Mahler’s hotel is facing demolition

Mahler’s hotel is facing demolition

main

norman lebrecht

November 26, 2017

The former Post Hotel in Toblach (Dobbiaco), where Gustav Mahler used to take coffee every day after collecting his mail, is under threat of imminent demolition.

You can help stop the march of the philistines by signing this petition.

 

Comments

  • gm says:

    L’Hotel Post, costruito sui ruderi di un antico albergo subito dopo la fine della Prima Guerra Mondiale…. Hotel Post, built on the ruins of an old hotel just after the end of World War I. So, it isn’t the hotel where Mahler “used to take coffee every day”

  • Rich C. says:

    I’ve been to Toblach twice and I don’t recognize this hotel, by name or sight, at all. This can’t be the Grand Hotel where Mahler stayed on occasion.

    • Olassus says:

      The Hotel Post is in the town, next to St John the Baptist.

      The Grand is outside the town, and so not where Mahler got his mail.

      • Rich C. says:

        The Grand would a closer ride from the Gustav Mahler Stube (today’s name of the Mahler residence) which is south of the center of town. It would make more sense if he picked up his mail from the Grand rather than the Post.

        • Olassus says:

          But the mail would not be dropped there. The Hotel Post, as name implies, was the town’s stop on the Lienz-Bozen route. Staff at the Grand would pick up at the Post for their guests.

          Mahler was not based at either hotel as far as I know.

  • Felix Weingartner says:

    Why? It is not as if Mahler was a great composer all those boa constrictor symphonies sound the same and are full of kitsch.

  • S. Werner says:

    http://www.unsertirol24.com/2017/11/22/versuchte-rettung-des-hotel-post-in-toblach/

    This hotel indeed predates WW I, back to 1835. While Mahler probably did not collect his mail there, Alma most likely did, since she had a Poste Restante address to communicate with Gropius.

    Das Hotel Post steht auf den Trümmern der Kirche Santa Caterina, die 1811 von der Gemeinde an Silvestro Manaigo (1769-1831) übergeben wurde, der eine Lizenz als Herbergsstätte, Stall und Gaststätte bekam. Im Jahre 1835 wurde in der heutigen Gaststube ein Postamt eingerichtet, von wo aus die Postauslieferung zwischen Lienz und Toblach erfolgte. In der Zwischenzeit verwandelte sich das Gasthaus in ein Hotel, indem es um zwei Stockwerke erweitert wurde. In den beiden Weltkriegen diente das Hotel als Hauptquartier österreich-ungarischer, italienischer, deutscher sowie amerikanischer Truppen, ehe es in die heutige Form umgebaut wurde.

  • Dennis says:

    Whether it is or isn’t the actual hotel from Mahler’s time, let’s assume for argument’s sake that it is. Just because Mahler had coffee there once in awhile would not be a good enough reason in itself to not demolish the building. Whatever reasons the owner may have for wanting to demolish it, he is not a philistine for doing so just because of some vague connection to Mahler. Should every room or toilet ever used by a famous composer be forever preserved in its original state just because a famous composer once stopped by?

    • Anon says:

      I think the toilet where Max Reger perceived the famous bonmot to a critique:
      “Dear Friend, I’m sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review in front of me. In a moment I will have it behind me. Sincerely…” should definitely be preserved in its original state.

  • MOST READ TODAY: