Experienced at returning grandeur to celebrated hotels overtaken by time and neglect in the fatherland, the individual German group is casting its net wider. Jonathan Hart reports
Who knows, or cares, if new incumbents Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy took a get-to-knowyou sauna in the buff together, as is customary in these parts? Or if best pals George Bush and Tony Blair shared candy-striped deckchairs or took to horseback or played a round of golf to discuss affairs of state? More appropriate, you may think, is that the newly glittering, multi-faceted, much-subsidised and heavily protected venue chosen for this year’s G8 summit was formerly a sanatorium as well as a retreat favoured by the likes of Hitler and Mussolini; steeped in history, controversy and political intrigue. Perhaps fitting, too, is that the reborn Grand Hotel Heiligendamm, a bright-white wave of more than 20 imposing buildings splashed across the shores of The Baltic, is managed by Kempinski; a group that stands fast by personal guest privacy and clipped-heel Teutonic traditions, by and large making its name playing supplicant to royalty and world leaders. Founded in 1793 for Duke Friedrich Franz 1, Heiligendamm enjoyed almost two centuries as a venue for the privileged, rich or famous before emerging from World War Two as a crumbling and humbled shadow of its former grandee self, transformed into a sanatorium for down-at-heel Eastern Bloc workers. Come 1996, and real estate investors weighed in to restore the flagship of Germany’s first seaside resort, near Rostock, to its former imperial splendour, taking advantage of generous government handouts to provide much-needed employment in a province whose traditional shipbuilding and agriculture had shrunk to near zero. Eleven years and an estimated US$280million later, some 300 locals are required in high season to service the 225 rooms, including 107 suites, Michelin-starred cuisine, lavish meeting rooms, and extensive recreational acres, including the last word in spas, stables and an 18-hole golf course. Nonetheless, partially due to its remote location, 200km (124 miles) from both Berlin and Hamburg, Heiligendamm remains largely the preserve of German travellers, with poor average occupancies. Now, investors are hoping that not just the G8 but also the authoritative international stamp of Kempinski can raise overseas demand and kudos for the resort. Certainly, Kempinski has proved to be the management brand of choice for many other restored landmark properties in German cities, including Hotel Taschenbergpalais in Dresden, Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg and the renowned Hotel Adlon in Berlin, celebrating its 100th anniversary with a full house of big name guests . Overseas, too, Kempinski has hoisted its banner above properties old and new where celebrities gather, hotels either considered landmarks in themselves or adjoining them, like the opulent Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, Commune by the Great Wall in China and Ciragan Palace, home to the last Ottoman sultan in Istanbul. By no means are all Kempinski properties in the same mould. Although mostly five star, the group's portfolio of more than 60 hotels globally incorporates a widely differing variety of properties, large and small, from Argentina to Zanzibar. As a collective, itself more than a century old, Kempinski is hard to categorise and purposely so; because managing hotels of individual character and charm remains the group's overriding maxim, the words 'same' and 'chain' have been eliminated from the corporate psyche. While a further 20 individual properties in more than a dozen countries are due to be added to the portfolio this year and next, Kempinski is also moving into the management of luxury apartments. Labelled Kempinski Private Residences, these will initially be in Croatia, Dubai, Kazakhstan, Spain and Turkey – adding another string to a diverse but devotedly traditional hotel company’s bow.
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