important signs of Edouard's generosity.
Edouard Bénazet died in Nice in 1867. In Baden-Baden, the "roi de Bade" lived in his villas and country houses with mistresses, horses and hunting dogs. His work marked the high point of Baden-Baden so far. The new casino tenant Jacques Dupressoir (a nephew of Edouard Bénazet) was more of a sportsman than a businessman. His concession was limited to five years; The German princes had agreed by the end of 1872 at the latest that all casinos in Germany should be closed.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 had consequences as far as Baden-Baden: The French guests stayed away. Jacques Dupressoir emigrated to Egypt. The croupier elite moved to Monte Carlo. Political change also had consequences. The iron Chancellor Bismarck ruled: On October 31, 1872 the gaming rooms closed. With the ban on gambling in the new German Reich in 1872, the former “summer capital of Europe” developed into a seaside resort among many.
From the 20th century
Gambling led to a change in the orientation of the health resort: it was now more geared towards the health resort: in 1872 there were 60,000 guests in the resort, in 1928 there were around 100,000. Nevertheless, the city suffered the financial losses from the lack of a casino tax. A travel guide reported on a delegation from Baden who spoke to dictator Adolf Hitler personally about a new concession during his visit to the Bühlerhöhe. On October 3, 1933, the casino resumed gaming operations with the first casino license in Germany after the ban. A private French operator group received the license. In 1935 the spa and spa administration founded in 1934 took over the casino, which was closed again on August 14, 1944. Even after the end of World War II, the spa and spa administration became a licensor:
The ceremonial reopening of the "third" Baden-Baden casino took place on April 1, 1950. The Spielbank Baden-Baden GmbH & Co. KG was founded. The Casino Baden-Baden became part of the Baden-Württembergische Spielbanken GmbH & Co. KG in 2003, as did the Casino Konstanz and the Spielbank Stuttgart . Its personally liable partner is Baden-Württembergische Spielbanken Managementgesellschaft mbH, a full subsidiary of the state-owned holding company of the State of Baden-Württemberg (as of January 1, 2011). The Federal Constitutional Court had previously ruled on the previous legal situation in 2000.
In 1988, parts of the interior were destroyed during the rampage in an off-road vehicle.
The slot machine game, which opened in 1981 in the old station, was integrated into the Kurhaus in 1996 and has been in the vault of the Kurhaus building ever since.
Cultural meaning
Even the casino leaseholder in the early 1820s, Chabert, designed the conversation house - in accordance with the licensing requirements - not just as a simple spa house. Rather, he embeds it in a cultural event program. This is intended to address spa guests - even in bad weather. For example, Nicolo Paganini came to Baden-Baden. The Bénazets expanded these entertainment options: international artists came to Baden-Baden. Tolstoy , Gogol , Pushkin , Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Iwan Turgenev , who lived in Baden-Baden as an emigrant, made Baden-Baden the “most Russian city in Germany”.
In April 1934, the first three games of the world chess championship match between Alexander Alekhine and Efim Bogolyubov were played in the Kurhaus . Marlene Dietrich called the Baden-Baden casino the most beautiful casino in the world.
The participants in the 1981 Olympic Congress nominated the cities of Calgary and Seoul as the host cities of the 1988 Olympic Games in the Kurhaus. The proclamation of the German Athlete of the Year is broadcast from the Kurhaus. The Baden-Baden TV Film Festival takes place every November in the Kurhaus . On April 3, 2009, the Kurhaus was one of the venues for the summit meeting of heads of state and government on the 60th anniversary of NATO. In April 2009, celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of NATO took place in Casino.
Interior design and halls
The Kurhaus with the casino shows the aesthetic signature of the Karlsruhe architect Friedrich Weinbrenner (1766–1826). The design language of the new conversation house is based on the architecture of Roman antiquity. The state rooms of the casino were built between 1851 and 1855. They are the work of the Parisian set designer and interior designer Charles Séchan and his colleagues, including his sons-in-law Haumont and Dieterlé, the cabinet maker Bedal, the gardener Lemichel and the decorative painters Galland and Lämmlein.
