Vain (brothers)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The four brothers Emil, Karl, Robert and Max Eitel , who came from Stuttgart, ran the luxury hotel Bismarck Hotel and some elegant large restaurants such as the Marigold Gardens and the Old Heidelberg Inn in Chicago as hoteliers and restaurateurs from 1894 . Another brother, the architect Albert Eitel , stayed in Stuttgart.

origin

The parents of the Eitel brothers were the citizens of Stuttgart Emil Eitel (1840–1938) and Charlotte Eitel nee. Consolation (1842-1917).

The father was the son of a baker and the grandson of a red tanner and worked his way up from clothing worker to leather clothing dealer (1867–1868) and finally to portfolio manufacturer (1868–1890). The manufacture of haberdashery turned out to be very profitable and made Emil Eitel a rich man. In addition to changing villas, he owned two large commercial buildings in a prime downtown location. He spent the last 48 years of his life as a privateer , trading in land and real estate. He died at the old age of almost 98 and is buried with his wife in Stuttgart in the Prague cemetery.

The brothers' mother came from a Stuttgart vineyard family. She gave birth to 11 children, three of whom did not live to see their first birthday. Besides two sisters, the six brothers Emil, Karl, Robert, Max and Otto Eitel and the architect Albert Eitel , who was the only one of the brothers who did not emigrate, survived .

The table shows the sons and daughters of Emil and Charlotte Eitel, without the three children who did not survive the first year of life.

number Surname birth death emigration
1 Emil Eitel 1865 Stuttgart 1948 Chicago, IL 1890
2 Albert Eitel 1866 Stuttgart 1934 Stuttgart
3 Karl Eitel 1871 Stuttgart 1954 Santa Barbara, CA 1891
4th Charlotte Emma Krauss 1873 Stuttgart
5 Robert Eitel 1877 Stuttgart 1948 1898
6th Louise Emilie Charlotte Frank 1881 Stuttgart
7th Max Eitel 1882 Stuttgart 1954 Chicago, IL 1901
8th Otto Eitel 1884 Stuttgart 1972 Chicago, IL 1912

emigration

In 1890, Emil Eitel was the first of the Eitel brothers to emigrate to the USA and settled in Chicago, which at that time was a center of German immigration and had half a million inhabitants of German descent. The well-networked German community and a corresponding infrastructure made it easier for Emil to get started. The German-born Chicagoers later secured the customer base for the brothers' business and their restaurants, and a large part of their hotel clientele was made up of travelers of German origin.

After Emil Eitel had started, four of his brothers followed him to Chicago: Karl in 1891, Robert in 1898, Max in 1901 and Otto in 1912. Otto Eitel (born October 5, 1884 in Stuttgart , † May 5, 1972 Chicago ), who is not treated here, took over responsibility for the hotel's and garden's furnishings after his emigration to the Bismarck Hotel. He later moved to California and made a name for himself as a landscaper. Albert Eitel stayed in Stuttgart, but came to visit Chicago at least in 1896, 1910 and 1924:

  • In 1896 he volunteered in the renowned architecture firm of Daniel Burnham , a protagonist of the Chicago School .
  • In 1924 Albert Eitel stayed in Chicago to coordinate the facade planning of the Bismarck Hotel with the architects Rapp and Rapp and to plan the interior of the hotel.

The brothers Emil and Karl founded the Bismarck Hotel and Bismarck Gardens in Chicago . Robert and Max Eitel operated several large restaurants, including the Old Heidelberg Inn and some exhibition restaurants. Not only were the Eitels very successful business people, they integrated themselves as American citizens, while also maintaining the traditions of their German homeland. They were sponsors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Art Institute of Chicago and members of business associations and nationally mixed and German associations. In the course of the world wars, Emil and Karl Eitel took part in Red Cross relief operations for their German homeland.

Emil Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967 , pages 510-511; #Leonard 1905-1917 ; #Sunday Post 1929.1 ; # Official Journal 1953.1 .

