Eitel Brothers

Origin

The parents of the Eitel brothers were the Stuttgart citizens Emil Eitel (1840–1938) and Charlotte Eitel nee Trost (1842–1917).

The father was the son of a baker and grandson of a tanner and worked his way up from a leather worker to a leather merchant (1867–1868) and finally to a leather goods manufacturer (1868–1890). The production of leather goods turned out to be very profitable and Emil Eitel became a wealthy man. He was owner of some villas and two big business houses in central downtown locations. He spent the last 48 years of his life as an independent gentleman and dealt with real estates. He died at the high age of almost 98 years and was buried together with his wife in Stuttgart on the Pragfriedhof cemetery.

The mother of the brothers originated from a vine dresser family in Stuttgart. She gave birth to 11 children. Three of them died before their first birthday. Two sisters survived and the six brothers Emil, Karl, Robert, Max and Otto Eitel as well as the architect Albert Eitel, who as the only one of the brothers did not emigrate.

The table shows the sons and daughters of Emil and Charlotte Eitel, without the three children, who did not survive their first birthday.

Emigration

In 1890 Emil Eitel emigrated as the first of the Eitel brothers to the United States and settled in Chicago, which was then a center of German immigration and counted half a million ethnic German population. The network and infrastructure of the German community facilitated Emil’s beginnings. The German-born Chicagoans secured the customer base to the trading activities of the brothers and their restaurants, and a large part of their hotel customers recruited from ethnic German travelers.

After Emil Eitel had made a start, he was followed by four of his brothers to Chicago: Charles in 1891, Robert in 1898, Max in 1901 and Otto in 1912. After his immigration, Otto Eitel (October 5, 1884 Stuttgart – May 5, 1972 Chicago), which is not covered here, took over the responsibility for the hotel and garden facilities of the Bismarck Hotel. He later moved to California and made himself a name as a landscape gardener. Albert Eitel remained in Stuttgart, but was at least in 1896, 1910 and 1924 in Chicago as a visitor:

The brothers Emil and Karl founded in Chicago the Bismarck Hotel and the Bismarck Gardens. Robert and Max Eitel operated several large restaurants, including the Old Heidelberg Inn and some fair restaurants. The Eitels were not only very successful business people, but built to be American citizens, however, they also kept up the traditions of their native Germany. They were patrons of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Art Institute of Chicago and members of business associations and ethnically mixed and German clubs. In the wake of the World Wars Emil and Karl Eitel participated in relief efforts of the Red Cross for their German homeland.

Emil Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967, pages 510-511; #Leonard 1905–1917; #Sonntagspost 1929.1; #Amtsblatt 1953.1.

Emil Eitel (February 27, 1865 Stuttgart – July 18, 1948 Chicago) was a German hotel and restaurant contractor in Chicago. He was born as the first child of his parents, Emil and Charlotte Eitel, attended the trade school in Stuttgart, served in the Army as a one-year volunteer and worked since1885 in his father's factory in the production of photo albums.

Business life

In 1890, Emil Eitel moved to the United States and settled in Chicago. He first worked as a clerk for the Chicagoan Bond's Commercial Agency. In 1891, as his brother Charles also came to Chicago, he founded together with him under the name Eitel Brothers a wholesale and import business for wine and spirits. During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, the first Chicagoan World's Fair, they operated their first hotel in the vicinity of the exhibition grounds. The success prompted them to permanently turn to the hotel business. They took over the hotel Germania and renamed it Bismarck Hotel. In 1894, they founded the company Bismarck Hotel Co.. Emil Eitel presided as President and Chief Financial Officer until his death in 1948. Besides the hotel, the two brothers operated from 1895 to 1923 the Bismarck Gardens (later Marigold Gardens), an elegant large beer garden. – On the history of the hotel and restaurant projects of the two brothers see Bismarck Hotel Co.

Private life

In 1894, Emil Eitel married Emma Caroline Boldenweck (1868–1943), whom he had met in Stuttgart. His younger brother Karl joined in his first marriage Emma's younger sister Marie Louise Boldenweck. Emma and Emil Eitel had two children who died in infancy or childhood. Emil Eitel died on July 18, 1948 at the age of 83 years and was buried on the Graceland Cemetery in the family tomb of his father-in-law Louis Henry Boldenweck.

