Hotel Imperial (Vienna)
| Hotel Imperial | |
|---|---|
| legal form | AG |
| founding | 1873 |
| Seat | Vienna |
| management | Starwood Hotels |
| Branch | Hotels |
| Website | Hotel Imperial |
The Vienna Hotel Imperial is a hotel in Vienna and a striking building on the Ringstrasse . It is located at Kärntner Ring 16 in Vienna's 1st district . It is owned by Al Habtoor Investment and operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide .
history
As a palace on Vienna's Ringstrasse, it was built between 1862 and 1865 according to the plans of the architect Arnold Zenetti under the direction of the builder Heinrich Adam in the style of the Italian Neo-Renaissance for Duke Philipp von Württemberg . In the interior, individual architectural parts are clad with stone: the pillars of the great hall are made of Carrara marble , the pilasters in the ballroom have layers of yellow Giallo di Siena marble , wall surfaces and columns are made of stucco marble . In the festive staircase there are wall surfaces, balustrades, the large columns made of stucco marble, the stairs are made of Kaiserstein , the hard, light yellow algae lime from Kaisersteinbruch . On the pedestal of the stairs is the sculpture "Donauweibchen" by Hanns Gasser .
The Duke lived in the palace with his wife, born Archduchess Marie Therese of Austria , since 1866, but sold it to the banker Horace von Landau (1824–1903) in 1871 . Possibly it had become uninteresting for the Duke as a place of residence after the newly built Vienna Musikverein had taken the unobstructed view of the Vienna River and a road blocked access to the park. But the duchess never felt at home in the palace either.
Presumably the palace had been acquired by a group of investors because the builder Wilhelm Gross converted it into a hotel. On April 28, 1873, the new hotel was ceremoniously opened for the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873 in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth .
In 1875 the owner Johann Frohner hired the property as a tenant. Frohner had already gained experience as a hotelier in Budapest, where he successfully ran the hotel named after him. In 1878 he applied for the title of kuk court supplier for spirits and wine trade . Although the hotel enjoyed an excellent reputation, its application was denied. Years later, however, this was approved by the chief steward's office.
In 1912 the Imperial was converted into a public limited company. The Grand Hotel am Kärntnerring belonged to the same stock corporation . The hotel has been modernized and central heating has been installed. It also operated a switchgear business (1874–1922), a hotel bus (1882–1992) and a wage trade (1908–1911).
During the monarchy, guests such as Prince Otto von Bismarck , Count Patrice de Mac-Mahon , King Milan of Serbia , Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria , Richard Wagner , Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt came .
During the First World War , the business continued almost as normal, more and more women were working in the staff, male guests wore uniforms more and more often, and people continued to dine on - sometimes stuffed - damask , probably slightly smaller portions.
In 1928 the two upper floors were added. In the interwar period, guests were Thomas Mann , Luigi Pirandello , John Galsworthy and Claude Anet . After the annexation of Austria, Adolf Hitler stayed here whenever he was in town. After the war and during the occupation, the Soviets made the hotel their quarters. The hotel suffered little damage from this period, although most of the furniture was missing and had to be replaced.
Before the Second World War, the Imperial Hotel was partly owned by Samuel Schallinger, an Austrian Jew . He had to sell his share in the course of the Nazi occupation of Austria and the subsequent Aryanization in 1938. He was murdered in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 . A restitution never took place.
Since its opening, the hotel has been one of the most luxurious hotels in the city of Vienna. Many heads of state and other personalities count as guests. The guest book with prominent signatures is presented under a bell jar today.
State guests traditionally stay in the Hotel Imperial; The most famous were John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev at their summit meeting in Vienna in 1961 , Richard Nixon , King Olav of Norway , Marshal Tito , King Leopold of Belgium , the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , Queen Elisabeth of England , King Juan Carlos of Spain as well Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan.
Numerous prominent artists were also guests at the Imperial, including Otto Preminger , Walt Disney , Otto Klemperer , Alfred Hitchcock , Frank Sinatra , Woody Allen , Yul Brynner , Peter Ustinov , Michel Piccoli , Zubin Mehta , Vladimir Horowitz , Riccardo Muti , Mick Jagger , Mariah Carey and Sofia Coppola . Michael Jackson wrote the track Earth Song here .
