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[…] started coming to Elmau in 1925 because she was a friend of Princes Max of Baden and Sturze of Roumania (they took turns to stay in what is now called the Prinzzimmer). She took […] there every year from then until 1936, by which time it was time to settle in England before he got called up into the German army. (He changed his surname to […] so as to join the British Army instead […]). He consequently was a boyhood friend of Sieglinde ("Bobby") and Bernhardt ("Muggle") and knew Johannes and Irene Mueller well. One of Bobby's sisters stayed […] in England in the 1930s […]
Prince Max of Baden was an interesting man. Technically he was the last Kaiser, because after Kaiser Wilhelm's abdication there was a Regency for a few days and Prince Max was the regent. […] was thought to have had an affair with him at Elmau. He was very rich and it was he who provided the money to another Elmauer, Kurt Hahn, to develop his educational ideas which led to the foundation of Salem and later of Gordonstoun. Dr Johannes Muller was an influence on this too, so Elmau has indirectly had an influence on the education of Princes Philip and Charles. I think it was Prince Sturze of Roumania who put about the rumour that the coming Sunday, instead of Dr Muller, the Devil would preach the sermon. Everyone turned up in the ballroom to see what would happen. In walked the Devil, wearing horns and a luminous nose. It was the prince himself, who then delivered a perfect parody of Muller's oratorical style. I have an idea that The Samovar originally belonged to Sturze. It is said that during the war the Schloss was a holiday home for SS officers or the like, but naturally these rumours tend to be sat on. Certainly, one of the two bronze plaques (the last Kaiser and the last King of Bavaria) by Irene Muller was replaced by another of Hitler, presumably by her. |
I was there in 1978. I was the only American. My room mates consisted of 2 Scots and 2 English. Everyone had a blast. I think that we had a party every weekend. My favorite was the "Tarts & Dirty Vicars" Party.
There was a rather large room with 4 beds, one of which was on a lower level with a wonderful large round window overlooking the road. A lot of people signed the wall, myself included, along with a picture. Do you know that room? I got lucky — my assigned rooms were generally in the same hall. I hated doing the rooms in the tower.
One of my friends […] went back a few times. So did […] He would loan us his beetle to drive to Muenchen or Seefeld whenever we wanted. We just had to
fill with petrol. I think we went somewhere every weekend. My most memorable
trip was when my best friend […] and I hitched to Rome, stayed for 2 and a half days, and then hitched to Venice, stayed for 2 and a half days, then struck nach Elmau. If it had not been for her, I would never have stayed.
| Your page brought back a flood of memories. I was a Helferin before they had a pool, when Sieglinde Mueller led the dances with her Italian husband Ducci. It must have been around 1966 that I was there first as a Helferin and then as a Praktikantin, since I was going into the Hotel business. Otto used to play the piano for the dances. What a great time we had! I left because at a certain point, I thought if I stayed any longer, I would stay forever and become one of those "Elmau Spinsters". Looking back, that might not have been the worst. Instead I went to America, married, had a child, divorced (he died soon after) and stayed in a country that I am not too crazy about. Do the Helferinnen still sing on Sundays for their treats? |
It was good reading your home page, it made me smile and think of the best time of my life (so far). I am trying to track down […] I was at Elmau from March to Dec 1980. I have some great and some unbelievable stories from Elmau. However, although I believe I could write a bestseller about Elmau, I am usually to lazy to put pen to paper…
| Seit Tagen bin ich damit beschaftigt fur eine fruhere Helferin von Schloss Elmau (1941-1945) etwas fur Sie (ihr) zu wissen zu bekommen uber Ihre damalige hollandische Freundin Bertha (Bep) Jonkers, die verheiratet war mit Bernhard Muller einer der direktoren mit Duci Muller und Ihr Mann ……Muller. Ich habe vielen angeschrieben, aber ohne Erfolg. Schloss antwortet aber ohne etwas zu erzahlen, uber der heutige Chef Dietmar(?) Muller weisz ich das er in den 90er Jahren Duci Muller (damals 82 Jahre) und Ihr Mann aus der Direktion abgesetzt hat und selber die Leitung genommen hat, aber was aus die vorher genannte Mullers geworden ist bleibt ein Ratsel fur mich, konnen Sie mir etwas aufklaren vielleicht? |
I do have contact to a couple of people who were there during my time: […], famed for his antics on the heart-shaped bed in Ducci's secret bedroom, and […], famous for his goose-stepping in a packed Speisesaal.
| I got back from working at Schloss Elmau about a month ago, having been extremely apprehensive about going. I didn't want to come back. I have made many very good friends from all over the world. We had some amazing parties… When I looked on the internet before I went, your website made me feel a lot better about going. I miss all of them a lot. Schloss Elmau is a place worth going to, and I am going to recommend it to all of my friends, and their children, as I was. |
I worked in the house and Trinkstuber the summer of '81. Yes, the parties were better in '81, I'm sure. Yes, it was wonderful. There are many friends I would love to find. Add me to your list.
| I was a Helferin in the winter of 1979… have been back twice. Today I saw a photograph of a sheep looking out of a window (!) and the photographer had written on the mat that the photo was taken in Mittenwald… so I became homesick and looked up Schloss Elmau and found your page. Thanks. |
I used to be a Helfer in Elmau as well. It was in the late seventies, early eighties and I only did this during my school holidays. Before I was a guest with my parents since the age of 5 or so.