These three halls give the house the charm of the Belle Epoque. The white hall (“winter garden”) should be artificial and make a scene of exuberant happiness palpable by bringing in lots of light and nature. The Red Hall reveals its role models in the castles of Fontainebleau and Versailles and conveys opulence. The intimate Pompadour Salon contrasts with the - large - Red Salon. He is named after the mistress of the French King Louis XV. named. The Baden-Baden registry office holds weddings here once a month. Appointments are made by the Baden-Baden registry office. The Markgrafensaal was built in 1936 in the New Objectivity style, in contrast to the Pompadour Hall, to leave Art Nouveau in the direction of Bauhaus sobriety.
The eleven-meter-high classicist Weinbrennersaal of the Kurhaus was designed in 1824 and is therefore the oldest surviving part of the Kurhaus Baden-Baden. Today it is used for external events.
Gambling and entertainment
Casino Baden-Baden offers classic games, French and American roulette, poker and blackjack. In addition, the player will find over 150 slot machines in the Kurhaus vault. In addition, the casino - in the tradition of "maitres like Chabert and Benazet" - is expanding its gaming portfolio to include additional entertainment formats. This includes readings with authors such as Axel Hacke, Desiree Nick, Wladimir Kaminer, Amelie Fried, Harald Martenstein, Hajo Schumacher.
The Grill restaurant opened in 2016. It is supposed to complement the casino visit gastronomically. In the pavilion, which was also inaugurated in 2016, the glass fronts are opened in the summer months in order to play roulette and blackjack (almost) in the open air. The club in the casino "Bernstein" in the casino has been offering parties with DJs on Fridays and Saturdays since 2013. It is attached to the Bénazet Hall and is aimed at younger visitors with its entertainment and gaming options. The designer Oana Rosen was in charge of designing the interior.
gallery
lobby
Winter garden
Florentine Hall
Red hall
literature
- Klaus Fischer: Faites votre jeu: History of the Baden-Baden casino. Die Spielbank Baden-Baden 1983 (commissioned work; deals with the history before 1872 and under the aegis of the Spielbank Baden-Baden GmbH & Co. KG after 1949.)
- Rolf Derenbach: The public baths Bath and Baden-Baden in historical comparison . Publication by the university library of the Free University of Berlin. Bonn 2015.
- Günter Schenk: CityTrip Baden-Baden . 2016.
- Cure and games . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from August 13, 2010.
- Rüdiger Bäßler: Are you for or against Putin? In: Die Zeit from December 12, 2014.
- Yearbooks of the Grand Ducal Baden Higher Court in Mannheim. 1825.
- Robert Erhard: From the chronicle of the Kaiserallee . Part 2. Self-published. Baden-Baden 2005.
- Jürgen Hörig: Legendary: Casino Baden-Baden . Contribution to Südwestrundfunk. State show from December 6, 2016.
- The Casino Baden-Baden in view. In: Regio-News.de
- Dagmar Kicherer: A short history of the city of Baden-Baden . Karlsruhe Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2008.
- Klaus Fischer: Baden-Baden tells. The health resort in the old and new splendor. Bonn 1985.
- Baden-Baden, gambling and its consequences : In: Baden-Baden the ultimate city guide.
- Emmrich, Stuart (2017): 36 Hours in Baden-Baden, Germany . In: New York Times, July 20, 2017.
- Alexander Kissler: The devil beats the Pope . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 10, 2010.
- Ralf Niemczyk: Why are hipsters suddenly traveling to old Baden-Baden? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from January 25, 2018.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. in addition z. B. Rolf Derenbach: The public baths Bath and Baden-Baden in historical comparison. Bonn 2015. p. 95
- ↑ cf. Yearbooks of the Grand Ducal Baden Higher Court in Mannheim. 1825
- ↑ See Karl Reinbothe: Baden-Baden. 150 years of the Iffezheim racecourse. Baden-Baden 2008. p. 5.
- ↑ Günter Schenk: city trip Baden-Baden. P. 21
- ↑ Baden-Württemberg Casino Act in part unconstitutional. Press release No. 122/2000 of September 21, 2000. Federal Constitutional Court, accessed on September 20, 2018 .
- ↑ Karl-Otto Sattler: The dream of the great Reibach. In: Berliner Zeitung of March 13, 1998
- ↑ cf. Cure and games. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from August 13, 2010
- ↑ Rüdiger Bäßler: Are you for or against Putin? In: Die Zeit from December 12, 2014.
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 37.6 " N , 8 ° 14 ′ 11.8" E