Bühlerhöhe Castle

Bühlerhöhe was built starting in 1912 as an officer's convalescent home according to plans by architect Wilhelm Kreis on the Kohlbergfelsen at an altitude of 770 meters above the town of Bühl in the Northern Black Forest. Bühlerhöhe was never used for its original purpose, but served as a hotel from 1920 to 2010.

The client for the officer's convalescent home was Hertha Isenbart (1871–1918), the daughter of the Jewish merchant Julius Schottländer. She was married to the much older banker Pringsheim and met Major General Wilhelm Isenbart, who was also married, around the turn of the century. Both divorced their first spouses and married. Marriage to a divorced partner was a scandal at the time. Hertha's family disinherited their daughter and settled her with a substantial compulsory portion of more than twelve million gold marks; her husband soon had to resign from service.

The sudden death of her husband on November 30, 1908, in Egypt was the turning point in Hertha Isenbart's life. The widow henceforth lived only for the goal of erecting a monument to her husband in the form of an officer's convalescent home. This was to be gifted to German Emperor Wilhelm II. She acquired 18 hectares of forest in the Kohlbergfelsen area from the city of Bühl.

Construction began in 1912 and was largely completed at the beginning of the First World War. Due to financing problems, the original concept was reduced by Curt Karl Rüschhoff (1887–1969) and Hans Woltmann, two employees of Wilhelm Kreis. The final completion of the house was delayed due to the war. Bühlerhöhe never fulfilled its purpose as an officer's convalescent home. Herta Isenbart committed suicide in 1918.

In 1920, the building was sold to private investors and from 1921 was converted into a spa house by architect Wilhelm Rutsch from Freiburg.

A frequent guest in the house was Konrad Adenauer, in whose honor a memorial plaque is placed in the hotel park and after whom a suite of the hotel was named.

1986 to 2010

In 1986, industrialist Max Grundig acquired the spa house, which had fallen into economic difficulties, and had it expanded into a luxury hotel for 150 million D-Mark by 1988 according to plans by architect Henner Hoos and interior designer Jan Wichers.

After being briefly owned by the Rafael Group, Dietmar Hopp acquired the hotel in 1999. From 2002 to 2010, the Spanish hotel chain NH operated the hotel. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the English national team used the castle hotel as their team hotel.

Since 2010

In July 2010, Hopp sold the hotel to Anna Maria Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, founded specifically for this purchase, behind which stands a Ukrainian investor. The company planned to extensively renovate the hotel after its closure at the end of August 2010 and reopen it in 2013 with a new concept.

However, the investors did not begin with the renovation. In early June 2013, it became known that unpaid operating cost bills amounting to several tens of thousands of euros had accumulated, and electricity and telephone connections had been cut off. In the same month, two companies co-owned by Dietmar Hopp filed for insolvency against the new owners; part of the purchase price had not yet been settled.

On August 23, hotel operations resumed until early November. At the end of August, the Ukrainian investor let the payment deadline pass. This opened the insolvency proceedings.