History

A historic hotel ...

…like the traditional Hotel van Bebber in Xanten has a lot of stories to tell. The central location next to the cathedral of Xanten is one reason why there were always many guests and for a moving 225 years hotel tradition. Here is our story:

In the year 1785 this house was officially mentioned for the first time as Lower Rhine house, run by the Ingenlath family >> the first and oldest hotel of the town<<. It was in the year 1834 that the British Queen Victoria spent some nights here, traveling incognito as Duchess of Lancaster. The Lower Rhine house was well known far and wide, when in 1892 the family van Bebber took over and redesigned it.

Peter van Bebber made the hotel, that had in those days a big and popular hotel garden, more attractive with an unusual sight: He founded a Lower Rhine museum in two rooms, which showed among other things also Roman finds, which – spared by the wars - can still be seen in our “Bauernstube”.

In the last year of the World War II the city was widely damaged – fortunately the main parts of the hotel remained unharmed: The main entrance with the precious old doors, the fantastic old staircase and also the “Bauernstube” with all the old appliances and the lovingly collected art objects and the “Fürstenzimmer” with a unique plaster ceiling and the Delft porcelain, all of this still building the heart of our house.

Famous personalities like General Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, Cardinal Clemens-August Graf von Gahlen, the German presidents Heuss, Heinemann and Scheel as well as many movie and TV actors have left their greetings and signatures in the old and new guest books. Some renowned artists stayed in this house for a couple of months – pictures are the proofs, left behind to pay the rent.

Carl-Hugo and Gertraude van Dreveldt reopened the house on 8th April 1989 after a generous and loving renovation, which was focused on preserving the old.