Emil Eitel (born February 27, 1865 in Stuttgart ; † July 18, 1948 Chicago ) was a German hotel and restaurant entrepreneur in Chicago. He was born as the first child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel, attended business school in Stuttgart, served in the army as a one-year volunteer and from 1885 worked in his father's factory in photo album production.

job

In 1890 Emil Eitel moved to the USA and settled in Chicago. He first worked as an employee for the Chicago sales agency Bond's Commercial Agency . When his brother Karl also came to Chicago in 1891, he founded a wholesale and import business for wine and spirits under the Eitel Brothers company. During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, the first Chicago World's Fair, they operated their first hotel near the exhibition center. The success prompted her to turn permanently to the hotel industry. They took over the Hotel Germania , which they renamed the Bismarck Hotel , and founded the Bismarck Hotel Co. in 1894 , of which Emil Eitel was President and Finance Director until his death in 1948. From 1895 to 1923, in addition to the hotel, the two brothers ran Bismarck Gardens (later Marigold Gardens), an elegant large beer garden. - To develop the hotel and catering projects of the two brothers see Bismarck Hotel Co .

Private life

Emil Eitel married Emma Caroline Boldenweck (1868–1943) in 1894 , whom he had already met in Stuttgart. His younger brother Karl was married to Emma's younger sister Marie Luise Boldenweck for the first time. The marriage of Emil and Emma Eitel resulted in two children who died in infancy or childhood. Emil Eitel died on July 18, 1948 at the age of 83 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in the family vault of his father-in-law Louis Henry Boldenweck .

Karl Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967 , page 511; #Leonard 1905-1917 ; #Sunday Post 2 1929 ; # Official Journal 1953.1 .

Karl Friedrich (Frederick) Eitel (born January 17, 1871 in Stuttgart ; † March 9, 1954 Santa Barbara ) was a German hotel and restaurant entrepreneur in Chicago. He was born as the fifth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel. After attending grammar school, he completed a course of study at the Royal Württemberg Technical Center for the Textile Industry in Reutlingen.

job

In 1891 Karl Eitel emigrated to his brother Emil in Chicago, with whom he did business, see above under Emil Eitel, Profession . After founding the Bismarck Hotel Co. he took over the office of Vice President and Administrative Director and, after Emil Eitel's death in 1948, also the office of President. A year later he retired from active business, but remained with the company as an honorary director until his death in 1954. - To develop the hotel and catering projects of the two brothers see Bismarck Hotel Co .

Private life

In 1896 Karl Eitel married Marie Luise Boldenweck (1875–1913), a younger sister of his sister-in-law Emma (see Emil Eitel ). This marriage produced four children, among them Otto K. Eitel , who later became director of the Bismarck Hotel. In 1915, Karl Eitel married Ann Schmidt (1884–1919), the daughter of a factory owner from Brussels, who gave birth to a daughter. In his third marriage he married Suzanne Schmidt (1888–1968), the sister of his second wife. From this connection three children were born.

Karl Eitel took an active part in social and political life in Chicago for many years. He died on March 9, 1954 in Santa Barbara at the age of 83 and was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Max Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967 , pp. 518-519; # Official Journal 1953.1 .

Max Eitel (born September 29, 1882 in Stuttgart ; † June 5, 1954 Chicago ) was a German catering entrepreneur in Chicago. He was born as the tenth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel.

job

In 1901 Max Eitel emigrated to his brothers Emil, Karl and Robert in Chicago. In Chicago he joined the accounting department of the Bismarck Hotel Co., owned by his brothers Emil and Karl. He used subsequent stays in England, France and Holland to study the hotel and catering industry in these countries. In 1904 he got a job in the newly built luxury hotel Hotel Astor on Times Square in New York, which had been founded by the German emigrants William C. Muschenheim (1855-1918) and Frederick A. Muschenheim in the same year. There he volunteered for two years in succession in different departments of the hotel. In 1906 he took over responsibility for his brothers' import business and soon after took over the management of the large beer garden Marigold Gardens , which also belonged to his brothers.

