Kempinski Hotels
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| Private | |
| Industry | Hospitality, Tourism |
| Founded | 1897 in Berlin, Germany |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
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Key people
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| Products | Hotels, Restaurants, Residences |
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Number of employees
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24,000 |
| Website | www |
Kempinski Hotels S.A. is Europe's oldest luxury hotel group. The group now has its head office in Geneva but was founded in Berlin in 1897 as the ‘Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft‘. Kempinski Hotels currently operates 75 five-star hotels and residences in 30 countries.Starting in Germany, over the years Kempinski has extended its hotel portfolio to other parts of Europe and to the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The distinctive hotels are located in places such as Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Istanbul, the Dead Sea, Beijing, Moscow, St Moritz and Bangkok.
Kempinski Hotels is Europe's oldest luxury hotel group with a history of more than 119 years. The history of this traditional company began in 1897 with the foundation of the ‘Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft’ in Berlin. A parallel development was that of M. Kempinski & Co, founded by Berthold Kempinski, which was acquired by the ‘Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft’ in 1953.
Berthold Kempinski was born on 10 October 1843 in Posen (then a German province, and now Poland). The Kempinski family was already successfully active in the wine trade from 1862. In 1872 it extended its company to Berlin, where Berthold Kempinski opened a wine-merchant's business under his name in the Friedrichstrasse. In 1889 he opened a restaurant in the Leipziger Strasse which was the biggest in the whole of Berlin.
Since Berthold Kempinski and his wife Helena had no male children, they invited their son-in-law Richard Unger to join the business. Berthold Kempinski finally transferred the firm to his son-in-law on condition that he kept the name Kempinski. Berthold Kempinski died on March 14, 1910.
Alongside his wine and restaurant activities, Richard Unger constructed an immense property business up to the start of World War I. After a short period of stagnation during the War, he sold products of his own manufacture under the brand name Kempinski. The business in Berlin flourished, so that in 1918 an impressive Kempinski hotel dependency was established at 27 Kurfürstendamm, where the Kempinski Hotel Bristol now stands. Ten years later, M. Kempinski & Co. took over the legendary "Haus Vaterland" on the Potsdamer Platz, where the firm exploited a concept that was unique in Berlin for a long time and is still known as "event gastronomy" (‘Erlebnisgastronomie’).
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Wikipedia