Elmau Castle

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Elmau Castle
Schloss Elmau Logo.JPG
city Krün
address In Elmau 2
Website www.schloss-elmau.de
Hotel information
opening 2007
management Dietmar Mueller-Elmau
Classification 5 Stars
Employee 330 (2017)
sales EUR 19.8 million (2011)

Around € 400 per guest per day (2011)

Furnishing
room Castle: 115, Retreat: 47
Restaurants 6th
Photo of the hotel

Coordinates: 47 ° 27 ′ 43 ″  N , 11 ° 11 ′ 10 ″  E

Elmau Castle seen from the northeast (from the Elmauer Alm)
Elmau Castle, driveway and entrance from the east

Elmau Castle is located above the village of Klais , municipality of Krün in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district at an altitude of 1008 meters at the foot of the Wetterstein Mountains ( Upper Bavaria ). It was built by Carl Sattler and the builder Johannes Müller in the form of reform architecture during the First World War from 1914 to 1916 with a hipped roof, tower and vestibules.

In 2005 the castle was destroyed in a fire and subsequently partially demolished. Müller's grandson Dietmar Mueller-Elmau as the builder and Sattler's grandson Christoph Sattler as the architect rebuilt the castle from 2006 to 2007 as a five-star S-Hotel.

Parts of the building are registered as architectural monuments in the Bavarian list of monuments. The south wing now offers rooms for guests on six floors. The reform architecture is no longer recognizable here. Schloss Elmau is part of the alliance The Leading Hotels of the World .

history

The name Elmau was first mentioned in a document in 1395. The name comes from Elmen-Aue . Elm is a derived form of the elm tree . So the name means: A meadow overgrown with elms . Elmau Castle stands on late glacial gravel from the Würm glacial period . The subsoil of this gravel is primarily formed by rocks from the Raibler layers , which were formed as marine deposits in the Upper Triassic around 230 million years ago. The floodplain (the Drüsselgraben, which is embedded between the Wamberg in the north and the Wettersteinwand in the south) is under nature protection , "mainly because of the many protected flowers such as the gentians that cover the humps and hills with a blue carpet in spring."

From 1542, Elmau was built with remote farms , a sawmill and an inn . When the management was no longer worthwhile, the farmers sold their property to two admirers of King Ludwig II , who had a royal house built on Schachen around 1870 and always stayed at Gut Elmau. King Ludwig allowed himself to be taken up to the castle in a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh . After the fairy tale king's death in 1886, the property lost its importance, but the Schachenweg is still popular today for hike the 850 meters higher Schachen (height 1866 meters).

Construction of Elmau Castle and the early days

In 1912 the writer , philosopher and theologian Johannes Müller bought the deserted property. From 1914 onwards, with substantial financial support from Elsa von Michael (Waldersee), née Haniel , construction and opening (Pentecost 1916) of an institution which, according to Müller, should serve as “freedom for personal and community life”. Guests should "forget themselves, their divine beings can become aware of unconscious and directly as the children within the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount." Here by the experience of silence in nature, as well as concerts and dance evenings Already 1916 150 concerts were organized per year, from piano through Song to chamber music evenings . Thanks to Elly Ney in particular , the chamber concerts - deliberately limited to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert - became a permanent fixture. At that time, Johannes Müller's closest friends and guests included the theologians Adolf von Harnack and Ernst Troeltsch as well as the heir to the throne of the House of Baden and Major General Prince Max von Baden , who hoped that Müller would cure his anxiety attacks and overcome his emotional isolation .

Besides 150 rooms decreed Elmau a large dining room, concert hall, tea room with a terrace, fireplace room, drinking parlor, Salettl , courtyard, spacious corridors and several staircases and two tennis courts and bowling greens.

