Chron­i­cle

Please take a lit­tle time for the his­to­ry of our Hotel

The Chron­i­cle of the Hotel Adler Post stretch­es back into the year 1725. It begins quite pre­cise­ly with the “Gold­en Age” of Schwet­zin­gen, which is close­ly con­nect­ed with the name of the Elec­tor Carl Theodor. Until the year 1778, his sum­mer res­i­dence in Schwet­zin­gen was a meet­ing place for the most promi­nent fig­ures from the arts, sci­ences and politics.

1725
1725

The begin­nings

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.

1787
1787

The pur­chase and exchange contract

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.

1788–1828
1788–1828

Turn of the century

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.”

1840
Side portrait of Johann Andreas Ihm, 1840
1840

The first ances­tor in the Adler Post

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.

1860
Portrait of Ernst Ihm, 1860
1860

The Hotel

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.

1896
Portrait of Ernst Ihm II
1896

The next turn of the century

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.

1922
Portraitfoto Ernst Ihm III
1922

The first half of the 20th century

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.

1962
Portrait Eheleute Ruffler
1962

The first half of the 20th century

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.

1984
Married couple Höfer
1984

The way into the new millennium

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.

2010
Portrait Tessa Höfer
2010

The way into the new millennium

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.

2020
2020

Ren­o­va­tion and core refurbishment

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.

2023
2023

Always up to date

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 😊.