Albert Steigenberger was a German financier with a problem: He’d loaned a friend money – the bank said it was a good risk – but the friend, who happened to own a hotel, couldn’t pay him back. Steigenberger could have written off the loss as a bad investment, but instead, in 1932, he found himself in the hotel business.
The hotel turned out to be the rather splendid Europasia Hotel in the swank spa city of Baden Baden, and Steigenberger turned out to be pretty good at the hotel business. Fifty years later, Hotels & Restaurants International, a precursor publication to HOTELS magazine, wrote about the “versatile German giant” in its April 1982 issue.
At that point the company had been taken over by Albert’s son, Egon, and was operating 40 hotels and 16 resorts, mostly in Germany, ran a hotel school in Bavaria and was a major figure in the wine import-export business.
The definition of giant may have changed since 1982, but Steigenberger is still independent, operating 48 hotels and more InterCity branded hotels in Europe and beyond.
HOTELS magazine is featuring a #TBT every week this year to celebrate its 50thanniversary. Have a hotel memory you’d like to share? Email Managing Editor Barbara Bohn at bbohn@hotelsmag.com.