During the time of National Socialism

In the Third Reich, Elmau Castle was in many ways an ambivalent place of contradictions. Johannes Müller, who had rejected Hitler until 1933, suddenly turned into an admirer of Adolf Hitler in April 1933 , whom he saw as a “tool in God's hand” and leader of the “national revolution of the common good over self-interest”, which Hitler only supported Help from the German Jews could lead to success. At the same time, in April 1933, he publicly referred to the biologism and anti-Semitism of the National Socialists as a “shame for Germany”, which “made him blush with shame”. As a result, Müller was targeted by the Propaganda Ministry as a “friend of the Jews” and several measures were sought against him. At first, the relevant publications were confiscated and, with the exception of his memoirs, he was banned from further publications and finally also public lectures until 1932. At the beginning of 1942 the Mauthausen concentration camp applied for his arrest, but this did not take place for various reasons.

In the aftermath of these events, Müller forbade the Hitler salute at Elmau Castle. In addition, the castle was not considered anti-Semitic and did not become a preferred hotel of the National Socialist functional elites.

Nevertheless, for Müller, Hitler remained “the receiving organ for the government of God and transmitter of the eternal rays”. From 1942, part of the castle was leased to the Wehrmacht , who used the house as a rest home for soldiers. In 1943 Alexander Schmorell , a member of the White Rose resistance group, tried to flee to Switzerland via Elmau. When it became clear that this would not work, he had to return to Munich, where he was denounced, arrested and finally executed. In 1944 the castle was finally converted into a hospital .

post war period

After the end of the war in 1945, Johannes Müller was convicted in a denazification process for glorifying Hitler in word and writing as the main culprit ( war criminal ). The condemnation was legally controversial, as Müller was neither a member of the party nor one of its sub-organizations and was not a participant in the war. Nevertheless, he admitted his guilt and did not want to defend himself. The Müller family finally appealed against the verdict of the court . The initiator of the procedure was Philipp Auerbach , Bavarian State Commissioner for the Racially, Religiously and Politically Persecuted. He took over the castle in 1947 without a legal title and, after serving as a military hospital and winter combat school for the US Army for a short time , then operated it as a rest home for tuberculosis sufferers, displaced persons and Holocaust survivors . Henri Heitan, chief physician of the Joint Distribution Committee in Feldafing , found Elmau and decided to set up a rest home for survivors there. The director was the leather industrialist Jakob Rosenberg. Survivors were able to recover in Elmau for 14 days each. Johannes Müller died on January 4, 1949 in Elmau.

Auerbach was arrested in 1951 because of the anti-Semitism that was rampant in the post-war period because of alleged irregularities in the State Office for Reparation run by the Attorney General. He committed suicide in prison after being convicted in 1952. Two years later he was fully rehabilitated by an investigative committee of the Bavarian state parliament . The heirs Bernhard and Sieglinde then leased the property from the Bavarian state. Sieglinde Müller married the hotel manager Odoardo Mesirca in 1954.

In 1960 the court proceedings were discontinued and Bernhard Müller-Elmau and his sister Sieglinde Mesirca were appointed as heirs. Together with Odoardo Mesirca and with the support of regular guests and famous artists, they turned Elmau Castle into an incomparable cultural and recreational facility again within four decades.

Classical music and dance evenings in Schloss Elmau

Musical

Chamber music concerts and dance evenings with the house pianist Otto Ludwig , who was a student of Edwin Fischer , have played a central role in the castle's cultural program since Elmau Castle was opened in 1916, where 150 concerts have already taken place. A discussion of the fateful story and lectures did not take place. From then on it was only about music and dance. For Johannes Müller:

“Music is the abundance of life and the power of action that alone allows us to experience the infinity and the unimaginable abundance of creativity of the Godhead and consequently penetrates the depths of our soul in a heart-moving and meaningful way. It gives us an idea of ​​the heavenly music of the spheres in pure harmony. That is why the music is also an awakening of infinite longing and incomprehensible emotion of the soul in us, in which we feel the breath of divinity. "

And elsewhere:

“ Art brings us a sigh of relief in the metaphysical sphere that is its home. It puts us in the heavenly rhythm of life. It lifts us up from the vanities of impermanence and awakens what we really are in us. From here I understand the tremendous importance that music has gained in Europe over the past hundred years. It is the only direct effect from God on the souls buried and almost suffocated in the materialism of beliefs and life. "

The painter Harrison Compton captured the mood of the Elmau at that time and its dance evenings around 1930. In addition to the regular Elmau dance evenings with the pianist Otto Ludwig every Wednesday and Saturday, music weeks, concerts and readings were held regularly .