Karl Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967, page 511; #Leonard 1905–1917; #Sonntagspost 1929.2; #Amtsblatt 1953.1.

Karl Friedrich (Frederick) Eitel (January 17, 1871 Stuttgart – March 19, 1954 Santa Barbara, California) was a German hotel and restaurant contractor in Chicago. He was born as the fifth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel. After attending the high school in Stuttgart, he studied at the Koniglich Wurttembergisches Technikum fur Textilindustrie (royal school of textile engineering of Wurttemberg) in Reutlingen.

Business life

In 1891, Karl Eitel emigrated to his brother Emil in Chicago and teamed up with his business (see above Emil Eitel, Business life). After the founding of the company Bismarck Hotel Co., he assumed the office of the Vice President and Secretary and after the death of Emil Eitel in 1948, the office of President. A year later, he retired from active business, but remained joined to the company until his death in 1954 as honorary chairman. (On the history of the hotel and restaurant projects of the two brothers see Bismarck Hotel Co.)

Private life

In 1896, Karl Eitel married his first wife Marieluise Boldenweck (1875–1913), a younger sister of his sister-in-law Emma (see Emil Eitel). The marriage produced four children, among them Otto K. Eitel, who later became president of the Bismarck Hotel. In 1915, Karl Eitel joined in his second marriage Ann Schmidt (1884-1919), the daughter of a factory owner from Brussels, which gave birth to a daughter. In his third marriage he joined Suzanne Schmidt (1888–1968), the sister of his second wife. From this connection he had three children.

Karl Eitel took many years an active part in social and political life in Chicago. He died on March 9, 1954 in Santa Barbara at the age of 83 years and was buried at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Max Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967, pages 518-519; #Amtsblatt 1953.1.

Max Eitel (September 29, 1882 Stuttgart – June 5, Chicago) was a German restaurant contractor in Chicago. He was born as the tenth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel.

Business life

In 1901, Max Eitel emigrated to his brothers Emil, Karl and Robert in Chicago. Here he went into the accounting department of the company Bismarck Hotel Co., which belonged to his brothers Emil and Karl. Subsequent visits to England, France and the Netherlands, he devoted to the study of the hotel and restaurant system in these countries. In 1904, he took a position in the newly built luxury Hotel Astor on Times Square in New York, which was founded in the same year by the German emigrants William C. Muschenheim (1855–1918) and Frederick A. Muschenheim. There he volunteered for two consecutive years in various departments of the hotel. In 1906, he took over responsibility for the import business of his brothers, and soon thereafter the management of the large beer garden Marigold Gardens, which also belonged to his brothers.

Following the closure of the beer garden due to the drastic slump in sales by Prohibition he founded in 1923 together with his brother Robert Eitel, the restaurant company Eitel Incorporated, with Robert as President and himself as Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. When Robert died in 1948, Max took over the presidency, which he held until his death.

The Eitel Incorporated company included the following restaurants:

See Eitel Incorporated for descriptions and illustrations of the permanent restaurants belonging to Eitel Incorporated.

Private life

In 1911, Max Eitel married as his first wife the widow Marie Heine nee Bush (?–1934), the daughter of a German manufacturer, who bore him two children. In 1935, he joined in his second marriage the widow Ella Gleich nee Harder, the daughter of a German real estate agent. They had no children. Max Eitel died on June 5, 1954 in Chicago.

Robert Eitel

Main sources: #NCAB 1967, pages 518-519; #Amtsblatt 1953.1.

Robert Eitel (June 16, 1877 Stuttgart – 1948) was a German restaurant contractor in Chicago. He was born as the eighth child of his parents Emil and Charlotte Eitel.

In 1898, Robert emigrated to his brothers Emil and Karl in Chigaco. In the 1920s, he was director of the Bismarck Hotel. In 1923, he founded together with his brother Max Eitel the restaurant company Eitel Incorporated and became its president. – On the history of the restaurant projects of the two brothers see Max Eitel, Business life.

Bismarck Hotel Co.

Bismarck Hotel (1894–1956)

Following the successful operation of their restaurant on the 1893 World's Fair, Emil and Karl Eitel bought an existing hotel, rebuilt it to according to their ideas, and called it Bismarck Hotel. This hotel has been replaced in 1926 by the construction of a large luxury hotel under the same name. Here the most important stages in the history of the Bismarck Hotel:

Fair hotel (1893)

Chicago, Cottage Grove Avenue / Sixty-Third Street, 41.780433°N 87.605912°W / 41.780433; -87.605912.

