For over 60 years, a second home for international guests

When the international grain trader Fritz Mauthner bought the Pension Britannia in 1950, he — an outsider to the industry — set out to make his mark on tourism. It was to be something extraordinary, something new…

So he rebuilt the small guesthouse, expanded it, and gave the newly created luxury hotel a name.

By 1953, his ASTORIA was on everyone's lips: it opened the first hotel indoor pool and what we would today call a "spa area", complete with a Finnish sauna, steam bath, massage rooms and a fitness area. The society columns of the day wrote about this groundbreaking offering, and the jet set from across Europe gathered at the ASTORIA, which had become a hotel legend.

Legendary pirate parties were held in the ASTORIA indoor pool — guests were "abducted" by pirates, thrown into the "dungeon", and could only buy their freedom with strong spirits. Many a distinguished gentleman was quite happy to be arrested, for down in the dungeon he might well meet a beautiful lady… and he took his time buying his way out.

For five o'clock tea with dancing, guests appeared in chic après-ski outfits; in the evenings the ladies showed themselves in haute couture, adorned with precious jewels. The female guests made a particular effort whenever Vienna's king of fashion, Professor Fred Adlmüller, and his partner Herbert Schill, likewise a haute couture designer, happened to be staying once again.

In summer things were less formal and more sporting: captains of industry, politicians and society regulars competed for victory at the golf tournaments and tennis cups — though even then they used the occasion for networking.

The ASTORIA's legendary first pool attendant, Kurt Winkler, now 90 years old, can tell stories about it for hours.

When Fritz Mauthner died in 1988, the glamour of the post-war years — driven by the desire to make up for everything the war had denied — was already a thing of the past.

A new era had begun. Seefeld itself had taken on a different image, and the search was on for a new direction — today we would say: for a new USP.

Investments were made at the ASTORIA to maintain its standard. In 2003, the old legendary indoor pool with its 12-metre ceiling height — where generations of guests' children, and Seefeld locals too, had learned to swim — had to make way for a contemporary indoor-outdoor pool, and the old sauna landscape was replaced with saunas offering a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels.

What remained constant was that the house stayed in family ownership, that regular guests, prominent and less prominent alike, remained loyal to it, and that long-serving, dedicated staff continued to look after the wellbeing of every guest.

In 2015, following the death of Fritz Mauthner's wife, the ASTORIA was taken over by his daughter Elisabeth, who had married Sacher owner Peter Gürtler in 1973 and, after his death, managed the Sacher Group for more than 25 years.

The house's new USP was to build on the legendary quality of the past while meeting the needs of a society stressed by constant availability and the pressure to succeed:

Everything should invite — indeed seduce — guests to leave everyday life behind, to immerse themselves in another world, to slow down and find their way back to themselves. That can only be achieved through a soothing, aesthetic environment; warm, indulgent people offering competent and personal service; cuisine at the very highest level; physical activities tailored to each guest's level of fitness; body and facial treatments devoted to wellbeing; and a relaxed, family atmosphere.

For three years, the finest designers from Tyrol, Vienna and Paris worked on the new design; new staff were taken under the wing of the legendary old "Astorians" in particular; and new offerings were created.

Today the new Alpin Resort Sacher stands high above Seefeld — changed, yet radiant once more, a modern legend — and welcomes its guests. Some of these guests are, as in the past, prominent figures, known to a wide public for their outstanding achievements in art, culture, business or science; others are, or wish to remain, unknown.