"Success is only possible as a team"

BAIERSBRONN. Hermann Bareiss, the senior manager of the Bareiss holiday resort in Baiersbronn in the Black Forest, celebrated his 80th birthday on 27 March 2024. Bareiss, who has developed the family hotel into one of the best holiday resorts in Europe and beyond over the course of half a century, is now regarded by colleagues and guests alike as the doyen and grand seigneur of the top German hotel industry.

Bareiss is a child of war. His father, the forester Jakob Bareiss in Baiersbronn, was killed in the final days of the war. His single mother Hermine Bareiss independently founded the "Kurhotel Mitteltal" (renamed Hotel Bareiss in 1991) in 1951, which quickly gained a first-class reputation in Germany for its gastronomy and hospitality. After finishing school, Bareiss completed an apprenticeship as a chef in his mother's business. His subsequent years in Paris at the Grandhotel Terminus St. Lazare and the Hotel Bachmair am See in Rottach-Egern were formative for his claim to excellence in all areas of hotel service.

His skill, ambition and aplomb soon made him the personal assistant of the general manager in Paris, the hotelier legend Max Bachmair am Tegernsee. In between, study trips took him to London and Cairo. When Hermine Bareiss began to feel overwhelmed by the increasing workload at the spa hotel, Hermann Bareiss cancelled the planned years of travelling and returned to Mitteltal in 1966. The 22-year-old had made sole management of the hotel, which formally took place five years later, a condition.

The young Bareiss knew what he wanted right from the start: To turn the Mitteltal tourist location into a tourist destination through excellence in catering and hotels. The future Hotel Bareiss had to become one of the best in Germany. Otherwise, according to Bareiss, the spa hotel would have sunk into entrepreneurial and hospitality insignificance.

The rest is hotel history. Bareiss became a pioneer of today's self-evident features in the high-end hotel industry: the offer of suites; the development of the simple indoor swimming pool (one of the  first in Germany) into one of today's best pool, wellness and spa facilities in the German-speaking world; an almost unmanageably wide range of leisure, holiday, fitness and sports facilities, both indoor and outdoor; its own children's village with a multi-award-winning, pedagogically reputable children's programme; and, as the "Best Culinary Hotel" ("101 Best Hotels", 2024), probably the most renowned gastronomy in Germany with five hotel restaurants, three à la carte restaurants, including the 3* gourmet restaurant Bareiss.

To round off the event and à la carte cuisine, the historic Morlokhof dating from 1789, the Sattelei hiking hut and the Forellenhof Buhlbach with its own fish farm under the management of son Hannes Bareiss, who is the third generation to run the hotel together with his wife Britta. the multi-award-winning preservation of the Morlokhof, the rearing of Hinterwald cattle, the Bareiss hunt - his inter-company commitments include the cultivation of Franco-German friendship, for which he was honoured with the order of Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, as well as the promotion of young talent in the industry, for which he initiated a training and school reform with the "FHG" association (Förderer der Hotellerie und Gastronomie), whose teaching content is now regarded as the best in Germany.

The Business Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the Federal Cross of Merit and several industry awards (including the Rumohr Ring, Best Hotelier in Germany, Best Host in Germany) mark the rank that Hermann Bareiss holds in the German top hotel industry Well aware of this rank and his merits, it has been a well-known credo of Bareiss for years: "Nothing of what I have achieved, I have achieved alone. Catering and the hotel industry only work, succeed and thrive as a team." When asked what has driven him throughout his career to always give everything and his best, Bareiss sticks to happiness: "I wanted and want to make my guests happy. Nothing else. And the same goes for our employees: they should feel as comfortable at the Bareiss as the guests. Nothing else."

The future wishes of the father of two and grandfather of five? "Personally: much more time for family and friends. For young people: continued appreciation and respect for our region, our Black Forest, the people who live here, especially in our community. Entrepreneurial: create something new. Human: remains human. AI, the digital age, social networks ... - all important, all right. But even more right, even more important: remains human."