No other cake in the world sells better than the Original Sacher-Torte. The Hotel Sacher produces around 320,000 of this sweetest of Viennese ambassadors per year. On good days the order reaches 3,500. Hardly surprising, then, that The Most Famous Hotels in the World turned to the Austrian capital in 1990 to research the unique history of the Sacher, and to discover the secrets of this legendary hotel which opened during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. It was the year 1876, the same year that saw the inauguration of the Frankfurter Hof and the Oriental in Bangkok. 
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The Hotel Sacher in 1910
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In 1990 we met Elisabeth Guertler (left), who had just taken over the �Direktion� of the hotel. Blessed with impeccable quality minded, modern management skills, she also possessed an unsurpassed sense of style. Her concept was catapulting the old fashioned Sacher Hotel into the future. She would accomplish what her late husband Peter Guertler had started (the Guertler family had acquired the hotel in 1936).

Today, the house is the very epitome of elegance from head to toe, from the rooftop spa overlooking the opera house to the cosy lobby beneath and the downstairs bar and restaurants. Upstairs, in the spa, you enter a fascinating world of exotic aromas, water elements, and a sauna that exudes history. The future, meanwhile, is represented downstairs in modern spots like the Sacher Corner, a stylish glass front corner bar, inspired by Alexandra Winkler, the daughter of the house, and her brother Georg Guertler: Family business at its best.  

We collected stories from the late Peter Wanninger, the chef concierge, since replaced by Wolfgang Buchmann, and Robert Palfrader, a legendary former restaurant manager. We visited retired members of staff, recording long forgotten tales and keeping them alive for the next generation. In total, we spent over one hundred hours interviewing them.   

Hotel manager Reiner Heilmann (left) had started a small collection of historical photographs. He personally guarded the hotel's collection of historic menus, as well as its legendary century old embroidered tablecloth, a kind of  Sacher's private Who�s Who. It  was an invention by the legendary Anna Sacher, who ran the hotel from the fin de siècle to the 1930s. All the illustrious guests were and still are invited to sign on the tablecloth and these signatures would later be embroidered.  The centre piece is a signature by His Imperial Majesty, Kaiser Franz Joseph. The latest one is by Sharon Stone.

Many imitators have tried to copy the Sacher cake. Japanese spies have even attempted to infiltrate the inner sanctuary of the Sacher in search of the secret of all secrets. One son of the rising sun sought employment in the hotel  kitchen. Being Japanese nobody batted an eyelid when he happily began to take snapshots of his surroundings, including the mixing, baking and decorating of the cake. He subsequently returned to his homeland and opened a confectionery selling Sacher-Torte.  

Stories, tales, legends � the hotel is full of them. We uncovered a host of intriguing anecdotes, including stories of naked archdukes and sweet ballerinas, legendary head waiters and bell boys who had their faces slapped, caviar-munching bull terrier and eccentric aristocrats.  

Focusing our efforts on international guests, we unearthed a treasure trove of tales. Charlie Chaplin, for instance, stayed at the Imperial Hotel in 1931. The day after his arrival, he escaped his fans to meet his composer friend Richard Strauss at the Sacher Bar for a good chat. Walt Disney, dining at the Restaurant Rote Bar, ordered a saddle of venison to the delight of the restaurant manager Robert T. Palfrader, who took the order with the words: �A saddle of Bambi, Mr Disney!�  

Nobody knew that the late Graham Greene (1904-1991, left) had spent one week at the Sacher in February 1948. He lunched at the Sacher with a British intelligence officer, who told him about penicillin trafficking in the Viennese underground sewer system. 

As a result of this chance meeting, Greene was inspired to pen The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. Interestingly, the lead actor, Orson Welles, became a regular at the Sacher. He later said that when he agreed to play Harry Lime, he was offered either a straight salary or a percentage of the profits. Welles chose the salary. It was a decision he would live to regret - the movie went on to become the most successful film of the immediate post World War II era.  

We searched far and wide for people who, once upon a time, started their career at the Sacher. We found Toni Piringer, who began as an apprentice at the hotel, before rising to the post of Executive Vice-President of Fairmont Hotels and later became President of Adam's Mark Hotels.
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Sacher Hotel

Hotel Sacher Spa Room

The next time he came to Vienna, he was no longer King of England, having of course abdicated because of his relationship with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson (right). Unbound by royal protocol, he could enjoy the cozy privacy of his hotel of choice, the Sacher. 

Edward was in fact the first man to sign the hotel�s new guest book. 

Today Edward VIII would have enjoyed the treatment in the Spa's steam room.

The complete collection of legends, stories and � of course � history will be published in the new editon HOTEL SACHER VIENNA in the series THE MOST FAMOUS HOTELS IN THE WORLD. 

Andreas Augustin was born in Vienna in 1956, studied hotel management at the Hotel Management College at the Castle of KIesheim, Salzburg. Instead of pursuing a hotel career, he followed his life-long desire to write. He became a journalist and at 25 became the editor of his own publication, a Salzburg city magazine. The following years as magazine reporter, newspaper columnist, radio host and international correspondent led to extensive journeys to the Orient and Far East. In 1986 he took up residence for three years at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore to study and to write about the region and the hotels of South East Asia. It was there that he developed the series of books "The Most Famous Hotels in the World", possessed by the idea to set new standards in the field of historic research and hotel publications.  With a wonderful team of writers, historians, researchers and photographers he is building the library of hospitality. The Most Famous Hotels in the World - today with almost 400 select member hotels - has built a major value driver and creator, recognized as the leading archives of historic hotels, thus representing a major source of information to build the future of hospitality.  As President of the associated Club of The Friends of The Most Famous Hotels in the World Andreas Augustin also takes care of its members from all over the world. Andreas Augustin can be reached at: [email protected]

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