Kempinski Hotels S.A., commonly known as Kempinski, is a luxury hotel management company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in Berlin in 1897 as the Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft, the group currently operates 78 five-star hotels and residences in 34 countries. History Kempinski Hotels claims to be Europe's oldest luxury hotel group. Its history began in 1897 with the foundation of the "Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft" in Berlin. A parallel development was that of M. Kempinski & Co, founded by Berthold Kempinski, which was acquired by the "Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft" in 1953. Berthold Kempinski was born on 10 October 1843 in Posen (then a German province, and now Poland). The Kempinski family was already successfully active in the wine trade from 1862. In 1872 it extended its company to Berlin, where Berthold Kempinski opened a wine merchant's business under his name in the Friedrichstraße. In 1889 he opened a restaurant, the biggest in Berlin, in the Leipziger Straße. Since Berthold Kempinski and his wife Helena had no son, they invited their son-in-law Richard Unger (1866–1947) to join the business. Berthold Kempinski finally transferred the firm to his son-in-law on condition that he kept the name Kempinski. Berthold Kempinski died on March 14, 1910. Alongside his wine and restaurant activities, Richard Unger developed his property business up to the start of World War I. After a short period of stagnation during the War, he sold products of his own manufacture under the brand name Kempinski. The business in Berlin flourished so that in 1918, a Kempinski hotel dependency was established at 27 Kurfürstendamm, where the Kempinski Hotel Bristol now stands. Ten years later, M. Kempinski & Co. took over the "Haus Vaterland" on the Potsdamer Platz, where the firm exploited a concept that was unique in Berlin for a long time and is still known as "event gastronomy" ("Erlebnisgastronomie"). To escape the events of World War II, Richard Unger and his family emigrated to the United States and the firm M. Kempinski & Co became part of Aschinger AG. The Restaurant at 27 Kurfürstendamm was destroyed by fire shortly before the end of the War, and the other properties fell victim to bombing raids. After the end of the conflict, Richard Unger's son and Berthold Kempinski's grandson, Dr Friedrich Unger, returned to Germany. In 1951 construction started on a hotel on the site of the ruined restaurant at 27 Kurfürstendamm, and it opened a year later under the name Hotel