Due to the strong demand of its German and Austrian suppliers for accommodation for the first Chicago World's Fair 1893 (World's Columbian Exposition), the Eitel brothers rented an apartment house near the fairgrounds and converted it to a hotel with 150 beds.

Old Bismarck Hotel (1894–1924)

Chicago, Randolph Street / Wells Street, 41.884403°N 87.633756°W / 41.884403; -87.633756.

After the huge success of their fair hotel the brothers decided to set up a permanent hotel. They purchased the four-story Germania Hotel with 50 beds in Chicago's Loop district, at Chicago's formerly Broadway in Randolph Street and close to the financial district. Within one year they increased the bed capacity through the purchase of adjacent buildings to 100 beds. With the permission of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck they were allowed to call the hotel Bismarck Hotel. Due to the anti-German sentiment during the First World War the hotel was renamed temporarily to Randolph Hotel.

New Bismarck Hotel (1926–1956)

Chicago, Randolph Street / LaSalle Street / West Court Place / Wells Street, 41.884395°N 87.633349°W / 41.884395; -87.633349.

In 1922, the Eitels realigned their property to the so-called Eitel Block, which covered the northern part of the block between Randolph and Washington Street and Wells and LaSalle Street. In 1924, they razed the buildings in the Eitel Block and built a skyscraper on the free terrain in 1925 and 1926. It consisted of thr 22-story Metropolitan Office Building and the 19-story hotel wing which hosted the Hotel Bismarck with its 600 beds and the Palace Theater, a theater with 2500 seats. In 1956, Otto K. Eitel sold the hotel to the hotel and sports entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz. After a period of slow decline, the hotel was closed in 1996, and reopened in 1998 by the Kimpton group under the name Hotel Allegro.

Marigold Gardens (1895–1923)

Chicago, 3760 North Halsted Street, 41.950921°N 87.649873°W / 41.950921; -87.649873.

In 1895, Emil and Karl Eitel bought the popular beer garden DeBerg's Grove in the north of Chicago, built it to an elegant large beer garden and called it Bismarck Gardens in line with their hotel's name. The gardens offered German beer garden atmosphere, daily outdoor music shows and the largest outdoor wooden dance floor in Chicago. In a large concert hall, the Marigold Room, also in winte were daily music shows presented.

The famous venue was the epitome of a Chicago beer garden and the first address in Chicagoan nightclubs. Reportedly, President William Howard Taft described the Marigold Gardens even as a "national institution". Because of anti-German sentiment, the Bismarck Gardens were renamed during the First World War in Marigold Gardens. In 1923, the brothers sold the Marigold Gardens, due to drastic drop in sales after the introduction of Prohibition in 1919.

Eitel Incorporated

Chicago and North Western Railway Station Restaurants (1923–1943)

Chicago, Clinton Street / Canal Street / Madison Street / Randolph Street, 41.882215°N 87.640582°W / 41.882215; -87.640582.

From 1923 to 1943 Robert and Max Eitel operated five station restaurants with attached bakery and laundry facilities in the Chicago and North Western Railway station. The laundry performed also as a service provider for the sleeping car Pullman Company

Old Heidelberg Inn (since 1894)

Chicago, 14 West Randolph Street, 41.884863°N 87.628525°W / 41.884863; -87.628525.

After the end of the first Chicagoan World's Fair, Max and Robert Eitel installed in Chicago, 14 West Randolph Street, a permanent restaurant, which they named Old Heidelberg Inn after their fair restaurant. It had a striking old German facade and was set up inside like a Bavarian beer cellar. The restaurant housed at the ground floor the Grand Dining Room Old Heidelberg with a stage for the orchestra, the Rathskeller in the basement, the Rialto Room, a bakery and a ballroom.

Eitel Field Building Restaurant (since 1935)

Chicago, 130 South Clark Street, 41.8798°N 87.6316°W / 41.8798; -87.6316.

In 1935, the two brothers opened the Eitel Field Building Restaurant in the new built Field Building in 130 South Clark Street, a few blocks south of Randolph Street.