History

Today, St.Gallen is a byword for exquisite lace, high quality fabrics and inspired fashion. Top international designers representing the most exclusive labels are regular visitors to producers in St.Gallen as they order their noble fabrics. St.Gallen fashion makes its mark on the most important catwalks in the world. The St.Gallen textile industry has a long tradition dating right back to the Middle Ages. It reached its heights at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Einstein St.Gallen is closely linked to the textile industry.

Someone who wanted to benefit from these location qualities was New York embroidery manufacturer Isaak D. Einstein. In 1884, he opened a branch in St. Gallen in an existing factory building at Berneggstrasse 2, which he had converted into an embroidery shop by architect Karl August Hiller. The previous building had been constructed in 1830 by Sabina Dorothea Allgäuer, the enterprising widow of textile supplier Jacob Allgäuer, as a finishing plant. It later served as a spinning mill and, in the 1880s, housed the municipal soup kitchen on the ground floor. As early as 1886, a three-storey extension was added to Berneggstrasse 4. This was integrated into the Berneggstrasse 4-6 building complex, which still exists today, as part of a major extension in 1907 (architect Jakob Merz). D. Einstein & Co., which became Adolph Hahn & Co. in 1936, was one of the most important companies in the St. Gallen embroidery industry. By this time, however, the golden age of the St.Gallen embroidery industry had long since passed.

In 1978, the St.Gallen textile manufacturer Max Kriemler bought the property, renovated it from top to bottom and turned it into the four-star hotel, Einstein St.Gallen, which was opened in 1983. 20 years later, the hotel’s success story was continued when Max Kriemler decided to extend the Einstein into the adjacent building, adding a further 48 new and modern rooms. Today, the Einstein has 113 rooms, the Einstein Gourmet with view over the rooftops of the historic center, the elegant Einstein Bar with its English style and one of the most modern fitness parks in Switzerland. The versatile seminar and banquet rooms in the Einstein Congress, which was built in 2009, and the Bistro St.Gallen round off the picture.

In 2012, the Einstein St.Gallen was commended for its excellent quality by the two major hotel-rating portals and following its last inspection, the Swiss Hotel Association, hotelleriesuisse, classified the Einstein St.Gallen as a four-star superior hotel. What many guest have known for a long time is now in black and white: the Einstein St.Gallen is the top hotel in town.