Chron­i­cle

The Inn “Zum Gold­e­nen Adler” received its “autho­riza­tion for pub­lic sign­post and oven” — the birth cer­tifi­cate of a tav­ern — on the for­mer Spey­er­er Strasse, today Dreikönigstrasse no. 4. In Schwet­zin­gen there was con­struc­tion under­way, con­certs, danc­ing: the Court moves in. A prop­er local­i­ty is cre­at­ed (1748) with streets and squares, with mar­kets and state agen­cies. In the year 1759, it was grant­ed “right to run a mar­ket.” The Roco­co The­ater was opened, and, under Elec­tor Carl Theodor (1749–58), the Palace Gar­dens took on their design and shape still famous today. In 1763, Mozart as a sev­en-year-old boy played in the the­ater before the noble dig­ni­taries. A prop­er local­i­ty is cre­at­ed (1748) with streets and squares, with mar­kets and state agen­cies. In the year 1759, it was grant­ed “right to run a mar­ket.” The Roco­co The­ater was opened, and, under Elec­tor Carl Theodor (1749–58), the Palace Gar­dens took on their design and shape still famous today. In 1763, Mozart as a sev­en-year-old boy played in the the­ater before the noble dignitaries.

On Decem­ber 17 of this year, the Jesuits’ Col­lege con­cludes a sale- and barter agree­ment with the then own­er of the “Gold­en­er Adler”, J.M. Metz. The inn, which was in the vicin­i­ty of the Catholic St. Pan­cras Church, was exchanged for the Catholic school­house at An der Pfer­de­schwemme, and thus it assumed its final location.

The court glazier G. P. Metz, son of J.M. Metz and his wife Mrs. M. W. Bianchi become the own­ers of the “Gold­en­er Adler”. Twelve years lat­er the “Adler”-landlady, who was wid­owed in the mean­time, mar­ried the court glazier and gro­cer F. Hübinger. Since that year the build­ing’s name was short­ened to the “Adler”. In 1803, parts of the Palati­nate includ­ing Schwet­zin­gen become part of Baden. At the start of the new cen­tu­ry three per­son­al­i­ties become con­nect­ed with Schwetzingen:

Karl Friedrich Schim­per (impor­tant sci­en­tist and nature researcher), reg­u­lar guest at the “Adler“
Johann Michael Zey­her (Garten­baudi­rek­tor)
Johann Peter Hebel (Poet, died and buried in Schwet­zin­gen in 1826)

On July 12, 1817, Baron von Drais rode a pro­to-bicy­cle through Schwet­zin­gen. In 1823, the Roco­co The­ater saw its final per­for­mance. In 1828 the Post opened a post office in the “Adler.”

Our ances­tor, the mas­ter rope­mak­er, Johann Andreas Ihm, took over the “Adler”, and at the same time the asso­ci­at­ed post office. The era of the Ihm fam­i­ly in the “Adler” begins. At that time the post car­riages ride out of here, and they change their hors­es, for J.A. Ihm is post­mas­ter and post equer­ry thanks to the favor the Grand Duke. Many have a pleas­ant drink at the post par­lor while exchang­ing news from the world, which at that time was still a small world.

Many for­eign­ers came to Schwet­zin­gen due to the Palace Gar­den, since by that time it had already built up a good rep­u­ta­tion. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hei­del­berg espe­cial­ly sends its stu­dents from elit­ist stu­dent asso­ci­a­tions to the for­mer sum­mer res­i­dence of the Hei­del­berg Elec­tor. Here they drink as much as in the Hei­del­berg stu­dent bars… At this time Schwet­zin­gen num­bers rough­ly 3500 inhab­i­tants, and J.A. Ihm belongs to the local council.

J.A. Ihm’s old­est son, Karl Ihm, pur­chas­es his par­ents’ prop­er­ty, how­ev­er after five years he takes over the Inn “Zum Ochsen” (today “Hotel zum Erbprinzen”) and leaves — for a pay­ment — the “Adler” to his younger broth­er Ernst Ihm I. Ernst Ihm is a mas­ter bak­er and sup­plies his hotel with fresh baked goods from a bak­ery on the premis­es. He had trav­elled far, an ener­getic and intel­li­gent man. The Grün­derzeit-years ben­e­fit­ed him and his busi­ness. Suc­cess­ful busi­ness­men and man­u­fac­tur­ers from emerg­ing Mannheim like to vis­it Schwet­zin­gen and the “Adler”. In addi­tion, the hops trade brings lots of mon­ey to the city. In the year 1865, the Schwet­zin­gen agri­cul­tur­al econ­o­my final­ly adopts the aspara­gus trade. In 1865, Schwet­zin­gen agri­cul­ture final­ly takes up aspara­gus cul­ti­va­tion, after it has been proven that the first aspara­gus were plant­ed in 1650. (It has been proven that the first aspara­gus were plant­ed in 1650.) In 1870 Schwet­zin­gen acquires its own train sta­tion. The first auto­mo­biles roll through the local­i­ty, the post car­riages are aban­doned, and the sta­bles disappear.