After the pub was closed due to the drastic drop in sales due to Prohibition , he and his brother Robert Eitel founded the restaurant company Eitel Incorporated in 1923 with Robert as President and himself as Vice President and Finance and Administrative Director. When Robert died in 1948, Max also took over the presidency, which he held until his death.

Eitel Incorporated owned the following restaurants:

  • 1923–1943: Five train station restaurants at Chicago and North Western Railway Station.
  • 1933–1934: Old Heidelberg Inn exhibition restaurant (2500 seats) at the second Chicago World's Fair ( A Century of Progress ).
  • 1934: Exhibition restaurant in the German Black Forest Village pavilion at the same world exhibition.
  • From 1934: Old Heidelberg Inn on Chicago's Broadway .
  • From 1935: Eitel Field Building Restaurant in Chicago's financial district.
  • 1936: Black Forest Restaurant at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas.
  • 1939–1940: Ballentine Three Ring Inn restaurant (2000 seats) at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

For descriptions and illustrations of the permanent restaurants that were part of Eitel Incorporated, see: Eitel Incorporated .

Private life

In 1911 Max Eitel married the widowed Marie Heine geb. Busch († 1934), the daughter of a German manufacturer who gave him two children. In his second marriage in 1935 he married the widowed Ella Gleich b. Harder , the daughter of a German real estate agent. The marriage remained childless. - Max Eitel died in Chicago on June 5, 1954.

Robert Eitel, advertising postcard, 1923.

Robert Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967 , pp. 518-519; # Official Journal 1953.1 .

Robert Eitel (born June 16, 1877 in Stuttgart ; † 1948 ) was a German catering entrepreneur in Chicago. He was born the eighth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel.

In 1898 Robert Eitel emigrated to his brothers Emil and Karl in Chicago. In the 1920s he was director of the Bismarck Hotel. In 1923 he founded the restaurant company Eitel Incorporated with his brother Max Eitel and became its president. For the development of the joint company Eitel Incorporated: see above under Max Eitel, Beruf .

Bismarck Hotel Co.

Company name Bismarck Hotel Co.
owner Emil and Karl Eitel
founding 1894
Corporate purpose Operation of the Bismarck Hotel and Marigold Gardens
President 1894–1948: Emil Eitel
1948–1949: Karl Eitel
1949–1956: Otto K. Eitel

Bismarck Hotel (1894-1956)

After successfully running a trade fair restaurant at the World Exhibition in 1893, Emil and Karl Eitel converted an existing hotel according to their ideas and called it the Bismarck Hotel. This hotel was replaced in 1926 by the construction of a large luxury hotel under the same name. Here are the most important stages in the history of the Bismarck Hotel:

Messehotel (1893)

Chicago, Cottage Grove Avenue / Sixty-Third Street, 41.7804 °  N , 87.6059 °  W .

Due to the lively demand from their German and Austrian suppliers for accommodation for the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893 ( World's Columbian Exposition ), the Eitel brothers rented an apartment block near the exhibition center, which they converted into a 150-bed hotel.

Old Bismarck Hotel (1894–1924)

Chicago, Randolph Street / Wells Street, 41.8844 °  N , 87.6338 °  W .

After the great success with their trade fair hotel, the brothers decided to set up a permanent hotel. They acquired the four-story, 50-bed Germania Hotel in the Loop district on Chicago's Broadway and near the financial district. Within a year, they increased the bed capacity to 100 beds by purchasing neighboring buildings. With the approval of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , they were allowed to call the Hotel Bismarck Hotel . Due to the anti-German atmosphere, the hotel was temporarily renamed the Randolph Hotel during the First World War .

New Bismarck Hotel (1926–1956)

Chicago, Randolph Street / LaSalle Street / Westcourt Place / Wells Street, 41.8844 °  N , 87.6333 °  W .