“You didn't pay with money, but with table slips on which you wrote your room number and your drink and which you handed to the helpers. In the end it all came down to the bill. So there was always pencil and paper to draw something. "

The house daughters gave Elmauer life its very special character. According to Martin Cramer, this facility had a strong educational effect on the guests. You picked up breakfast yourself at the kitchen counter.

"You are completely on your own in many things, and there are things that you do not expect from a helper because she is a lady."

- Martin Cramer

Schloss Elmau became internationally known from January 1957, when the German-British conductor Hans Oppenheim initiated the first British-German Music Days at Schloss Elmau together with the Amadeus Quartet . This occurred u. a. the famous violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Gidon Kremer , the pianists Wilhelm Kempff , Emil Gilels , Alfred Brendl and Friedrich Gulda , the singers Herman Prey and Thomas Quasthoff, and the British composer and pianist Benjamin Britten .

Literary and intellectual

In 1957 the group 47 writers' association met with Ingeborg Bachmann and Marcel Reich-Ranicki in Schloss Elmau. The International Society for Depth Psychology, under the direction of Karlfried Graf Dürckheim and the Zen master Pater Enomiya-Lassalle, held conferences on topics such as “Occidental Therapy and Eastern Wisdom” or “The Responsibility of Science to Man”.

The Anthroposophical Society held its annual conference here. Federal President Johannes Rau , Loriot and Alexander Kluge were regular guests of the hotel.

Takeover by Dietmar Mueller-Elmau

The south wing after the major fire

Equipped with fortune selling his company Fidelio (hotel software), leased the current majority shareholder Dietmar Mueller-Elmau in 1997 the house and launched its exclusive spa - tourism .

With the takeover by Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, the morning dance and the regular dance evenings with the pianist Bojana Simic were abolished. The rotating table arrangement, which the Elmau housekeeper set new every day, was also canceled.

“The space in the middle is bad.
You are always the third!
The subject on the left is highly explosive,
on the right it sounds less interesting.
The opposite would not be so bad either,
but unfortunately there is the flower pot in between ...
So you are torn back and forth,
in short: the middle is ...! "

- Gertrud Grünzig-Lumbeck : Elmauer sheets

When Mueller-Elmau took over, the "lifting of the compulsion to community" was particularly important. To do this, he lifted the table arrangements, abolished the morning dance lessons, halved the number of remaining dance events and sawed through the large communal tables in the middle in a symbolic act. Since 1998, Elmau Castle has become a regular meeting place, especially for Jewish humanities scholars from all over the world, primarily through the collaboration with Christoph Schmidt.

Opening 2007 Luxury Spa & Cultural Hideaway

In August 2005, a major fire and as a result large quantities of extinguishing water destroyed two wings and two thirds of all rooms in the castle. The reconstruction of the castle and the bathhouse began in April 2006 according to plans by Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, Christoph Sattler , André Behncke and the architecture firm DBLB from Munich and cost 40 million euros; The insurance paid for 25 of them. On June 21, 2007, after a 14-month construction period, Schloss Elmau was opened in "new generosity as Luxury Spa & Cultural Hideaway and member of the Leading Hotels of the World " and has since received numerous national and international awards.

