| The Peninsula Paris | |
|---|---|
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 The Peninsula Paris in 2014 | |
 Interactive map of The Peninsula Paris | |
| General information | |
| Location | 19Avenue Kléber,Paris,France |
| Opened | 1908 (as Hotel Majestic) 2014 (as The Peninsula Paris) |
| Owner | Katara Hospitality,Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (20%) |
| Management | The Peninsula Hotels |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 6 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Armand Sibien (1908) Richard Martinet (2014) |
| Developer | Leonard Tauber |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 200 |
| Number of suites | 34 |
| Number of restaurants | 3 |
| Parking | 1 |
| Website | |
| peninsula | |
The Peninsula Paris is a historicluxury hotel and also part of the Palaces de France originally known as theHotel Majestic, located onAvenue Kléber in the16th arrondissement of Paris,France. It opened in 1908 as the Hotel Majestic and was converted to government offices in 1936. The hotel served as a field hospital for wounded officers duringWorld War I, staffed largely by British aristocrats. DuringWorld War II, it served as the headquarters of the German military high command in France during theGerman occupation of Paris. The building played a pivotal role in the deportation of Parisian Jews and the1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. The building reopened as The Peninsula Paris in August 2014, following a complicated and costly restoration.
Avenue Kléber, part ofBaron Haussmann's rebuilding plan for Paris, was originally known as l'avenue du Roi de Rome in tribute toNapoleon I’s son, theRoi de Rome. In 1864, a rich Russian nobleman namedAlexander Basilewski (de) constructed a palace at 19 avenue du Roi de Rome, designed by architectClément Parent.[1]
Basilewski sold the palace in 1868 to theDuke of Sesto, who renamed it thePalacio Castilla. It was bought on behalf of QueenIsabella II of Spain, who had just been exiled from Spain following theGlorious Revolution. The Duke of Sesto preceded the queen to France and arranged for her welcome by EmperorNapoleon III and EmpressEugénie. The Duke of Sesto and Eugénie had known one another since they were teenagers inMadrid.
The Palacio Castilla was used as the queen's home in exile, and it was where the Duke of Sesto and Queen Isabella plotted to have her son PrinceAlfonso elevated to the Spanish throne. The duke talked Queen Isabella into abdicating on June 20, 1870, the ceremony taking place at Palacio Castilla in the presence of as many Spanish grandees as could be brought to Paris for the ceremony. The queen's abdication led toward France's declaration of war against Prussia less than a month later.
Queen Isabella continued to live in Paris, while the Duke of Sesto succeeded in arousing support in Spain for Prince Alfonso, who was welcomed into Madrid in 1875 as King Alfonso XII. However, he died at the age of 27 of tuberculosis, and he was succeeded by his sonAlfonso XIII as an infant under the regency of his mother QueenMaria Cristina. Dowager queen Isabella continued to live in Paris until her death in 1904. The property was then acquired by hotel magnate Leonard Tauber after a bidding war that involved theUnited States government and theKing of Belgium.[1][2]
Tauber constructed the luxuriousHotel Majestic on the site, retaining Queen Isabella's bathroom accoutrements, including her marble bath, in the Presidential suite.[1][3] Designed by Armand Sibien,[4] construction began in 1906 and the hotel opened in December 1908.[5] The hotel was purchased byHenry Devenish Harben for use as a military hospital at the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914,[6] and served in this capacity for five months. It was damaged during its hospital service, and was not renovated and reopened until 1916. In 1919 the Hotel Majestic was the site for the Supreme Inter-Allied Council and Preliminary Peace Conference from February to June.[7] In 1922 it was the site of a famous dinner hosted by Violet and Sydney Schiff and attended byMarcel Proust,Igor Stravinsky andPablo Picasso. The "dinner party of the century" was immortalised in Richard Davenport-Hines's book,Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris. The1st unofficial Chess Olympiad was held at the hotel in 1924.George Gershwin wroteAn American in Paris while staying at the hotel in 1928.[5] British advertising tycoonDavid Ogilvy, having failed his exams in Oxford, worked in the hotel kitchens between 1931-32.