In 1922, the Eitels rounded off their property to the so-called Eitel Block, which comprised the northern part of the block between Randolph and Washington Street or Wells and LaSalle Street. In 1924 they had the buildings in the Eitel block demolished and between 1925 and 1926 a skyscraper was built on the vacated property. It consisted of a 22-story office wing, the Metropolitan Office Building , and the 19-story hotel wing, which, in addition to the 600-bed Bismarck Hotel, housed the Palace Theater , a 2500-seat theater. In 1956 Otto K. Eitel sold the hotel to the hotel and sports entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz . After a period of slow decline, the hotel was closed in 1996 and reopened in 1998 by the Kimpton Group under the name Hotel Allegro .

Marigold Gardens (1895-1923)

Chicago, 3760 North Halsted Street, 41.9509 °  N , 87.6499 °  W .

In 1895 Emil and Karl Eitel bought the popular DeBerg's Grove beer garden in the north of Chicago , which they expanded into an elegant large beer garden and named it Bismarck Gardens , based on the name of their hotel . The gardens offered a German beer garden atmosphere, daily music shows in the great outdoors and the largest open-air dance floor with wooden floors in Chicago. In a large concert hall, the Marigold Room , there were daily music shows even in winter.

The famous pub was the epitome of a Chicago beer garden and the top address among Chicago nightclubs. President William Howard Taft is said to have even called Marigold Gardens a "national institution". Because of the anti-German atmosphere, the Bismarck Gardens were renamed Marigold Gardens during the First World War. In 1923 the brothers sold the Marigold Gardens because the business was no longer profitable due to the drastic drop in sales after the introduction of Prohibition in 1919.

Advertisement for the three Eitel restaurants, 1935.

Eitel Incorporated

Company name Eitel Incorporated
owner Robert and Max Eitel
founding 1923
Corporate purpose Operation of restaurants
President 1923–1948: Robert Eitel
1948–1954: Max Eitel

Chicago and North Western Railway Station Restaurants (1923-1943)

Chicago, Clinton Street / Canal Street / Madison Street / Randolph Street, 41.8822 °  N , 87.6406 °  W .

From 1923 to 1943 Robert and Max Eitel operated five station restaurants with an attached bakery and laundry at the Chicago and North Western Railway Station. The laundry also acted as a service provider for the Pullman Company's sleeping car company .

Old Heidelberg Inn (from 1894)

Chicago, 14 West Randolph Street, 41.8849 °  N , 87.6285 °  W .

After the end of the first Chicago World's Fair, Robert and Max Eitel installed a permanent restaurant in Chicago at 14 West Randolph Street, which they named the Old Heidelberg Inn after their exhibition venue . It had a conspicuous old German facade and the interior was set up on the model of Bavarian beer cellars. The restaurant housed the Great Dining Hall Old Heidelberg Room on the ground floor with a stage for the orchestra, a Rathskeller in the basement, the Rialto Room , a bakery and a dance hall.

Eitel Field Building Restaurant (from 1935)

Chicago, 130 South Clark Street, 41.8798 °  N , 87.6316 °  W .

In 1935 the two brothers opened the Eitel Field Building Restaurant a few streets south of Randolph Street in the newly built Field Building at 130 South Clark Street in 1934 .

literature

Basic literature : #NCAB 1967 ; #Ashley 1947 ; #Navarro 2010.1 .

General

  • Fred J. Ashley: 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.
  • Vain restaurants Chicago . In: The Ludington Daily News, July 31, 1935, p. 4 [5] .
  • Eitel news, summer, 1934. About the restaurants operated by Eitel, Inc. both in downtown Chicago and on the fair grounds of A Century of Progress Exposition , Chicago 1934.
  • Karl Götz: Brothers across land and sea. The Fates and Stories of Emigrants , Bodman 1967, 114–115.
  • John William Leonard: The book of Chicagoans. A biographical dictionary of leading living men of the city of Chicago , Chicago 1905, page 186 [6] (PDF file; 57.0 MB), Chicago 1911, pages 211–212, Chicago 1917, page 210.
  • The national cyclopedia of American biography [NCAB] , Volume 41, Clifton, NJ 1967, pp. 510-511, 518-519.
  • Emil Eitel . In: Sunday Post, Chicago, September 29, 1929 [7] .
  • Who Does Not Know Him? Karl Eitel . In: Sunday Post, Chicago, October 20, 1929 [8] .