Opening of the Schloss Elmau Retreat

Schloss Elmau Retreat

On March 21, 2015, after a two-year construction period, the Schloss Elmau Retreat was opened. Today, more than two hundred musical events are held in Schloss Elmau every year. In addition to classical music, jazz music has also secured a permanent position in recent years . In addition to the musical concerts, literary events and symposia also take place regularly . The hotel is a member of the hotel alliance The Leading Hotels of the World and aims to address the history of Schloss Elmau - in particular that influenced by National Socialism . It would like to become a cultural center, a conference and lecture venue with regard to German history of ideas and culture, theology and philosophy as well as the problematic entanglement of religion and politics in world political issues. Here, too, the planning comes from Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht and DBLB architects from Munich.

Elmauer Alm

Elmauer Alm hut, built in 1927

The Elmauer Alm was built as an alpine hut in 1927 and expanded to host guests at the beginning of the 1950s; it belongs to Schloss Elmau. It is located 1380 meters as the crow flies north of the castle, about 30 minutes' walk from it on a 1203 meter high ridge. The hut is very popular with hikers as a stop and stage destination between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald because of its excellent panoramic view , which extends from the Zugspitze in the west over the Alp- and Dreitorspitze , the Wetterstein and Karwendel mountains to the Soiern group in the east. In ideal weather conditions with good visibility, the view extends far into the Tyrolean countryside.

Elmauer chapel

Elmauer chapel

The Elmau Chapel near Gut Elmau was built in 1778 and decorated with exterior and interior frescoes by Josef Degenhart from Telfs in 1781. The baroque monument with roof turret was completely renovated in 1994.

Exterior painting: Escape to Egypt above, St. Andrew on the left, St. Bartholomew on the right . The ceiling painting shows the "Coronation of Mary ".

G7 summit 2015

The G7 summit 2015 took place on 7./8. June 2015 at Schloss Elmau. Preparatory work in the area around the hotel began in 2014. Roads were paved and ditches were made, a helipad was built and much more. An 8 km long security zone was set up around the conference venue and the deployment of around 20,000 police officers was planned. The cost of the summit, originally estimated at 130 million euros by the Bavarian state government , was around 200 million euros according to internal data from the Interior Ministry; Rolf von Hohenhau , President of the Association of Taxpayers in Bavaria , assumed 360 million euros. The heads of state and government from the USA , Canada , Japan , France , Great Britain , Italy and Germany attended the summit . Here, a decarbonization of industrial societies was agreed, thus creating the basis for the Paris climate treaty . Greenpeace praised the summit on Twitter with the statement "Elmau delivered".

The Elmau in the film

  • The Elmau - A family and castle story. Documentary Germany 1999, Bavarian FS, directed by Thomas Honickel

