Schloss Elmau – the venue in the Wetterstein

Schloss Elmau - the venue of the G7 summit of heads of state and government on 7 and 8 June 2015 Source: picture alliance /dpa/Stephan Jansen

At the start of 2014, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided that the G7 summit during Germany’s Presidency should be held in Schloss Elmau in 2015.

Schloss Elmau is close to the village of Krün in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, about 100 km south of Munich. It lies in a valley at the heart of the Wetterstein mountain range at an altitude of about 1,000 m above sea level.

The nearby hotel Kranzbach will also be used.

District of Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is home to around 85,500 people. Tourism is a mainstay of the local economy, and the region is a popular tourist destination: about one million people choose to holiday here each year, in summer as in winter.

Medium-sized businesses make up the backbone of the local economy, although agriculture is also an important sector. Some 15 per cent of the district’s land is used for agriculture.

Schloss Elmau – A forum for international debates

Schloss Elmau was built between 1914 and 1916 by Dr Johannes Müller to provide "space for personal and communal development free of any ideology". The ensemble today constitute a listed building.

In terms of cultural history too, Schloss Elmau is important: since the 1950s it has become a well known international venue for chamber music.

Under the current owner it has, since the late 1990s, become an acclaimed forum for international debates and inter-religious dialogue. Special attention focuses on events that foster German-Israeli and German-American understanding.

This cosmopolitan ambiance is a conscious effort of the family of the current owner to deal openly with the long history of Schloss Elmau, and with the ambivalent attitude of the original owner to National Socialism.

The history of Schloss Elmau

Schloss Elmau can look back on a turbulent history. The theologian and philosopher, Johannes Müller, originally built it as a place of meeting and encounter for his readers and seminar participants, but Schloss Elmau also welcomed numerous prominent politicians and creative artists during the Weimar Republic.

Johannes Müller had a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards National Socialism. Although he glorified the Nazi ideology for a time, he was deemed to be unreliable by the Nazis themselves. Rather than wait for the expropriation order, he leased the building to the Wehrmacht as a rest and recuperation centre for troops returning from the front. After the war, Johannes Müller was convicted as a main culprit in the denazification trials.

Schloss Elmau was confiscated by the US army and used for a short time as a field hospital. Later, it was managed by the Bavarian government which used it as a recuperation home for TB patients. In 1951 the children of Johannes Müller leased the building and established a hotel. Since the end of the 1950s Schloss Elmau has once again been the venue for many cultural events and political debates with high-ranking and well-known participants.

Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 2005. The grandson of the original owner, Dieter Müller-Elmau, rebuilt it and today runs it as the Luxury Spa & Cultural Hideaway Hotel.

As at November 2014

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