Bismarck Hotel

  • William R. Host; Brooke Ahne Portmann: Early Chicago Hotels , Charleston, SC 2006, pages 33-35 [9] .
  • L .: New Bismarck Hotel in Chicago. Modern German interior design in America . In: Interior decoration 38.1927, pages 254–272.
  • Meg McSherry Breslin: Bringing Back The Bismarck Hotel. Historic Inn's New Owners Hope To Recapture The Past . In: Chicago Tribune News, January 10, 1997 [10] .
  • Jennifer Navarro: Kimpton's Hotel Allegro Chicago. Historical Background , Chicago 2010, online only [11] (PDF file; 35 kB).
  • Jennifer Navarro: Kimpton's Hotel Allegro Invites Guests to Step into the Limelight. Historic hotel welcomes travelers with red-carpet treatment , Chicago 2010, online only [12] (PDF file; 38 kB).
  • Wolfgang Pfleiderer: New Work Art. Architect Albert Eitel Stuttgart , Berlin 1929, plates 38–40.
  • Frank Alfred Randall; John D. Randall: History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago , Urbana 1999, p. 312 [13] .
  • Charles A. Sengstock: That Toddlin 'Town. Chicago's White Dance Bands And Orchestras, 1900-1950 , Urbana 2004 [14] .
  • New York State Newspaper and Herald November 12, 1953.

swell

  • Address books of the City of Stuttgart, City Archives Stuttgart .
  • Honoring a Swabian in Chicago . In: Official Gazette of the City of Stuttgart of July 2, 1953.
  • The Chicago Blue Book of selected names of Chicago and suburban towns. Names and addresses of prominent residents, arranged alphabetically and numerically by streets; Also ladies' shopping guide, street directory, and other valuable information. For the year ending 1890 ... 1915 , Chicago 1889 ... 1914 [15] .
  • Family Register of the City of Stuttgart, Volume 19, Sheet 875 (Jakob Gottfried Emil Eitel), Volume 1, Sheet 1080 (Christian Friedrich Eitel), Volume 10, Sheet 781 (Johann Friedrich Trost), Stuttgart City Archives.
  • The one hundredth anniversary of Germania Club, 1865-1965. A century of German-American traditions, civic responsibility and ideals , Chicago 1965.
  • Graves database "Find a Grave" [16] .
  • Christiane Harzig: Germans . In: Encyclopedia of Chicago , Chicago 2005, online only [17] .
  • Rudolf A. Hofmeister: The Germans of Chicago , Champaign, IL 1976.
  • ... annual report Schwaben Verein Chicago, cash report and membership directory , Chicago 1922 ... 1937.
  • Swabian Association of Chicago. Festschrift for the 50th foundation celebration. March 31, 1878-31. March 1928 , Chicago 1928.
  • Eitel Brothers face US action under dry law . In: Chicago Daily Tribune, January 7, 1920.

Web links

Commons : Eitel Brothers  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
  • Chicago History in Postcards [18] , menu selection: Hotels; Restaurants; Entertainment - Music / Dancing / Dining.
  • Chicago Nostalgia and Memorabilia [19] , Search (bottom of page): Bismarck Hotel; Vain restaurant; Old Heidelberg.
  • Foreign Language Press Survey, article about the Eitels in German-language US newspapers [20] .
  • Chicago Historical Society, Research Center [21] , Search: Eitel.

