The world-class Bareiss Hotel turns 75

Baiersbronn-Mitteltal. – The Bareiss, rated as one of the best holiday resorts beyond Europe's borders in the leading travel guides and rankings, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. The family-run company, which has been in existence since 1951, celebrated its "three-quarter" anniversary on 6 March with a ceremony at the hotel in Baiersbronn-Mitteltal (Black Forest), hosted by senior Hermann Bareiss together with his son Hannes Bareiss and his wife Britta.

How it all began

The hotel was opened 75 years ago by Hermine Bareiss (1913-1996), a war widow and mother of two children. The trained restaurateur, whose life's work was later honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit, had her first entrepreneurial success with the leased Gasthof Kranz inn in Mitteltal. She fulfilled her dream of independence by building the Kurhotel Mitteltal, which initially had 12 rooms. The hotel quickly gained a nationwide reputation for its excellent cuisine and personal hospitality. Hermann Bareiss, the 22-year-old son, a trained chef who had spent several years travelling in France and England, among other places, was able to build on this reputation when he returned to the hotel in 1966 and took over its management in 1973.
Within five decades, he developed the hotel, renamed Hotel Bareiss in 1991, into one of the "most extraordinary and remarkable hotels in the world", as the world's most important and prestigious independent hotel guide, Michelin 2026, once again rated it.

Award-winning

The Bareiss, an "accumulation of intimidating perfection" as it was described in the commemorative speech, is equally famous for its gastronomy, for which it has now been awarded "Luxury Culinary Hotel of the Year" for the third time in a row, as it is for its elegant accommodation, its extensive wellness and spa area, its leisure facilities and its child-friendliness, for which the hotel's own "Kinderdörfle" sets standards. The hotel also includes the Morlokhof, built in 1789, whose extensive restoration over several years has earned the historic building ensemble several heritage conservation awards, as well as the Sattelei hiking hut, which has repeatedly been voted the most popular hiking hut for a stopover in surveys.

Hermann Bareiss and his son Hannes Bareiss have been jointly managing the company since 2009, and since 2015 together with Britta Bareiss. Hannes Bareiss' most important additions to the company's profile include a new employee wing, which, as the keynote speaker put it, "revolutionised the workplace"; the construction of the Forellenhof Buhlbach aquaculture facility, which has attracted attention throughout Europe; and a new suite floor, whose interior design reflects the international character of the hotel.

"Deeply human"

The superlative awards with which the hotel has been honoured for years, both for its outstanding excellence in all areas of performance and for its inter-company commitment to the region, tourism and the promotion of young talent, were not considered by the family or the keynote speaker to be the sole decisive factor in the hotel's long-standing and lasting success. In this context, Hermann Bareiss paid tribute in his acceptance speech to the employees and partners of all decades, whose professionalism and loyalty had contributed to the hotel's rise to world class and its high reputation in the industry. The keynote speech offered a remarkable change of perspective. "Guests take superlatives for granted; they know their Bareiss as nothing less than mega. But the smiles here, the feeling of being loved, that is the greatest gift for them, because they get less and less of it outside. The Bareiss is the Bareiss because it is deeply human."

There was unanimous agreement among the guests, who included Dr Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs for the State of Baden-Württemberg, its former Minister-President Günther Oettinger and the former Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Prof. Ferdinand Kirchhof.