Hotelbetriebs-AG. (1897) is the predecessor of Kempinski (1953). was re-named as "Kempinski Hotelbetriebs-AG" in 1970
Leopold Koppel (20 October 1843 in Dresden – 29 August 1933 in Berlin) was a German banker and entrepreneur. He founded the private banking house Koppel und Co. & in 1897 Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft. It developed into the leading hotel operator in Berlin. The luxury hotels operated include the Hotel Bristol, Hotel Bellevue and Centralhotel (with the Variete Wintergarten), as well as upscale cafes such as Café Kranzler and Café Bauer.
As the story unfolds you will see that both Founders, Leopold Koppel's "Hotelbetriebs-AG" & Moritz Kempinski's “M. Kempinski & Co” both had very separate paths & their legacies would not start to intertwine for another 80 years to create the now Kempinski AG
Moritz Kempinski (1835 -1910) established the M. Kempinski & Co in Breslau. In 1862 his younger brother Berthold Kempinski (1843 – 1910) from Raschkow, Posen joined his brothers wine store company.
In 1872, Berthold moved to Berlin and opened a subsidiary of M. Kempinski & Co. operating a snack bar with a wine tasting room and a wine shop in Friedrichstrasse 76 together which soon grew in popularity as an inexpensive gourmet restaurant. In 1889 he inaugurated Kempinski's around the corner on Leipziger Stra?e, then the largest restaurant in the German capital. Berthold Kempinski died in 14 March 1910.
Berthold son-in-law Richard Unger (1866–1947) took over the running of M. Kempinski & Co. Unger emigrated to the USA with his family during World War II. In 1951, Richards son Friedrich Unger returned to Germany & built a hotel on at Kurfürstendamm 27. The Hotel Kempinski would open in 1952. In 1953, Friedrich Unger sold his shares and the Kempinski name to Hotelbetriebs-AG
In 1970 the General Assembly of the "Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft" voted to change its name to "Kempinski Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft". In the same year a long-lasting partnership was established with Lufthansa in the form of a 50-percent participation in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, in which Lufthansa already had a holding.
The company was renamed Kempinski AG in 1977. The Hotel Gravenbruch in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt is added to the portfolio as the fourth German hotel.
In 1985, Lufthansa acquired shares in Kempinski AG and thereby enabled the hotel company to operate Kempinski hotels abroad too. A year later, Kempinski AG, Lufthansa and the finance company Rolaco S.A. founded Kempinski Hotels S.A., with its head office in Geneva.
On September 9, 1999, the Kempinski Hotel Falkenstein opened as the third hotel in the chain in the Rhine-Main area. The main shareholders decided in August 2002 to acquire the remaining 1.8% of the minority shareholders' shares.
In 2010, Kempinski, launched the slogan "Hoteliers since 1897" which is the year "Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft" founded by Leopold Koppel began.
Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft. (1897) is the predecessor of Kempinski (1953). was re-named as "Kempinski Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft" in 1970. and later became Kempinski AG (1977) Its similar story to to where "Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts (1886) is the predecessor of Fairmont Hotels (1907). The company was renamed Fairmont Hotels and Resorts (2001)