Where the sta­bles had been, Ernst Ihm I builds an addi­tion to the “Adler”. From this era on, the Inn “zum Adler” is called “Hotel”. The whole­sale aspara­gus buy­ers most­ly stay here, and the trav­el­ling busi­ness­men fre­quent the Hotel.

The son, Ernst Ihm II takes pos­ses­sion of the “Hotel Adler”. He has a per­son­al­i­ty full of ideals, hon­esty and is a hunter who obeys hunt­ing reg­u­la­tions. He oper­ates a small gar­den and sup­plies the hotel with flow­ers, fresh veg­eta­bles and fruit. His wife Anna Maria and her moth­er, grand­moth­er Ries, are espe­cial­ly appre­ci­at­ed by the guests. Their cook­ing makes the “Adler” a dis­tinct con­cept. Under their lead­er­ship, the hotel acquires a rep­u­ta­tion for serv­ing the best aspara­gus. Their recipe for the pop­u­lar spe­cial aspara­gus pan­cake was still served in the past.

In the year 1897 the first tele­phone is installed in Schwet­zin­gen, and the “Hotel Adler” is equipped with the fourth tele­phone con­nec­tion of the local­i­ty. Schwet­zin­gen now has 6,435 inhabitants.

In 1918, the palace and its gar­den become the prop­er­ty of the state of Baden.

Once again a son, Ernst Ihm III, takes over the “Adler”. He is like­wise an enthu­si­as­tic hunter and game­keep­er, who sup­plies the kitchen of his hotel with fresh game. He is knowl­edge­able about wine and gourmet food, known as the Aspara­gus Pro­fes­sor, and loved and respect­ed by his guests. His wife Lina works in the kitchen and takes care of the domes­tic econ­o­my. Under the direc­tion of the cou­ple, the hotel becomes famous not only region­al­ly, but nation­al­ly. Elec­tri­cal light, vapor heat, and run­ning hot and cold water are installed, along with toi­lets, and baths on each floor.

After the ear­ly death of his wife Lina, Ernst Ihm III, togeth­er with his sec­ond wife Eleonore leads the hotel through the dif­fi­cult wartime. After WWII, Schwet­zin­gen has 10,890 inhab­i­tants. In 1952, the Schwet­zin­gen Fes­ti­val begins in the Roco­co The­ater. Dur­ing the fes­ti­val sea­son, many promi­nent peo­ple are to be found in Schwet­zin­gen and at the “Adler”.

On June 12, 1953, at the ini­tia­tive of daugh­ter Mar­i­anne and her hus­band Hans Hubert Ruf­fler, the first guest­book begins to be kept. Also under her influ­ence, the hotel’s name is changed to “Adler Post” in mem­o­ry of the rich tra­di­tion of the post office, and a inn sign depict­ing an eagle (“Adler”) and a post horn is hung on the Hotel.

Ernst Ihm III. trans­fers the hotel to his daugh­ter Mar­i­anne and her hus­band Hans Hubert Ruf­fler, trained hotel pro­fes­sion­als (supe­ri­or hotel school Hei­del­berg) — thus begin­ning once again a new peri­od in the his­to­ry of “Adler Post”. The old build­ings fac­ing the court­yard were tak­en down, along with one third of the main stretch of Schlossstrasse. The façade could not be mod­i­fied, since it is under pro­tec­tion as a his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment. This was, so to speak, a com­plete ren­o­va­tion and new begin­ning. The remod­el­ing and addi­tion cre­ates new gue­strooms, all with show­er, WC, tele­phone and TV con­nec­tion, as well as large base­ment facil­i­ties with a sep­a­rate wine cel­lar, a hotel hall with open fire­place, meet­ing rooms and garages. The whole inte­ri­or changes in appearance.

Hans Hubert Ruf­fler is a culi­nary spe­cial­ist in body and soul, who was employed at lead­ing hotels and con­tributes many new ideas to the “Adler”. He is a socia­ble and artis­tic per­son and always glad to be seen with his guests. His wife Mar­i­anne is the soul of the hotel, and she takes care of the work behind the scenes. The good rep­u­ta­tion of the “Adler Post” con­tin­ues to be built upon dur­ing this time. In the mean­time, “aspara­gus — lilacs — fes­ti­val” has become a con­cept. Celebri­ties from the busi­ness world, pol­i­tics, art and sports stay at the “Adler Post” and are very com­fort­able there.

