| Hotel Sacher | |
|---|---|
| Hotel Sacher main entrance | |
| Location | Philharmonikerstraße, Vienna, Austria |
| Opening date | 1876 |
| Developer | Eduard Sacher |
| Owner | Eduard Sacher GmbH (Elisabeth Gürtler) |
| Rooms | 152 |
| Website | sacher.com |
The Hotel Sacher is a five-star hotel in the Innenstadt district of Vienna, Austria, next to the Staatsoper. It is famous for the specialty of the house, the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot filling. There is also an art gallery in the hotel with works from the 19th century. The hotel is built where Antonio Vivaldi once lived.
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The hotel was founded in 1876 by Eduard Sacher (1843–1892) as a maison meublée. After his death his widow Anna Sacher (1859–1930) became manager. Under her rule, the hotel became one of the finest hotels in the world, where the aristocracy and diplomats would meet. After World War I Anna Sacher upheld the upper-class reputation of the hotel and denied service to guests of non-aristocratic descent, at the same time granting generous credit to impoverished aristocrats. Her management ran the business into financial problems[1] and eventually to bankruptcy and change of ownership in the 1930s.[2]
Since 1934, the hotel has been owned by the Gürtler family under the company name "Eduard Sacher GmbH & Co OHG". This company also owns a second Sacher Hotel in Salzburg, formerly the Österreichische Hof.
After the end of WWII, occupied Austria, like Germany, was divided into four zones by the victorious powers. Vienna, like Berlin, was also subdivided into four zones. During the occupation the British used the Sacher Hotel as their headquarters and it appears in Carol Reed's film The Third Man.
The hotel added an additional story of rooms on its roof in 2005, which caused a stir with historical preservationists.
The hotel also found fame in the German-speaking world via the popular television series Hallo ... Hotel Sacher, Portier starring Fritz Eckhardt.