Otto K. Eitel

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Otto Karl Eitel (born May 10, 1901 in Chicago ; † December 24, 1983 in Los Angeles ) was a hotel manager of German descent in Chicago.

origin

Otto K. Eitel was the second child of Karl Eitel (1871–1954) and his first wife Marie Luise Eitel, née. Boldenweck (1875–1913) born. His father had emigrated from Stuttgart to Chicago at the age of 20, where he and his brother Emil Eitel founded the Bismarck Hotel Co. , which ran the luxury hotel Bismarck Hotel and the Marigold Gardens beer garden .

Marie Eitel was the daughter of the building contractor Louis Henry Boldenweck (1835-1896), who was born in Heilbronn and emigrated to Chicago with his parents and six siblings in 1854, and her mother, Luise Henriette Kober (1843 ), who was also of German descent but was born in Chicago -1923).

job

After school and professional training in the USA and Germany, Otto K. Eitel volunteered at the luxury hotel Hotel Astor on Times Square in New York, which was founded in 1904 by the German emigrants William C. Muschenheim (1855-1918) and Frederick A. Muschenheim and in which his uncle Max Eitel had volunteered from 1904–1906.

In 1926 he became director of the Bismarck Hotel, which belonged to his father Karl and his brother Emil. In 1933 he took over the management of the luxury hotel Stevens Hotel , founded in 1927 , which was located directly on Lake Michigan and at that time was considered the largest hotel in the world. He held this position at least until 1939, even after the bankruptcy of the Stevens family in the Great Depression in 1935. In 1949 he took over the office of President of the Bismarck Hotel Co., which he held until the hotel was sold in 1956 to the hotel and sports entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz held.

  • Hotel Astor, New York, picture postcard c. 1900–1910.

  • Advertising for Monel using the example of the Stevens Hotel with a portrait of Otto. K. Eitel, 1937.

Honors

As a member of the Swabian Association "in the years after the Second World War, he also excelled as an avid supporter of donations of love gifts for the old homeland". For this he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit in 1953 by the German Federal President Theodor Heuss .

During his trip to America, the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer came to Chicago on April 14, 1953 and stayed twice at the Bismarck Hotel. On this occasion he met the President of the Bismarck Hotel Otto K. Eitel and presented him with the Federal Cross of Merit. On April 14, 1953, Adenauer held a press conference in the Bismarck Hotel and was then accompanied by Otto K. Eitel on his walk to the City Hall. In the evening Adenauer met Otto K. Eitel again at Eitel's Palace Theater at a charity concert “for the best of the refugees from the East in Berlin”.

Publications

Together with his wife Otto K. Eitel published the music calendar From Bach to Gershwin for the first time in 1944 , "which graphically shows the arc of the years that spanned the life of the world's greatest composers from the 18th century onwards".

  • Otto K Eitel: From Bach to Gershwin. Two and one half centuries of music up to 1944 , Chicago [1944].
  • Otto K Eitel; Joseph Feher; Raymond F DaBoll; E Willis Jones: From Bach to Gershwin. Two and one half centuries of music , Chicago: Bismarck Hotel 1951.

literature

  • Adenauer in the USA: Chicago , German newsreel, documentary 1953 [1] .
  • Journey to America. Collected speeches, statements, press, radio and tv interviews by Konrad Adenauer, during his visit to the United States and Canada, April 6-18, 1953 , Washington, DC 1953, pp. 94–112, p. 106: Photo Otto K. Eitel in conversation with Konrad Adenauer.
  • Fred J Ahsley: The house of Eitel. Aristocrats in hospitality , Chicago [1947?].
  • Six people from Stuttgart wrote an important chapter in American hotel history . In: Official Gazette of the City of Stuttgart No. 45 of November 12, 1953, page 13.
  • Honoring a Swabian in Chicago . In: Official Gazette of the City of Stuttgart of July 2, 1953.
  • Max Martin Brehm: With the Federal Chancellor in USA , Höchstadt (Aisch) 1953, pages 86–90, pages without numbering with illustrations.
  • Grave database "Find a Grave" [2] .
  • The national cyclopedia of American biography [NCAB] , Volume 41, Clifton, NJ 1967, page 511.
  • New York State Newspaper and Herald November 12, 1953.

Web links

Commons : Eitel Brothers  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
  • Chicago History in Postcards [3] , menu selection: Hotels.
  • Chicago Nostalgia and Memorabilia [4] , Search (bottom of page): Bismarck Hotel; Stevens Hotel.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death Index California, 1940-1997, Social Security Number 326-03-7906.
  2. ^ Co. = Company = Society.
  3. ↑ # graves database , Memorial # 83584229; #NCAB 1967 .
  4. ↑ # graves database , Memorial # 81,974,421th
  5. ↑ # Official Journal 1953.1 . - See also: Hotel Astor (English Wikipedia).
  6. ↑ In 1942 the hotel was bought by the US Army and used as accommodation for the American Air Force during World War II.
  7. ↑ # Official Gazette 1953.2 .
  8. ↑ # Adenauer 1953.1 ; #Adenauer 1953.2 ; #Brehm 1953 .
  9. ↑ # Official Journal 1953.1 .
personal data
SURNAME Eitel, Otto K.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eitel, Otto Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-born hotel manager in Chicago
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1983
Place of death los Angeles