I very often think back to that time and still am wondering why I have not
gone back in the past more often. The people who I was closest with and still remember where among others: […] Also naturally my sister […] who started to go back to Elmau as a guest with her family and husband […] and a lot of helfers and heleferinnen over the years.
I used to work mainly as a spueler downstairs in the kitchen. I have slept
in so many rooms that I can not even start to name them all. (Some were even
my own. ;-)
It is great to see somebody put a page like this online. Elmau for me was a
period in my life that has formed me to who I am today, like it or not. The
influence of the people around me then and the fact to be really outside
everything was a real eyeopener.
Things were a lot different then. I even remember the first helfer being
accepted and people thinking whether this was a good idea or not. I better
stop, because you know how it was and I could go on for hours on end about
it. It is hard to have experienced something like it and I am still unable
to explain it to anybody else who has not experienced it.
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Just thought I would write a short note to tell you how much I enjoyed your
site. I worked at Schloss Elmau in 1974 for a period of 6 months and loved
it. I have never been back since but have always wanted to go back and stay
there as a guest. Hopefully I will do so in a couple of years and I will
take my two daughters with me (aged 22 and 24).
I often wonder if it is still run in the same way — and it only just recently occurred to me to have a look on the web to see if it still existed. I was happy to see that it does although it appears to have been renovated and modernised. They could do with some better pictures and a much brighter web page as it is very dark and depressing and does not give a true picture of how beautiful it really was. I never really thought much about the background of the Hotel when I was working there although I remember dancing with the owner at the time who used to participate in the dancing events that occurred during the evening - he has probably died since and he had a very bad reputation. Actually I have a feeling that it was his wife's not his and that he was just married to her — not sure — never paid enough attention and I certainly don't remember the name. |
Wow,
This is the penalties for staying up late at night and randomly "googling".
I was a "helfer" from 1986-87, perhaps one of the most infamous times in Helfer history there. I was part of the "Red Room Riot" which resulted in a small but manageable fire in the basement rooms in the corner (I hear that you can still see the resulting water damage), naked screaming chases through the Schloss at 4am and glitter/shaving cream being found in all parts of the hotel for weeks to come. I survived the "Stinkbomb wars", wall papering […]'s room, stealing entire room furniture and setting them back up out in the courtyard, Spying on people taking showers in their rooms, playing cricket in the main dance hall (resulted in some fairly extensive damage to lighting, windows, wall switches and some paint marks as well, […]'s drunken ramblings and attempts to get high by smoking banana peels and peanut shells, stumbling drunken-assed back from Klais at 3am in sub-zero weather with […] screaming at the top of our lungs, luging down the hill across the valley from Elmau drunk on those Slibovitz from that shack (I believe I recall […] hurting himself carooming off a tree on the way down), getting into yelling matches with Frau […] and managing to duck, I believe his name was Herr […]'s wrath and subsequent firing of 12 people the morning after the Red Room Riot.
After 86-87, Elmau instituted a number of changes to the way they hired and trained employees.
Man, it brings back memories, one of the greatest times in my life.
Put me on the mailing lists, give out my e-mail etc.
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Subject: helferin gefunden!
Oooo, I've forgotten my German; is gefunden a word? Anyway, I was self-indulgently doing a search on my name & after being totally amused by finding a website on which I'm listed as a top long-distance runner at my old high school, I found your HELFERIN site & was totally laughing, HaHaHa!! So, I'm one of those you list as lost. But now I'm found. How did you get my name anyway? I can't remember if I know you Ben. I remember another British guy […] |
There are 2 old friends who discovered that Schloss Elmau is existing in the internet. […] and […] were Heleferinnen in 1969-70. So we have beaten you all by seniority. In those days only girls were allowed to be at Elmau--what an advantage to you--boys--years later. We also had a great time with contacts from all over the world--unfortunately-lost them over the last 30 years, except, the two of us never lost each other.
That is one reason why we are just now sitting in California reading your news. The strange situation is that […] lives in Redwood City, California and […] in Steinenbronn Germany. Since we stayed in Elmau together we never lost contact and see each other frequently and on almost a yearly basis.
Elmau was a life on its own and we don't think is existing anywhere else. Do you still remember the Tanzabende with Otto Ludwig, the concerts with Yehudi Menuhin the Amadeus Quartett or the Shakespeare group at Easter? We remember the dance evenings with Johannes Rau who we would never have thought to be the German president one day! Has Enrico Mainardi still been a guest while you lived there ? And unforgettable Vito from the Trinkstuebel?
We could go on for ever as we do live in the present but also a lot in the past with Elmau which has been one of the best times in our lives.
Greetings for now from Early-Elmauers