More than 150 years of hotel history are contained within Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, the first hotel purchased by the Oetker family, laying the foundation for what would ultimately become the unmatched Oetker Hotels.

Nestled along Germany’s River Oos and the Lichtentaler Allee park in Baden-Baden, Brenners Park boasts several hectares of private parkland, creating a quiet buffer between the hotel and the town beyond. At the edge of the Black Forest and within easy reach of France and Switzerland, the idyllic setting places you between landscaped gardens and wooded countryside, in a place whose identity has been tied to its thermal waters for centuries. This symbiotic relationship feels particularly relevant as Brenners enters a new chapter.

Following an extensive renovation and its 2026 recognition with two Michelin Keys, the hotel pairs its long-standing approach to hospitality with a renewed focus on wellbeing. Here, that idea extends far beyond a treatment room. This can mean a morning walk beneath the trees of Lichtentaler Allee, time in Baden-Baden’s mineral-rich thermal waters, or a longer stay centered on individualized programs at Brenners Medical Care. But the real magic of Brenners is that you have to stay to truly understand it.

The Hotel That Started Oetker Hotels

“In a true rarity in hospitality, over more than 150 years, only two families have owned Brenners: the Brenners and the Oetkers.”

In a true rarity in hospitality, over more than 150 years, only two families have owned Brenners: the Brenners and the Oetkers. Brenners’ story begins on October 21, 1872, when Baden-Baden royal court tailor Anton Alois Brenner purchased a hotel called Stéphanie-les-Bains at auction on Lichtentaler Allee. For centuries, Baden-Baden was considered the “Summer Capital of Europe,” and the house of Baden was occupied by a historic German royal family that took part in ruling the country until the end of the monarchy. Then, Anton’s son Camille inherited the property in 1881, renamed it Hotel Stephanie, and developed it into one of Baden-Baden’s leading grand hotels.

By 1895, its international reputation was established enough that King Chulalongkorn of Siam and Laos stayed. The next generation, Camille’s sons Kurt and Alfred, expanded and rebuilt the hotel during the 1920s and opened the Kasino Stephanie, which became one of its principal social spaces. It was also during this period, between 1923 and 1925, that the Oetker family first acquired a stake in Brenners Park.

That relationship became permanent in 1941, when Rudolf-August Oetker purchased the hotel from the Brenner family. Brenners became the first luxury hotel as part of what would eventually flourish into Oetker Hotels, making Baden-Baden the origin story for an eleven-property collection that now extends from icons like Le Bristol Paris and Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc to The Lanesborough and Jumby Bay Island.

Notably, the hotel’s history also runs alongside that of postwar Europe. After closing during World War II, Brenners reopened in 1950 with 160 rooms and recorded 17,000 overnight stays during its first year back in operation. Through the intervening decades, it has continued to host world leaders for major meetings, including the 60^th Anniversary NATO summit, cementing the property’s status not only as a premier leisure destination but as a place of global distinction.

That history is still felt as you walk around the property. The private park follows the River Oos, while spaces such as the Kaminhalle and Minerva Terrace retain the character of a European grand hotel. Even as Brenners has expanded its definition of wellbeing, with the 2015 opening of its destination spa in historic Villa Stéphanie, its relationship with both its grounds and Baden-Baden has remained at its heart.

A Renovation That Honors the Past and Welcomes the Future

The most extensive renovation in the hotel’s 150-year history began a new chapter for Brenners, with the property reopening in late 2025 after a two-year transformation. Countess Bergit Douglas of MM Design, daughter of Rudolf-August Oetker, led the interiors. Douglas worked with patterned fabrics, antique writing desks, locally made furniture, and wallcoverings and textiles from houses including eclectic French company Pierre Frey and iconic brand Colefax & Fowler. The result at Brenners is a sense that each room feels distinct, with shifting color palettes that move between forest greens, powder blues, corals, and creams.

“The result at Brenners is a sense that each room feels distinct, with shifting color palettes that move between forest greens, powder blues, corals, and creams.”

The historic building provided the inspiration for the material palette. The team restored original doors, staircases, and window frames, while uncovering and leaving nineteenth-century wooden beams visible. Historic bricks and Black Forest timber were retained and reused where possible. Bathrooms, meanwhile, were comprehensively redesigned in marble with new lighting and fittings.

The renovation also gave new life to the accommodations, introducing twenty-seven different room concepts rather than applying a single design across the hotel. Individually decorated interiors utilize bespoke furnishings and fabrics outfitted with each unique layout in mind. Entry-level rooms begin at approximately 250 square feet, but many of the most compelling categories beloved by SmartFlyer guests look toward Brenners’ private park. The Deluxe Park Rooms, for example, include a seating area, marble bathroom with separate bathtub and shower, and a spacious balcony overlooking the grounds. From there, the accommodations move into increasingly residential-inspired layouts, starting with the top-floor Junior Suites. The Panorama Suites occupy two levels, with a living room downstairs, bedroom and bathroom above, and three balconies looking across the park, Baden-Baden, and the Black Forest hills.