The hotel was purchased by theFrench government in 1936 to serve as offices for theMinistry of Defence.[4] It served as the headquarters of the German military high command in France (Militärbefehlshaber Frankreich)[8] from October 1940 to July 1944 during the occupation of Paris inWorld War II.[4] During the Nazi Occupation of Paris, staff army officials at The Majestic fought fierce battles with theGestapo and theSS over policy, especially with regard to the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, reprisals against French partisans and protection of works of art in French museums. The Majestic became known as a centre of opposition to certain aspects ofAdolf Hitler's policies, especially whenCarl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel took charge of administering the Militärbefehlshaber Frankreich.[9]
On May 22, 1942, following theWannsee Conference, an exclusive presentation was made to the higher echelons of the German army at the Hotel Majestic byReinhard Heydrich, one of the main architects of theHolocaust. He spoke of experiments[10] for the killing of Jews using a specially prepared truck whose exhaust fumes would kill the deportees. In this context the word “gassing” was first used outside of Hitler's inner circle in relation to the extermination of the Jewish population of Paris.[9] On this occasion, Heydrich introducedCarl Oberg, the new police and SS officer for Paris, who had been issued with the authority to order deportations of Jews without reference to the military commander of the French authorities. Militärbefehlshaber Frankreich staff at The Majestic were soon processing hundreds of deportation orders against the Jewish population of Paris. Joseph Goebbels established his Paris propaganda headquarters at the Majestic around the same time and the building's staff assumed control of the notoriousCamp de Royallieu at Compiègne, known to the Germans as Frontstalag 122, which served as a feeder station for the extermination camps at Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Dachau.[11]
Stülpnagel opposed the policy and decided to act against Hitler. With other members of the officer class working out of The Majestic and billeted in The Raphael next door, Stülpnagel began to plan Hitler's assassination from his office on The Majestic's second floor.[12] On 20 July 1944, Stülpnagel's co-conspiratorClaus von Stauffenberg made his assassination attempt on Hitler at theWolfsschanze inEast Prussia. For his part, Stülpnagel put his part of the plot into operation from The Majestic, orderingHans Otfried von Linstow to round up all SS and Gestapo officers in Paris and imprison them. These events were witnessed by Walter Bargatzky, a high ranking German officer who wroteHotel Majestic: Ein Deutscher im besetzten Frankreich and was a supporter of the plot to kill Hitler. After the plot failed, Bargatzky left his office at The Majestic and returned to room 409 in The Raphael to await his arrest. It never came and like other fringe members of the plot, Bargatzky was allowed to serve out the war at The Majestic.[13]
The final battle for The Majestic took place on 25 August in the afternoon asJaques Massu and Colonel Paul de Langlade of the French2nd Armored Division moved their troops from the Champs-Élysées to the heavily fortified and barricaded Avenue Kléber.[14] One of Massu's officers worked his way around the rear of The Majestic on Rue la Pérouse, which was protected by a blockhouse that could only be subdued by a bazooka, but the Germans inside the hotel said they would be willing to surrender to regular soldiers, rather than men of the Resistance. A German spokesman was brought to Massu under a white flag and with Langlade's approval, Massu went to The Majestic accompanied by Senior Sergeant Dannic. As they approached Dannic was shot dead by a sniper firing from the hotel's rooftop. Despite this, Massu continued up the hotel's steps and entered The Majestic's lobby to find fifty German officers and 300 other ranks. The Germans surrendered to Massu without further resistance, using a bilingual bell-boy from the hotel as their interpreter.[14]
In the post war-era The Majestic served as the first headquarters ofUNESCO,[15] from September 16, 1946[4] until 1958, when it was converted into a conference center for theFrench Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[16] known as the International Conference Center. TheOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was founded at the hotel in 1960[17] and it was the location for the signing of theParis Peace Accords on January 27, 1973[18] that ended American involvement in theVietnam War.[5] Later, on October 23, 1991, the1991 Paris Peace Agreements, which ended the Cambodian-Vietnamese War and Khmer Rouge civil war, were also signed there.[19]
The French government sold the building in 2008 as part of a cost-cutting measure to the Qatari Diar firm for $460 million.[20] It reopened on August 1, 2014,[21] following extensive rebuilding by Vinci Construction[22] costing €338 million,[23] as The Peninsula Paris, the famous hotel chain's first property in Europe, in a joint venture withKatara Hospitality.The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, parent company of Peninsula Hotels, owns a 20% interest in the property.[24] The architectural designs were by Richard Martinet of Affine architecture & interior design, while the interiors were by Henry Leung of Hong Kong-based CAP Atelier Ltd.[25] The hotel offers 200 luxury rooms, including 34 suites.
TheSecond Empire building was acquired in 2013 byThe Peninsula Hotels and located next to Peninsula Paris.[26] Built in 1900, the building is a commercial building along the historicAvenue Kléber.
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48°52′16″N2°17′36″E / 48.8710°N 2.2933°E /48.8710; 2.2933