Individual evidence

  1. # address books ; #Family register . - In addition to Emil and Charlotte Eitel, their son Albert, whose wife Elisabeth Eitel nee. Hoffmann (1872–1961) and their daughter Lore Eitel (1903–1984).
  2. #Family register .
  3. #family register ; #NCAB 1967 .
  4. ↑ In 1890 Chicago had approx. 160,000 and 1900 approx. 170,000 inhabitants who were born in Germany, which corresponds to 15% and 10% of the total number of inhabitants ( #Hofmeister 1976 , page 10). If one also takes into account the children of German immigrants born in the USA, in 1898 almost half a million inhabitants were of German descent (about a quarter of the total population) compared to the same number of Americans, about 250,000 Irish and about 100,000 Poles ( #Hofmeister 1976 , Page 11; Chicago School Census 1898 [1] ).
  5. #Harzig 2005 .
  6. #NCAB 1967 , page 510.
  7. ^ Ellis Island passenger lists [2] .
  8. See also: Albert Eitel .
  9. Emil Eitel donated at least 17 lithographs and etchings to the institute in 1938 and a calendar by Johannes Regiomontanus from 1476 in 1948. See [3] (click on the magnifying glass, search for “Eitel”, button “repeat the search with the omitted results included”).
  10. These clubs and associations included the Swabian Club ( #Hofmeister 1976 , pages 117–121; #Schwabenverein 1922–1937 ; #Schwabenverein 1928 ), the Germania Club of Chicago ( #Hofmeister 1976 , pages 121-122), the Germania Male choir and the Executives 'Club of Chicago employers ' association ( #Blue Book 1890–1915 ).
  11. See also: # Hofmeister 1976 , page 61.
  12. For more details see origin .
  13. #Sunday Post 1929.1 : “a business college”; #Leonard 1905–1917 : "high school and commercial business college".
  14. Even after entering the hotel business, the brothers continued to run this company. During Prohibition in 1920, they were suspected of running a warehouse with alcoholic beverages worth $ 250,000 and of illegally trading them ( #Tribune 1920 ).
  15. On a trip to Germany, Karl Eitel visited the German Chancellor Bismarck in April 1894 and received permission from him to name the hotel after him.
  16. ^ Co. = Company = Society.
  17. On a trip to Germany, Emma Boldenweck, of German descent from Chicago, visited her relative Ludwig Boldenweck in Stuttgart , who had been with Emil Eitel senior as a privateer from 1888 to at least 1890. lived for rent at Mörikestrasse 1. On this occasion she met Emil Eitel ( # address books 1898–1899; # Götz 1967 , page 114; # grave database, memorial # 81808536).
  18. # Graves database, Memorial # 81810689, 83584229. - The father of the two sisters was the building contractor Louis Henry Boldenweck (1835–1896). He was born in Heilbronn and emigrated to Chicago with his parents and six siblings in 1854. Both parents died in quick succession that same year. The mother of the two sisters was also of German descent, but was born in Chicago.
  19. # graves database , Memorial # 81,810,689th
  20. # graves database , Memorial # 81,810,689th
  21. For more details see origin .
  22. #NCAB 1967 , page 151: "vice-president and secretary".
  23. # Graves Database, Memorial # 83584229, 83584295, 95075388.
  24. # graves database , Memorial # 83,584,229th
  25. For more details see origin .
  26. See: Hotel Astor (English Wikipedia).
  27. #NCAB 1967 , page 518: "vice-president and secretary and treasurer".
  28. The restaurant was a replica of the old Alt-Heidelberg restaurant in Nuremberg, world-famous for its food and beer ( archived copy ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.idaillinois.org
  29. The German Black Forest village was an artificial village with Black Forest houses that put visitors in a wintry mood in the middle of summer with ice rinks, artificial snow, artificial ice and cooling systems.
  30. See also: Texas Centennial Exposition (Wikipedia).
  31. For more details see origin .
  32. ^ Co. = Company = Society.
  33. [4] .
  34. Arthur Wirtz (English Wikipedia).
  35. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants (Wikipedia).
  36. Caption to the advertising postcard shown, on which the dance floor can be seen: “Largest Out Door Wooden Dance Floor”.
  37. #Sengstock 2004 , pp. 60–61; #NCAB 1967 , page 518; # Götz 1967 , page 114.
  38. "The avenue was known as Chicago's Rialto. Lined with theaters, restaurants and nightclubs the lights along Randolph were as bright as the flickering bulbs and neon of New York's Times Square. ”( Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / designslinger.com
  39. ^ Field Building (Wikipedia).