Web links

Commons : Schloss Elmau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Schloss Elmau Career Experience. In: Homepage Schloss Elmau. May 4, 2018, Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Nicole Amrein: Dieter Müller-Elmau - It all started with Fidelio ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Hotelier magazine 11/2011, B + L Verlag, Schlieren, p. 59 f. accessed on June 27, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hotelier.ch
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ↑ schloss-elmau.de: Restaurants
  5. ↑ a b c d Website of Schloss Elmau, history. Retrieved July 16, 2018 .
  6. ↑ File number D-1-80-122-8
  7. ↑ Explanations of the Geological Map 1: 25000, Blatt Mittenwald, 1966, pages 29 and 64. Ed .: Bayer. State Office for the Environment
  8. ↑ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: The story of Schloss Elmau. Elmau, undated, p. 3 and on the castle website
  9. ↑ Countess Elsa von Waldersee, b. April 11, 1871, Ruhrort, † November 7, 1955, Berchtesgaden, marriage on February 15, 1892 to Friedrich Heinrich Christian Ludwig von Michael (1857–1929), second marriage on June 24, 1921 to Franz Georg Kurt Eduard von Waldersee, Count von Waldersee (1862–1927) family tree
  10. ↑ a b Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 9 .
  11. ↑ Ney was an ardent propagandist for Hitler. She gave speeches to young people in which she interpreted Beethoven and “Nordic music” in the spirit of National Socialism. I.a. she complained to the Reich Ministry of Propaganda about too few government commissions as an honorary artist.
  12. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau. ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 200.
  13. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau. ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , pp. 169f.
  14. ↑ a b c d Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Elmau Castle - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 25.26 .
  15. ↑ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Elmau Castle - A German History . Kösel, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 .
  16. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 30 .
  17. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel-Verlag Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , p. 49 .
  18. ^ Bavarian State Archives, Munich
  19. ↑ a b c d Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Elmau Castle - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 50 .
  20. ^ Ernest Landau: Purim in Elmau - To the Jewish future in Germany - Texts of Jewish survival. In: Wolfgang Benz et al. (Ed.): KZ and posterity. (= Dachauer Hefte. 24). 2008, ISBN 978-3-9808587-9-3 .
  21. ↑ See: Michael Brenner (Ed.): History of the Jews in Germany from 1945 to the present. Politics, culture, society. Munich 2012, p. 83.
  22. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 61 .
  23. ↑ Johannes Müller in his volume of aphorisms Becoming what we are. Printed in the program of the 12th British-German Music Days from January 10th to 17th, 1970, Elmau, 1970, p. 3.
  24. ↑ Barefoot and TV-free - Elmau Castle from my childhood
  25. ↑ Martin Cramer: Schloss Elmau 1932. In: Dietmar Mueller-Elmau (Hrsg.): Schloss Elmau - A German story. Kösel, Munich 2015, p. 44.
  26. ^ Sieglinde Mesirca: Foreword in the program of the tenth British-German Music Days from January 6th to 13th, 1969, Elmau, 1969, p. 3.
  27. ^ Oppenheim later also worked in Glyndebourne .
  28. ↑ Evening programs of the first English-German Music Days from January 6th to 14th, 1959, Elmau, 1959.
  29. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 63 .
  30. ↑ a b Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 64 .
  31. ↑ Sale to the American company Micros Systems for a total of 55 million marks, with Mueller-Elmau taking the lion's share, manager magazine June 26, 2009 Zauberberg für alle.
  32. ↑ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau in an interview with Antje Lang-Lendorff: “I love contradiction”. A fire crackles in the glass fireplace, and a black Steinway grand piano stands in front of the corner window facing Oranienplatz. Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, operator of the Hotel Orania in Kreuzberg, sees his house as a public living room for artists from the area, among others. Critics, on the other hand, are a thorn in the side of the noble hotel, which opened in August, as it represents the upgrading of the district. There were paint strokes, windows were damaged. A conversation about gentrification and the freedom of others. www.taz.de, November 18, 2017, accessed on November 19, 2017 .
  33. ↑ Gertrud Grünzig-Lumbeck in Elmauer Blätter. 43rd Volume No. 2 December 1994, p. 33.
  34. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 68 .
  35. ^ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Schloss Elmau - A German story . Kösel, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 70, 71 .
  36. ↑ Dietmar Mueller-Elmau: Elmau Castle - A German History . Kösel, ISBN 978-3-466-37132-7 , pp. 95 .
  37. ↑ Classical and jazz are represented in individual concerts as well as in concert series ( Liedwoche @ Schloss Elmau , Verbier Festival @ Schloss Elmau , European Jazztival , Jazz Classica , Swing Week , etc.).
  38. ^ Elmau Castle | Hilmer Sattler Architects. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Chapel Elmau ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.erzbistum-muenchen.de
  40. ↑ br.de: Bavaria will host G8 summit in 2015 ( Memento from November 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  41. ↑ Federal Press Office: G7 summit will take place on June 7th and 8th, 2015
  42. ↑ Proof of planning on a private website , accessed on September 3, 2014.
  43. ↑ The G7 summit in 34 numbers. In: Münchner Merkur online. May 30, 2015, accessed May 30, 2015 .
  44. ↑ High security wing in the Alps . In: Deutschlandfunk . May 29, 2015. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
  45. ↑ Sören Amelang, Kerstine Appunn, Sven Egenter: "Elmau delivered" - Comments on G7 climate, energy statement. June 8, 2015, accessed January 25, 2018 .