In agree­ment with the region­al asso­ci­a­tion, Badis­chen Heimat e.V., a new­ly designed room of the restau­rant is chris­tened “Schim­per-Stube,” named after the well-know sci­en­tist K.F. Schimper.

The Ruf­flers trans­fer to the sixth gen­er­a­tion, their daugh­ter Ursu­la and her hus­band Wern­er Höfer, the Hotel “Adler Post” along with the cus­tom­ary, five-gen­er­a­tion-old desire to build: soon there is a new addi­tion with suites and fur­ther gue­strooms (includ­ing some that are wheel­chair-acces­si­ble). The “Kurp­falz” par­lor is enlarged and remod­eled. For the restau­rant and meet­ing rooms there are new toi­let facil­i­ties. A gar­den ter­race is set up.

In 1986, the rooms in the old­est part of the hotel are com­plete­ly ren­o­vat­ed and equipped with all com­forts. The gue­strooms from the 1964 addi­tion are like­wise ren­o­vat­ed and brought to the state of the art. In the fol­low­ing year, a sauna is installed for hotel guests. In 1987, our Hotel is accept­ed into the world­wide asso­ci­a­tion Chaîne des Rôt­tiseurs, a great dis­tinc­tion for the restau­rant and its culi­nary achievement.

In 1990, “Adler Post” cel­e­brates its 150th anniver­sary. In 1992, the kitchen is equipped with a new oven sys­tem. In 1997, the kitchen is ren­o­vat­ed once again and equipped with con­tem­po­rary, top-qual­i­ty kitchen tech­nol­o­gy. In the same year, the heat­ing sys­tem is ren­o­vat­ed and con­vert­ed from oil to envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly gas. The last ren­o­va­tion to date took place in 1998, when the whole restau­rant was sub­ject to a reju­ve­nat­ing treat­ment while con­serv­ing the style of the “Adler Post”.

In 2000, “Adler Post” sets up its own first hom­page on the inter­net. Timo, son of Mr. and Mrs. Höfer, believes that the time has come to present the “Adler Post” on the inter­net as well and gets to work.

In coöper­a­tion with the Badis­che Heimat e.V. a restau­rant room is named “Schim­per-Stube” after the for­mer nat­u­ral­ist, botanist and geol­o­gist Karl Friedrich Schim­per, who lived in Schwet­zin­gen and died there in 1867.

Schwet­zin­gen, in the mean­time a large dis­trict seat, is a charm­ing city with all nec­es­sary cul­tur­al and busi­ness facil­i­ties. An impor­tant fes­ti­val city, a city of the Mus­es and of socia­bil­i­ty, with spir­it and har­mo­ny, count­ing more than 23,000 inhabitants.

The sev­enth gen­er­a­tion, Tes­sa Höfer, has suc­cess­ful­ly con­clud­ed her edu­ca­tion. After her train­ing as hotel spe­cial­ist at Bren­ner’s Park­ho­tel in Baden-Baden with its rich tra­di­tion, she com­plet­ed a degree pro­gram as grad­u­ate hotel man­ag­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ravens­burg in con­nec­tion with the famous Excel­sior Hotel Ernst of Cologne. After two years of activ­i­ty in Zürich at The Dold­er Grand as Ban­quet Admin­is­tra­tion Man­ag­er, and a total of nine years of trav­els, she has now been in Schwet­zin­gen since Jan­u­ary 2010, and she con­tributes with her pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence as man­ag­er to Adler Post in her home town.

Since August 2010, she con­tin­ues to man­age our hotel as Hotel Gar­ni *** Supe­ri­or. Since then the break­fast room as well as the lob­by have been ren­o­vat­ed, all floor cov­ers have been renewed. There were build two new junior suites, bar­ri­er-poor, wheel­chair acces­si­ble, suit­able for aller­gy suf­fer­ers and with ter­race access.

At the begin­ning of 2020, 2 dou­ble rooms were com­plete­ly ren­o­vat­ed and 4 more bath­rooms were com­plete­ly ren­o­vat­ed. Now there are 4 wheel­chair acces­si­ble rooms on the first floor.

From year to year more ren­o­va­tions are added, the last par­tial ren­o­va­tion took place in the spring of 2023.

The two break­fast rooms were com­plete­ly redesigned in 2022 and await you with every­thing that belongs to a good, healthy and, if desired, veg­an start to the day!

The two break­fast rooms were com­plete­ly redesigned in 2022 and await you with every­thing that belongs to a good, healthy and, if desired, veg­an start to the day! The pub­lic rooms are also air-conditioned.

The pub­lic rooms are also air-con­di­tioned. The last six rooms, which have not yet been com­plete­ly ren­o­vat­ed, await you in a “retro look” — until they too are refurbished 😊.