History
A house with history
In 1870, the master builder Johann Pitzer from Benediktbeuern first erected a canteen, a wooden building, near the railroad tracks. In 1871, he began building a small inn, the oldest inn in today’s town center.
In 1874, the industrial magnate Hugo Ritter und Edler von Maffei, brewery and estate owner in Iffeldorf, acquired the inn and had it enlarged, in the form that old Penzbergers still remember. In the meantime, the “miners’ colony” grew rapidly south of the inn. More and more people came to the Penzberg district of the then municipality of Sankt Johannisrain.
In 1875, the couple Johann Baptist and Maria Wutz took over the new inn “Zum Berggeist” as the first tenants. Johann Baptist Wutz was an innkeeper and master butcher.
The first St. Barbara’s feasts of the mine’s workforce were celebrated here.
Bavarian cavalry after a maneuver (around 1908) – on the right mayor Jakob Deisenberger
The town archives contain the report of Alois Kapsberger, who writes about this time: “Railwaymen who arrived with the coal cars stayed overnight in the Berggeist inn. Miners and employees of the mine became familiar with the inn. The tenant, Wutz, also provided good meat products and so there was a lot of activity on pay days and holidays. A train harmonica often played, people danced and sang, and paid with gold and silver.”
Wutz had registered a haulage business as another trade. Thus the Berggeist, which was ideally positioned next to the terminus of the railroad line, became a stopover for wealthy onward travelers. Horses and wagons were available for this purpose.
Kapsberger reports about lords and ladies who were once accommodated here and about a stable for show horses and carriages of King Ludwig II. “Noble horse trappings” existed in Penzberg when King Ludwig II got off the train with his entourage in Penzberg and one was inclined to leave the carriages at home.
Kapsberger writes: “If the destination of high rulers and many other travelers who came from the state capital was beyond Penzberg towards the mountains, then it was time to relax in the Berggeist. Tips flowed abundantly …”.
The opening of the railroad line to Kochel in May 1898 meant the loss of Munich guests.
“Zum Wutz” was the catchword in Penzberg when people arranged to meet at the Berggeist.
Johann Baptist Wutz died in 1906. His wife continued to run the inn.
In the winter of 1910/11, the couple Xaver and Theresia Strauß took over the Berggeist. They ran it successfully until 1936, when they acquired the Gasthof “Zur schönen Aussicht” in Penzberg-Reindl. The Strauß/Schmid family still runs the inn and butcher shop there today.
In 1911, the municipality of Sankt Johannisrain was renamed Penzberg with the approval of Prince Regent Luitpold. In 1919 the town was elevated to the status of a city.
Until 1927, various members of the Maffei family were registered as owners in the land registry in Weilheim. Then the public limited company Paulaner & Salvatorbrauerei acquired the inn.
After the Second World War, innkeeper and master butcher Wexelberger was quite well known. At the “Wexe” there were great sausages. Especially the butchery was quite profitable.
From the 60’s onwards, the innkeepers found it increasingly difficult. Clubs that had used the larger premises for many years now set up their own homes for their meetings. There were fewer and fewer companies with paydays, wages were transferred to accounts, and at the end of September 1966 the mine finally closed. Penzberg faced a profound restructuring. One by one, the innkeepers gave up their butcher shops.
At the “Zum Berggeist” inn, a succession of tenants took over, and the buildings became increasingly dilapidated. Then came another investor from Iffeldorf – August Liebhardt. He bought the land and buildings and planned anew. In 1990, the old inn was demolished and the town hotel with restaurant – the new Berggeist – was built.
For many years August Liebhardt had leased the city hotel to an operator until in 2009 the eldest daughter of August Liebhardt, Stephanie Liebhardt took over the hotel from the insolvency of the previous tenants. Stephanie Liebhardt, today Stephanie Anderl successfully manages the Stadthotel Berggeist with her husband André Anderl until today.
Penzberg associates the name “Berggeist” with the 170-year tradition of mining, which ceased in 1966 but still determined the lives of many people in the town. The transformation of the formerly small Berggeist restaurant into the Stadthotel Berggeist has been more than successful. The Stadthotel Berggeist offers everything that a demanding guest can expect from contemporary hotel culture. The hotel complex includes 45 comfortably and cozily furnished rooms with telephone, TV, W-LAN and minibar. The sophisticated ambience of the entire hotel invites you to stay and turn your stay into relaxation.
Old values and new zeitgeist, tradition combined with modernity. Your hotel with style and spirit.
