Schloss Elmau, Palace hotel and concert venue in Krün, Germany
Schloss Elmau is a palace hotel and concert venue in Krün, Germany, sitting at 1000 meters elevation in the Bavarian Alps. The four-story building displays a hipped roof and tower in Reform Architecture style, surrounded by forests and alpine meadows below the Wetterstein mountain range.
Carl Sattler constructed the palace between 1914 and 1916 as a retreat for artists and thinkers in the mountains. After World War II, it served as shelter for concentration camp survivors starting in 1947 before returning to hotel use in later years.
The name Elmau comes from Elmen-Aue, an alder-covered floodplain, first recorded in 1395. Johannes Müller opened the house at Pentecost 1916 as a "free space for personal and communal life"; 150 concerts a year were already held then, with Elly Ney limiting chamber evenings to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. From 1957 the Amadeus Quartet, Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin and Alfred Brendel performed here, and Booker Prize winners such as Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan have taken part in literary discussions.
The hotel has 123 rooms and suites, plus 47 suites in the separate Retreat. It can be reached by a private road from Klais, on foot through the Partnach Gorge from the Olympic Stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, or via the Eckbauer cable car followed by about 4 km on foot.
The estate hosted two G7 summits in 2015 and 2022, when heads of state and government from leading economies gathered here for negotiations. The remote mountain location provided a protected setting for international talks away from urban centers.
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