The five-star Hotel Bayerischer Hof and the Palais Montgelas are undoubtedly among the top addresses in Munich. Now the houses in a fine location on Promenadeplatz are growing together a little more: part of the listed palace already belongs to the luxury hotel. Hotel manager Innegrit Volkhardt has now also bought the rest of the property at Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse 14a.
The hotelier family had already acquired a large part of the building, including the Palais cellar, in 1969. The third and fourth floors were lavishly furnished by Siegward Graf Pilati, with antiques, silk wallpaper and fine woods. The concierges guarantee absolute privacy and a high level of security here. One of the largest hotel suites in Europe was created there. If you book everything and open the connecting doors, you will stay in a total of nine rooms on almost 600 square meters.
View of the listed Palais Montgelas in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
A paradise for large families from the Gulf States, pop stars with a huge entourage or presidential delegations during the security conference. And the Palais-Keller has become one of the most important informal news exchanges, including during the German Film Ball, which takes place every year in the hotel.
Hotel owner Innegrit Volkhardt with (from left) construction manager Gregor Baur and interior designer Axel Vervoordt in 2019 in the completely renovated restaurant “Palais Keller” in the historic Salzstadl in the basement of the Palais Montgelas.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
At the same time, a Munich real estate investor acquired the current address at Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse 14a in 1969. The areas are rented out as offices for law firms, for example, and a jeweller’s shop. The palace had been on the market since the end of last year, and the Volkhardt family had the right of first refusal. “We are delighted to be able to fully integrate the Palais Montgelas into our hotel,” says Innegrit Volkhardt. Both sides have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. All in all, as is well known, Volkhardt, who runs the hotel in the fourth generation, has invested more than 180 million euros in renovations and architectural projects since she took over in 1992.
The coffers in the Bayerischer Hof should also be well filled because in September 2021 they parted with a valuable property in Kitzbühel, the Hotel Zur Tenne, which the Volkhardts had operated in parallel for over 50 years. Innegrit Volkhardt said at the time: “Triggered by an attractive offer, we started the thought process and made the subsequent decision for purely rational reasons in order to concentrate even more on our core business, the Hotel Bayerischer Hof and other activities in and around Munich, and to adapt structurally to the challenges of the future.”
How this future will look in relation to the Palais Montgelas is still in the stars, or in a cloudy formulation by the hotel spokesman Philipp Herdeg: “The current use of the part of the building will not change. In the medium term, it should be checked whether synergies to optimize the offer of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof can be realized.” The offer currently includes 337 rooms including 74 suites.
The history of the Palais Montgelas is extremely eventful: In the 15th century a salt barn stood here. In 1811, the Bavarian Foreign Minister Maximilian von Montgelas had a classic four-storey corner building built. From 1825 to 1918 this was the seat of the “Ministry of Home and External Affairs” and from 1933 to 1945 the official seat of the Bavarian State Chancellery. The house was damaged by firebombs during the war, and in 1946 the archbishop’s office moved in. In 1969, Falk Volkhardt acquired part of the building from the Free State of Bavaria.