August Schimon

August Schimon is the man who opened the doors of the Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich in the summer of 1858. Almost nothing of his life can be documented, but his name is tied for ever to the hotel that King Maximilian II wanted as the jewel of his new avenue.

The hotelier of 1858

The archival trail is thin. The German reference works and the hotel’s published histories describe Schimon simply as the hotelier who opened the Vier Jahreszeiten, with a grand celebration, on 25 July 1858, at number 17 of the new Maximilianstrasse. Neither his origins nor his earlier trade appear in the sources consulted. The house he took on was built on a lavish scale: besides its guest rooms, it offered stabling for sixty horses, and some rooms had a rocking bath that guests believed strengthened the nerves.

A hotel for a royal avenue

The project belonged to a larger vision. From 1852 King Maximilian II had the architect Friedrich Bürklein lay out the Maximilianstrasse, a straight avenue in a new eclectic style running from the Residenz towards the Isar. The king wanted the most elegant city hotel on his street. On Bürklein’s recommendation, Rudolf Gottgetreu designed the building at number 17, built between 1856 and 1858. Kempinski’s history adds that Maximilian, short of room in his own palace, wanted a house worthy of his friends and distinguished visitors.

Schimon’s hotel was a model of modern comfort: gas lighting, bell pulls in the rooms, six marble bathrooms and a paternoster lift. Its name, Four Seasons, reflected another novelty, according to Kempinski: it was the first hotel in Munich to remain open all year round, at a time when many establishments closed out of season.

What remains

Schimon’s name soon disappears from the hotel’s story: from 1866 the house was run by Johann Samuel Obermayer until his death in 1889, then by his son Adolf. Later came the Walterspiel brothers in 1926, the bombs of 1944 that left only the wing on Maximilianstrasse standing, the reconstruction and, from 1970, Kempinski. The historic façade still faces the avenue, and the house he opened went on to welcome Empress Elisabeth, Franz Liszt, Edvard Grieg and Richard Strauss. Of Schimon himself no portrait, letter or reliable life dates appear in the sources consulted; his monument is the house itself.

Sources Wikipedia (DE), „Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten (München)“ · Wikipedia (DE), „Maximilianstraße (München)“ · Mahler Foundation, “Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten” · Kempinski, “Munich: History in the Heart of Maximilianstrasse”