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A colorful history |
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The history of the Hotel Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden began in the pre-Christian era, when Romans first founded a permanent settlement they called "Aquae Mattiacae" amidst a wealth of thermal springs over two thousand years ago. Almost one hundred years later – in the year 85 after the birth of Christ – Emperor Domitian defeated the ancestors of the modern-day Hessians and founded "Civitas Mattiacorum", later to be known as Wiesbaden. The Romans then erected a stone castle, which served their cohorts as living quarters, at the exact location where the Nassauer Hof stands today. The castle was later remodeled into a thermal bathing house. It is this very thermal spring, still spouting hot water, which supplies the Grand Hotel’s thermal swimming pool, located on the building’s fifth floor, with its healing waters to this day.
The development from what was then called a "heriberga" – at one stage a station where French royal messengers changed mounts before becoming stables for the Earl of Nassau - into what now stands as the Grand Hotel, is as colorful as history itself. Over the course of time the estate, which had come to be a guest and spa house, was completely destroyed a number of times. In 1547, for instance, it fell victim to a raging fire, which consumed large parts of medieval Wiesbaden. Similar misfortune was to befall it several more times over subsequent centuries.
The actual conception of the Grand Hotel as such dates back to the year 1813, when innkeeper Johann Freinsheim opened the "Deutsches Haus", which was renamed "Hotel Nassau" in 1816. The Johann Friedrich Goetz family acquired the estate in 1819 and remodeled it into an elegant, Classic style building. The festive reopening ceremony – contemporary gazettes spoke of "a hotel of singular splendor in the Rhineland" – had political significance. The "Carlsbad Acts" were about to be ratified in Wiesbaden, now capital of the duchy of Nassau – and the "Hotel Nassau" was to be the venue at which the event was to take place. Just a few years later, in 1827, the Goetz family was given renewed reason for pride in their establishment, when the new opening of the adjacent Royal Court Theatre lent it even more prestige.
The fact that Wiesbaden established a railway connection with Frankfurt in 1840 proved a further stroke of luck for the Goetz family. What was once considered a cumbersome journey to the thermal baths was now a pleasure, and Wiesbaden gained an international reputation as a spa, theatre and casino city, which drew many illustrious visitors. Among these was Russian author Fjodor M. Dostojewskij, who resided at the "Hotel Nassau" and left Wiesbaden – the "Roulette Fortress" – with the inspiration for his later novel "The Player".
The local population discovered its love of the monarchy when Wiesbaden turned Prussian in 1866. What was then considered "high society" greatly enjoyed, and indeed, felt validated by, the pompous Hohenzollern parades and developments taking place before the doors of the "Hotel Nassau" and along the Wilhelmsstrasse (the "Rue"), which has today become an elegant shopping mile. The public had more reason to cheer than usual in the year 1897, when Emperor Wilhelm II revealed the monument of his father in the square in front of the "Hotel Nassauer Hof", as it was called from then on. It was in the same year that a long held dream of the hotel owners came true: the Court Theatre was integrated into the hotel grounds.
The "Hotel Nassauer Hof" turned into the "Balcony of Europe" when the people became witness to a glamorous meeting between Emperor Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II in 1903. And, in 1907, yet another occasion drew Emperor Wilhelm II to Wiesbaden: the opening of the Kurhaus, opposite the "Hotel Nassauer Hof", which is even today considered one of the most opulent on earth. Meanwhile, the Nassauer Hof also displayed a newfound splendor: the renovations to its Wilhelmian Baroque façade had been completed and 200 rooms – some furnished in English style, some in voluptuous Rococo – stood ready. Its two thermal baths, rich in marble and stucco, were among the most luxurious of all of Wiesbaden’s hotels. The Grand Hotel welcomed Kings, Princes, Dukes and Earls among its guests.
The Goetzian family tradition ended in 1917. After the tumult and destruction of WWI, a "Muehlheim merchant" by the name of Hugo Stinnes arrived in Wiesbaden and acquired the "Hotel Nassauer Hof", wanting to offer his business partners an "adequate" venue for negotiations.
The establishment completely burned down in the bombings of 1945, and rebuilding started in 1950. Monies flowed from Muelheim an der Ruhr – thanks to the Stinnes group. The company once again invested around 20 million marks toward modernization and extension measures in 1968, an effort during which the commissioned architects achieved a wonderful bridge between the past and the future. The Hotel Nassauer Hof passed into the hands of a private investment group, which founded a real estate endowment fund by the name of "Hotel Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden Dr. Herbert Ebertz KG, Cologne" in January 2001. Ownership is evenly divided between the Dr. Ebertz group and Karl Nueser. Karl Nueser is also CEO of the limited liability company. The new proprietors are very much committed to maintaining the establishment’s rich tradition and will keep up renovations and maintenance to ensure that the "Nassauer Hof" will continue to shine as a true solitaire among Europe’s finest Grand Hotels and carry its exemplary international reputation well into the new millennium.
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