History

Interwoven with the textile industry

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. The neo-classical five-floor building was built in 1830 by textile supplier Jacob Allgaeuer’s widow. A proactive businesswoman, she ran a finishing atelier in the building. Years later, the town soup kitchen had its home on the ground floor.

The American embroidery factory owner Isaac D. Einstein saw an advantage in the existing textile industry of St.Gallen and had the old building converted into an embroidery factory by the architect Karl August Hiller in 1884. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Einstein-Hirsch & Cie. was active here, and from 1936 the Adolf Hahn company. 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.

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