Hotel Panhans

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A poster from 1920.
The hotel in February 2017.

The Hotel Panhans is a traditional hotel on Semmering in the Austrian state of Lower Austria . Of the grand hotels of the fin de siècle period on Semmering, the Panhans describes itself as the only one with an uninterrupted tradition. The current hotel business is no longer concentrated on the luxury class, but is addressed to a middle-class audience.

founding

The hotel was opened in 1888 by Vinzenz Panhans (1841–1905) and at that time had 44 rooms. Panhans had previously been head chef at the Südbahnhotel, which had been in existence since 1882 - a grand hotel in the immediate vicinity of the Panhans. The first extensions took place in 1891 and 1904. After the death of Vinzenz Panhans, his nephew Franz Panhans took over the hotel. Franz Panhans undertook the expansion into a large hotel with 400 rooms, but died during an operation shortly before the opening of the new building (Christmas 1913) in September 1913. After the death of the 44-year-old entrepreneur, his widow Clara continued to run the hotel until 1918. After its expansion in 1912/13 it was at times one of the largest hotels in Europe - not including the “Waldesruhe” and “Fürstenhof” guest houses. The planning of this last part of the building still preserved - a reinforced concrete structure that was very up-to-date at the time - goes back to the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer , as did that of the branches that were built at the same time .

From 1910 to 1912, Emperor Franz Josef I was a guest of the Panhans family in the Villa Waldruhe, built in 1908.

Another story

In 1918 Clara Panhans gave the house to the Österreichische Commerzialbank , and this was followed by a period of unrest and multiple speculative changes of ownership. In 1930 the hotel and casino entrepreneur William D. Zimdin from Estonia took over the hotel. He was able to maintain and even expand the competitiveness of the house through investments. In 1932, for example, the architects Anton Liebe and Ludwig Stigler built the legendary Alpenstrandbad Semmering , a free-standing indoor swimming pool with sliding glass walls. On February 3, 1934 , a casino was opened in Panhans, at the same time as the one in Kitzbühel . Zimdin also financed two rail buses that were used especially for casino traffic. After the " Anschluss ", the Vienna Nazi Gauleiter Bürckel von Zimdin, who was of Jewish origin, forced the sale of the hotel to the Gauelektrowerke. During the Nazi regime, it was available to the Nazi grandees as the Gauhotel Semmering . In the meantime, the building was also used by Hermann Göring as a control center for the German Air Force .

In 1945 it was taken over by NEWAG , the legal successor to Gauelektrowerke, and the main building was reopened in 1949 under the auspices of the Austrian Transport Office . The once noble Semmering region experienced a long period of decline due to its membership of the Soviet occupation zone (until 1955) . The Panhans survived until 1969 when it was closed.

In 1978 the Viennese building contractor Adalbert Kallinger took over the property and started a revitalization project together with the municipality of Semmering and the state of Lower Austria. A large number of former rooms have been preserved, the 128 meter long wing built by Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer has been converted into holiday apartments. In the course of this "complete renovation" in the 1980s, however, important components were removed or no longer included in the concept, including the architecturally significant indoor swimming pool. The last remains of this very interesting building of classical modernism can still be seen in the area.

In 1983 the actual original building was demolished and the remaining part from the articulated building - the former whirlpool - was supplemented with a new building to its present form.

The hotel operation takes place predominantly in this new extension and only in part of the historical main building. In this are u. a. the restaurant area, the reception and a smaller indoor pool. The ambience of the traditional house was linked to the fact that the choice of interior was based on a kind of neo-art nouveau style, which for the most part runs through the publicly accessible rooms.

In 1998 Franz Josef Haromy and his wife Sigillindis (née von Lentner ) acquired this imperial villa, which in 2012 became the private property of their nephew Gerhard von Lentner.

Prominent guests

The hotel states that its guests until the end of the First World War included: Emperor Franz Josef I (1909), Peter Altenberg , Gerhart Hauptmann , Oskar Kokoschka , Karl Kraus , Adolf Loos , Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig .

For the period up to the end of the Second World War, the following are named: Heinz Rühmann , Josephine Baker , Fritz Imhoff , Jan Kiepura , Maria Jeritza , Rudolf Forster , Rudolf Caracciola , Hans Stuck .

Events

World Chess Championship 1937

In 1937 the duel for the women's chess championship between Vera Menchik and Sonja Graf took place in the hotel , which Menchik clearly won with 11.5: 4.5. In the same year, together with the Hotel Grüner Baum in Baden near Vienna, it was the venue for a strong chess tournament that Paul Keres won ahead of Reuben Fine , José Raúl Capablanca and Samuel Reshevsky .

Bankruptcy filing

On July 26, 2012, Bank Austria and Raiffeisenbank NÖ Süd-Alpin filed for insolvency against Hotel Panhans due to outstanding payments. On December 18, 2012, the sale of the hotel for five million euros to IBS Umwelt- und Verkehrstechnik GmbH was confirmed. The hotel is excused.

In September 2013 IBS Umwelt- und Verkehrstechnik GmbH in turn sold the hotel to the Swiss company Renco Invest AG.

On January 19, 2018 it was reported that the Lower Austrian Regional Health Insurance Fund (NÖGKK) filed for bankruptcy against Panhans-Holding on Semmering. The hotel is part of the holding company that owns a total of four hotels and the mountain railways on Semmering. Other problematic incidents involving the Ukrainian owner group were also reported.

In December 2019 it was announced on orf.at that the Hotel Panhans should reopen for the winter season 2020/2021.

Others

Panhans Semmering was the name of a historical two-seat motorized airplane from around 1930. The model built after him, which towed the 1: 2 model of a 1932 glider at the 2013 Schwabmünchen glider show, has the identification A-140, inscription "Siemens Motor", and "BFW" logo.

literature

  • Fellner & Helmer: Compilation of the buildings and projects carried out in the years 1870/1914 , Vienna around 1914
  • Obituary for William Zimdin Semmeringer Nachrichten No. 4/1951, p. 12.
  • Wolfgang Kos: About the Semmering. Cultural history of a landscape , Vienna 1991 (2nd edition), Edition Tusch
  • Eduard Aberham: Panhans - A hotel and its people , 2017, Kral Verlag, ISBN 9783990246818

Web links

Commons : Hotel Panhans  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kos: About the Semmering. 2nd edition Vienna 1991, p. 184.
  2. ^ Panhans: Filed for bankruptcy according to the AKV . July 26, 2012. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved on July 27, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Hotel Panhans sold around five million euros . December 18, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2013. 
  4. ^ Hotel Panhans resold to Swiss . September 9, 2013. 
  5. ^ Filing for bankruptcy against Panhans-Holding orf.at, January 19, 2018, accessed January 19, 2018.
  6. ^ Another financial raid at the Grandhotel Panhans Kurier, December 7, 2017, accessed April 22, 2018.
  7. ↑ Kurhaus Semmering wants to open again orf.at, December 14, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019.
  8. ↑ Ku4 Austria Elefant 1934 in scale 1: 2 by Markus Frey modellpilot.eu> reports 2014, album, picture 100 ... 107 ... 113 ... 142/200, accessed August 22, 2017.

Coordinates: 47 ° 38 ′ 14 "  N , 15 ° 49 ′ 31"  E