Excelsior Hotel Ernst
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The Excelsior Hotel Ernst is a 5-star - luxury hotel in the center of Cologne , right at Cologne Cathedral and part of the large urbanized Domumgebung . It belongs to the alliance The Leading Hotels of the World and is a member of the selection of German luxury hotels.
Foundation phase
On May 16, 1863, Carl Ernst - "Royal Court Restorer at the Centralbahnhof" - opened the hotel in the city center. At that time the hotel was still called "Hotel Ernst". After only eight years, he sold the hotel to Friedrich Kracht in 1871 . As a German resident in Belgium, he had to move from Brussels to Cologne as a result of the Franco-German War . Friedrich Kracht died four years after acquiring the Cologne hotel. His wife and son Carl , who took over one of the most popular offices in Cologne in 1884 ( Prince in the Cologne Carnival ), continued to run the house. The hotel now had a nationwide reputation . On October 16, 1880, Kaiser Wilhelm I watched the opening ceremony of Cologne Cathedral , only about 100 meters away from the hotel.
In 1889 Carl Kracht went to Zurich , where he married Emma Pauline Baur and married into the Swiss hotelier family Baur, which owned both the famous Baur au Lac and the Savoy Baur en Ville . One year after his marriage, in 1890, his mother gave him and his sister Hermine Brinkhaus, geb. Kracht, the Hotel Ernst. The siblings founded a GmbH , from which Hermine Brinkhaus left three years later. Carl Kracht was now the sole owner of the Cologne hotel in the city center. In 1905 he appointed Friedrich Reime as director.
New building
In March 1909, the Hotel Ernst was closed and demolished together with the buildings it had bought for it. In June 1909 the foundation stone for the new building was laid. Already on September 21, 1910, the house, which was built according to a design by the Berlin architect Franz Ahrens , was opened, which was now called the "Excelsior Hotel Ernst" and was classified as a five-star grand hotel. After the reopening, the house had 250 rooms, 100 of them with their own bathroom. The main entrance on Trankgasse presents itself as a five-story and representative building with an attic.
As a result of the occupation of Cologne after the First World War on December 6, 1918, the hotel became the headquarters of the British troops for seven years . After their departure on January 31, 1926, the house had to be completely renovated (architect Heinrich Müller-Erkelenz ). The hotel was reopened on December 31, 1926, until 1938 it was run by Friedrich Reime.
During the Second World War , the hotel was spared major war damage. From March 1945, American soldiers temporarily quartered themselves, damaging the furniture and decimating the liquor and wine stocks. The hotel was then confiscated by the British military administration until 1948 . The roof can still be rebuilt during the occupation. In June 1948 the hotel was able to reopen. Under the leadership of Charles Kracht (1919–1990), the grandson of Carl Kracht, the hotel business has been under the management of Max Mattheus since it reopened. From March 1950 the hotel was the temporary residence of the first Turkish ambassador in the Federal Republic, Nizamettin Ayaşlı , and housed the diplomatic mission of Turkey at the seat of government in Bonn , which moved to Bonn (district of Gronau ) by July 1952 . Hotel director Mattheus was followed by Erico Geweyer († 1971) in March 1958. He accompanied the company for 13 years as managing director, his successor was Siegfried Breunig in 1972.
Modernizations
Under his leadership, numerous renovations and modernizations were carried out in close cooperation with Charles Kracht. The public rooms in the reception area, the conservatory and the piano - bar were renewed and created modern conference rooms. The “Hanse Stube” restaurant located in the hotel was extensively renovated in 1976 and has been awarded 13 Gault Millau points. In 1986 the hotel was extensively expanded based on a design by the Munich architect Siegwart Graf Pilati. The so-called rotunda with 29 exclusive apartments and double rooms was opened. On March 6, 1986, the boards of 24 signed Kölsch - breweries ceremony in the ballroom of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, the Kölsch convention , an important Cologne and Kölsch document.
From 1991
The longstanding representative of the family on the hotel's board of directors, Charles Kracht, handed over to his nephew, Charles Roulet, who had returned from the USA after a successful hotelier career. A great-grandson of Carl Kracht took over the lead on the board of directors of the traditional company. After Siegfried Breunig's sudden death in November 1994, Charles Roulet took over the management of the hotel on a provisional basis, until Manfred Brennfleck was appointed as a new director in June 1995.
In September 2000 a sauna and fitness area were set up on the sixth floor . In October 2001 the East Asian restaurant “taku” opened, which has been awarded 15 Gault Millau points and since 2012 with a Michelin star . At the beginning of 2002 a business center was established. After Manfred Brennfleck left the company, Robert A. Schaller managed the company on an interim basis from June 2003 to May 2004 before Wilhelm Luxem took over the management. In 2006 the ownership structure was reorganized, with Andrea Kracht, the son of Charles Kracht, taking over the Hotel Baur au Lac and Charles Roulet, the son of Heidi Roulet, running the Excelsior Hotel Ernst. In 2005 the listed natural stone facade on the side of the cathedral was extensively restored, followed in 2006 by the renovation of the facade of the Hanse wing in Dompropst-Ketzer-Straße. The most recent major renovation phase followed in 2007. The Hanseatic Wing was built for seven million euros.
The kitchen of the gourmet restaurant Hanse-Stube was extensively redesigned from July 19 to August 6, 2010. The Roulet family, owners of the hotel in the sixth generation, invested a total of around 400,000 euros in the technical infrastructure of the hotel.
The Excelsior Hotel Ernst received three awards at the 12th Busche Gala . Charles Roulet, owner of the hotel, accepted the award "Hotel of the year 2010", the managing director Wilhelm Luxem is "Hotel Manager of the year", and the "taku" was named "Foreign restaurant of the year".
From 2012
At the beginning of 2012, the East Asian restaurant "taku", under the direction of head chef Nicolas von Auersperg, was awarded a Michelin star. Since November 2012, Mirko Gaul from Cologne has been in charge of the East Asian star restaurant "taku" (1 star in the Michelin Guide; 16/20 points in the Gault Millau) at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst.
In December 2012, Henning Matthiesen took over the management of the hotel as managing director as the successor to Wilhelm Luxem, who has managed the grand hotel for almost nine years. Today the hotel has 142 rooms (including 34 suites) on six floors. The entrance area and winter garden were redesigned in October 2013. In June 2015, the hotel's rotunda was renovated and 29 rooms in the Grand Deluxe category were created for around 1.8 million euros.
photos
Exterior of the restaurant
Taku restaurant
Salon Gereon
Excelsior Suite
Trivia
- A large part of the plot of the film The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral (silent film from 1927) takes place in the Cologne Hotel Excelsior , which can be recognized as Hotel Excelsior Ernst from the film recordings.
Web links
- Hotel website
- Eveline Kracht: The Kaiser and Prince Carnival. In: Kölnische Rundschau online from April 23, 2013; Retrieved April 24, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hotel, Restaurant, Volume 129, 1997, p. 30
- ^ Address book of the federal capital Bonn 1949/50 . In: City of Bonn, City Archives (ed.); Helmut Vogt : "The Minister lives in a company car on platform 4": The beginnings of the federal government in Bonn 1949/50 , Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-922832-21-0 , p. 222.
- ↑ Koelsch-net.de, under further information
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 31.6 ″ N , 6 ° 57 ′ 22.9 ″ E