Sils-Maria und das Waldhaus (arte/N3)

Writer and Director: Marion Kollbach

Producer: Jasmin Gravenhorst

Production: Christine Lachmann

Editorial Advisor: Ulrike Dotzer, arte/NDR

Line producer: Anke Meyer

Executive Producer: Hartmut Klenke

Location: Sils-Maria - Switzerland

Broadcast:
Sunday, August 2nd 2009 at 09:45PM on arte

Length: ca. 50 Minuten

 

Content:

There is no other place on Earth with the same perfect light as in Upper Engadine, Switzerland, especially in Sils-Maria. Nowhere else do North and South meet so magically. So many poets have praised the wondrous effect of the light, the mountains, and the three lakes leading to the Italian border that, to the well-read vacationer, the landscape seems dotted with literary references. Nietzsche, Proust and Celan, Mann and Hesse, Rilke and Cocteau, Thomas Bernhard, Adorno, Bloch, Einstein, Chabrol and Visconti... It is hard to think of a poet or philosopher, or these days a film maker or theatre director, who has not praised the beauty of Upper Engadin in general and the village of Sils-Maria in particular.

The Grand Hotel Waldhaus sits in state on the steep hillside above Lake Sils. It shines out of the pine and larch woods, and with its many towers, bays, balconies and verandas, it is like a castle which reigns over the whole valley. From its establishment in 1908 until today, great artists have stayed here. In the beginning, stagecoaches brought aristocrats with their large entourages. Nurses, chambermaids, servants and messengers occupied entire floors.

This is a hotel with five-star comfort and the patina of the 19th century, but with neither designer boutiques nor airs. No room is like another. The Thomas-Mann room remains unchanged. And the sound of horse-drawn carriages pulling up to the hotel (cars are not allowed on the lane from the village down in to the Fex valley) is still the most striking noise. Visitors still sit reading in comfortable armchairs in the salon, and they still drink their tea while listening to the afternoon concert at four o’clock. After four generations, the same family of gifted hoteliers lives and works in the Waldhaus.

Do famous guests still come here today? Urs Kienberger, one of the hotel directors, answers this question with that mixture of English restraint and clown’s humor which is typical for him: “Once, when a guest was taking his leave of me he said, ‘I brought three books with me to read, and all three of the authors came here during my stay.’ ” A similar experience must have moved Adorno to ask himself, during one of his regular visits to the hotel decades ago, if the fork in his hand had also been used by Thomas Mann to eat a piece of cake. Countless celebrities have contributed to the glory of the hotel. It celebrates its 100th birthday this year.