Kempinski Hotels is Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group with a history of more than 110 years. The history of this traditional company with its head office in Geneva began in 1897 with the foundation of the ‘Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft’ in Berlin. This was the time when the first comfortable hotels were already appearing in the biggest German city, and included some belonging to the ’Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft’. 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. This proved to have excellent prospects for the future, and became the parent firm of the group, which ultimately made the name Kempinski world-famous. Very soon it was possible to extend the Berlin business by adding a restaurant with several rooms. The ambitious entrepreneur Kempinski continued to pursue his plans for expansion with determination. 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. Unger, who made a considerable contribution to the success and development of the firm, very soon took over its running. 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.