History of the Hotel Alpina in Grindelwald

Emergence of the hotel

The Hotel Alpina looks back on a long tradition and history. The Hotel Alpina was built in 1897 by the master carpenter Johann Bernet-Jossion an excellent site close to the railway station.

In 1900, then owner M. Gsteiger-Baumann advertised the Alpina as a "beautifully situated hotel of the second order with fine wines and reasonable prices."

Change of the owner

In 1904, the Alpina was bought by Otto Wolter for 110 000 francs. He sold it just one year later to Mrs. Brommer Stiffler for 120 000 francs. The hotel fell on hard times before the First World War and went into receivership.

In 1922, the community sold it to Dr Fischer of Bern, who used the hotel as a summer residence for his Elfenau Girl’s School. After his death, the residence was run by his widow.

New building

In 1945, the C.A. Kaufmann-Schlunegger family bought the Alpina. Time had left its mark on the old building, which was no longer worth the expense of renovations. It was torn down in 1972/73 and the current hotel built in its place. In 1983, the hotel passed to the family’s daughter Elsa, who continued to run it with her husband, Dieter Wolf-Kaufmann.

In 1989, their son Thomas Wolf joined the family business, now in its third generation, working with his parents until 2007, when he took over the hotel’s management from them.

Excerpt from the book "From Mountain Village to Tourist Resort" by Rudolf Rubi, Hospitality-Alpinism, published by Sutter Printing Ltd – Grindelwald