The World As a Guest at Pragser Wildsee 

A journey through the history of the Grand Hotel ''Pragser Wildsee''.  

125 years, that’s how long the hotel has existed on the most beautiful lake in the Dolomites. In its long history, the Grand  Hotel has experienced both happy and difficult times.  

The hotel was built at the end of the 19th century as a classic ''first class alpine hotel in Tyrol'', like the hotels Sulden, Karer see and Trafoi. It is still owned by the family that built it. The listed building is the only structure from the great era of Alpine  hotel founder Theodor Christomannos that has remained largely unchanged and still serves its original purpose.  The Grand Hotel was awarded the title of 'Historic Hotel of the Year 2013' by the South Tyrolean Savings Bank Foundation.  

1 | View of the Hotel Pragser Wildsee.  

2 | View of the Pragser Wildsee from the hotel.  

3 | Heidi and Caroline M. Heiss (right) with the award for the hotel.  

4 | The Pragser Wildsee with the mighty Seekofel in the background.

The Development of the Pragser Wildsee for Tourism 

Joseph Hellensteiner, landlord of the "Gasthaus zum Schwarzen Adler" in Villabassa and husband of the later famous "Frau  Emma", purchased the Pragser Wildsee on 22 February in 1856.  

However, it was his eldest son, Eduard, who began to develop the lake for tourism. In 1893, he had a dirt track to the lake  turned into a road at his own expense. This soon attracted many day-trippers with their two-wheeled vehicles.  One of the destinations of many guests was the small 'Seehotel', also built by Eduard Hellenstainer as the first inn on the  shores of the Pragser Wildsee.  

1 | 'Gasthaus zum Schwarzen Adler' in Villabassa.  

2 | Emma Hellensteiner, the most famous landlady in Tyrol.  

3 | Eduard Hellenstainer, who built the hotel.  

4 | Villabassa in Alta Pusteria on an old view.

The Building of the Grand Hotel Pragser Wildsee 

Emma Hellensteiner, the landlady of the ''Gasthaus zum Schwarzen Adler'' in Villabassa, who was known far beyond the  borders of Tyrol, was the driving force behind the construction of the ''Pragser Wildsee'' Grand Hotel. For a long time, she  had been thinking of building a luxury hotel on the shores of the Pragser Wildsee.  

At her request, her son Eduard commissioned the famous Viennese architect Otto Schmid to design the hotel in 1898.  Schmid had already made a name for himself as Christomannos' partner in the construction of the grand hotels 'Sulden' and  'Trafoi' in South Tyrol.  

The Hotel Pragser Wildsee was inaugurated on 9 July in 1899 and was equipped with the most modern comforts of the time.  

1 | The hotel in the fifties of the 20th century.  

2 | Architect Otto Schmid.  

3 | Brochure for the opening of the hotel.  

4 | The hotel with the 'Villa Edelweiss'' in the foreground.

Heir to the Austro-Hungarian Throne Visits Prags 

The richest beer magnate in Europe at the time, Anton Dreher Jr. from Schwechat near Vienna, helped to finance the ambi tious hotel building on the Pragser Wildsee. His brewery produced the first pale, bottom-fermented 'lager' beer.  The Hotel Pragser Wildsee was very popular from the start and was fully booked from the first day. The hotel soon had to  consider expanding. Guests came from far away.  

The Imperial House in Vienna also became aware of the hotel. In 1908, the favourite daughter of Empress Elisabeth (Sissi),  Archduchess Marie Valerie, arrived at the Pragser Wildsee with her family. Two years later, in the summer of 1910, they  were followed by the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este and Artstetten, with his  wife and three children. Fascinated by the place, he stayed longer than originally planned.  

1 | Anton Dreher Jr.  

2 | The Chapel of Our Lady of the Hotel Pragser Wildsee.  

3 | Archduchess Marie Valerie with her husband (top).  

4 | The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne with his family.  

5 | The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

The Hotel as a Refuge for Freed SS Hostages 

The history of the hotel is also inextricably linked to the fate of the family of Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, who at tempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July in 1944. The relatives of the resistance fighter against the Nazi regime were  imprisoned in Berlin with the families of his co-conspirators after the failed attempt to overthrow the regime.  At the end of the Second World War, the SS deported the ''clan prisoners'' together with prominent ''special prisoners'' as  hostages to the so-called Alpine Fortress in South Tyrol. There, the 139 prisoners from 17 European countries were to be  made available to the head of the Reich Security Main Office, SS Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, for negotiations  with the Western Allies.  

But the plan failed. On 30 April in 1945, the prisoners at Villabassa were liberated by the German Wehrmacht from the SS,  and on the same day they were taken to safety in the Hotel Pragser Wildsee. By taking the SS hostages into her home,  Emma Heiss-Hellenstainer made it possible for the prisoners to stay alive.  

The liberated prisoners from different European nations came together here for the first time to form a united Europe, where  peace and mutual respect prevailed. This was unique in the history of the continent.  

1 | The freed SS hostages in front of the hotel.  

2 | Emma Heiss-Hellenstainer.  

3 | A picture of the freed men that went around the world.  

4 | Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (smoking a cigarette).  

5 | Isa Vermehren (right) with Gisela Countess von Plettenberg and her father.  

6 | The hotel at the end of the Second World War.

"Rome on the Pragser Wildsee" 

After the Second World War, the Hotel Pragser Wildsee was reopened to tourism. The hotel remained in the hands of  Therese Hellenstainer, who had run the hotel with great success with director Paul Berger before the war.  

It was Berger who saw to it that the hotel was enlarged in 1929 and that the front, third wing was built. The third extension in  the hotel's history meant the loss of the Villa Edelweiss, which had previously occupied the space to the side of the hotel.  

In 1958 Therese Hellenstainer handed over the management of the hotel to her nephew Josef Heiss, who took over from the  retiring Berger. With him, the hotel company, which soon became his property, experienced a new heyday.  

Heiss recognised that tourism had changed and drew the right conclusions from the mass tourism that was now reaching  the Pragser Wildsee. The new mountain road brought large numbers of motorists and day-trippers by bus to the lake.  

Under the management of Josef Heiss, the hotel also became such an important meeting place for well-known politicians  and journalists from Rome that it soon became known as "Rome on the Pragser Wildsee". Guests included the influential  journalist Emilio Frattarelli and the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.  

Josef Heiss died on 25 February in 1985. After her husband's death, Heidi Heiss took over the management of the house  and continued to run the hotel. Today their daughter Caroline M. Heiss is in charge of the business.  

Concept and text:  

Hans-Günter Richardi.  

Graphic design: Uschi Vierheller  

1 | Therese Hellensteiner is a proud car owner.  

2 | Josef Heiss.  

3 | Heidi Heiss with Hollywood star Anthony Quinn (foreground).  

4 | Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (centre) with Bruno Heiss, son of Heidi Heiss (right).  

5 | Caroline M. Heiss with the German writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger.  

6 | Waiting for guests: the hotel staff in earlier years.