In 1994 the Condé Nast readers voted the hotel the best hotel in the world. As early as 1961, the operating company received the state award and thus the right to use the federal coat of arms in business transactions.
On the ground floor of the hotel is the Café Imperial , a traditional, luxurious restaurant that has always attracted prominent guests and is decorated with pictures of Moritz von Schwind . Until after the turn of the century it was called Café Frohner .
In 2016, it was announced that the hotel, Al Habtoor Investment from the United Arab Emirates, had a new owner. It will continue to be operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which already operates several of the new owner's hotels.
Imperial cake
A specialty of the house is the imperial cake, which is made from almonds , marzipan and milk chocolate according to a secret recipe . The cake also contains 2% alcohol and can be kept refrigerated for at least eight weeks. It is shipped worldwide in wooden boxes.
According to legend, a kitchen boy named Franz-Xaver Loibner created the Imperial Cake for Emperor Franz Joseph I on the occasion of the opening of the hotel.
- Imperial cake
literature
- Andreas Augustin: The Most Famous Hotels in the World: Hotel Imperial Vienna . 2007, ISBN 978-3-900692-03-2 .
- Andreas Augustin: The most famous hotels in the world: Hotel Imperial Vienna . 2007, ISBN 978-3-900692-02-5 .
- Barbara Dmytrasz: The Ringstrasse . Amalthea, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-85002-588-1 .
- Ilse Feller / Eberhard Fritz: Württemberg at the time of the kings. The photographs of Duke Philip of Württemberg (1838–1917) . Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0845-X . (contains details of the building history)
- Ingrid Haslinger: Customer - Kaiser. The story of the former imperial and royal purveyors . Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-85202-129-4 .
- Alois Kieslinger : The Vienna Ringstrasse. Image of an era IV. The stones of the Vienna Ringstrasse: Volume IV . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-00202-2 .
- Siegfried Kröpfl: My imperial kitchen . Hubert Krenn Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-902532-13-0 .
- Walther Franz Ziehensack: Hotel Imperial . Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-552-03129-4 .
Web links
- Hotel Imperial
- Imperial cake
- Vienna Ringstrasse - Hotel Imperial
- Entry via Palais Württemberg / Hotel Imperial on Burgen-Austria
- planet-vienna.com - Hotel Imperial
- Entry on Hotel Imperial (Vienna) in the Austria Forum (in the Heimatlexikon)
- History of the Hotel Imperial in cosmopolis.ch
Individual evidence
- ↑ Company logs. In: Wiener Zeitung , Official Journal, January 10, 1912, p. 34 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Hotel Imperial Vienna - historical data . In: Public Relations Hotel Imperial (Ed.): Hotel Imperial Vienna - The digital press kit . Vienna April 2012 (petra.engl-wurzer@starwoodhotels.com).
- ↑ Steven Erlanger: Vienna Skewered as a Nazi Era Pillager of Its Jews . In: The New York Times , NYTimes.com, March 7, 2002. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
- ↑ Hardly any cafe survived the golden era. In: wien.orf.at. January 2, 2015, accessed January 2, 2015 .
- ^ Paul Raymont: Cafe Imperial. In: Philosophy, lit, etc. August 27, 2008, accessed on January 2, 2015 (English): “The cafe in the Hotel Imperial was initially called Cafe Frohner. It's mentioned by Fritz Wittels , a med student and budding psychoanalyst in Freud's circle. According to Edward Timms, Wittels was also part of Karl Kraus' circle in 1907-08. "
- ↑ Fritz Wittels: Freud and the child woman: the memories of Fritz Wittels . Ed .: Edward Timms (= literature in history, history in literature . Volume 37 ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-205-98502-8 , p. 70 ( limited preview in the Google book search [accessed on January 2, 2015] English: Freud and the Child Woman. The Memoirs of Fritz Wittels . London 1995. Translated by Marie-Therese Pitner).
- ↑ Hotel Imperial for $ 78.8 million sold on ORF on February 16, 2016, accessed on February 16, 2016.
- ↑ The Original Imperial Cake. (No longer available online.) Imperial Hotels Austria GmbH, archived from the original on December 23, 2017 ; accessed on December 22, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Imperial cake. In: Konsument.at. Association for Consumer Information, August 27, 2015, accessed on December 22, 2017 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 4 ″ N , 16 ° 22 ′ 23 ″ E