Roomier configurations make it possible to approach Brenners as an extended-stay or hotel for your next multigenerational trip. Each of the three two-bedroom accommodations spans about 1,600 square feet and sleeps up to six. The Park Suite adds a separate living room with a library and work area, a dining table, two marble bathrooms, and both a balcony and terrace facing the private park and Lichtentaler Allee. For those seeking true privacy, Brenners’  Parkvilla offers a standalone residence spread across 6,500 square feet over three floors. Its eight bedrooms, three living rooms with libraries and dining areas, six bathrooms, private garden, two terraces, balcony, and two rooftop terraces accommodate groups of up to twenty, with twenty-four-hour butler service.

Wellness Derived from Baden-Baden

Long before “wellness” became part of any trend, Baden-Baden was a destination built around the pursuit of health. The city’s thermal water rises from twelve springs beneath the Florentinerberg, a hill in Baden-Baden, traveling from a depth of roughly 6,500 feet and reaching the surface at temperatures between 132°F and 155°F. Together, the springs produce approximately 210,000  gallons of thermal water each day, a natural resource that has shaped Baden-Baden since the Romans first established bathing facilities here roughly 2,000 years ago. That history remains part of daily life in the still-active thermal baths, including spaces you can completely privatize. In 2021, Baden-Baden’s importance to European spa culture was formally recognized when UNESCO inscribed it as one of the eleven Great Spa Towns of Europe on the World Heritage List.

“This intersection with nature means your wellness experience at Brenners doesn’t have to begin and end in the spa.”

Brenners sits directly within this landscape, in a part of the city where the boundaries between hotel, park, and Baden-Baden itself are fluid. A morning walk can continue past gardens, historic villas, and Museum Frieder Burda before heading farther into the center, where the thermal baths, Kurhaus, and many of the city’s cultural landmarks are concentrated. Beyond its urban core, Baden-Baden sits at the western edge of the Black Forest, adding hiking and longer walks to a stay that might otherwise revolve around treatments and appointments. This intersection with nature means your wellness experience at Brenners doesn’t have to begin and end in the spa. A stay at Brenners can easily include a morning along the Oos, time in the forest, an exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda, and several hours following Friedrichsbad’s bathing circuit.

That range also lets you plan your time in Baden-Baden to include as much or as little time off property as you want. Over a long weekend, the city is compact enough to combine treatments at Brenners with other activities. With a five-day stay, a week, or longer, the same setting serves an entirely different purpose. More structured medical and wellness programming can be spaced across several days, leaving room between consultations, diagnostics, treatments, and movement sessions to get outside the hotel. That distinction matters because it prevents a longer health-focused stay from becoming entirely clinical.

In culmination with its storied history, the wellness programming—both at Villa Stéphanie and Brenners Medical Center—is less a departure from the grand-hotel identity than a continuation of why people have traveled to Baden-Baden for generations. The terminology and science may have changed, but the essence is the same. Contemporary programs can be far more individualized than the traditional European practice of simply “taking the waters.” Still, the underlying proposition is that travel to a place where you can specifically devote time to your health is a worthwhile endeavor.

A Deep Dive Into Brenners’ Approach to Wellness

Brenners’ contemporary approach to wellbeing centers on Brenners Spa & Wellbeing. The facilities include a Roman-style indoor pool, saunas, steam rooms, cold-plunge pool, dedicated ladies’ spa, and fitness center. In warmer weather, doors from the pool area open directly onto the private park and a terrace beside the Oos. The fitness spaces incorporate Technogym Kinesis equipment, while one accommodation takes the wellness concept even further. The roughly 1,185-square-foot Stéphanie Spa Suite has its own sauna, steam room, fitness equipment, and balcony overlooking the river and park.

The treatment program is similarly specific. A stay can begin with a thirty-minute InBody Scan to assess body composition, followed by a tailored plan based on your results. Brenners’ Holistic Health program, for example, includes a ninety-minute JetPeel facial, a thirty-minute Accu-Flex foot massage, a sixty-minute Abhyanga treatment, a ninety-minute mindfulness massage, yoga, meditation, personal training, and an individual two-hour hiking or biking tour. Full board is included, and the program requires a minimum five-night stay, making nutrition, movement, treatments, and time outdoors components of the same itinerary. A shorter two-night Wellness Retreat combines the InBody assessment with an individualized face, neck, and décolleté treatment, a ninety-minute body-and-mind treatment, mindfulness massage, and Accu-Flex foot massage.

“…this facility focuses on preventive healthcare and individualized medical assessment, spanning integrative and holistic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, aesthetic medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, and medical fitness.”

Brenners Medical Care, however, is a separate institution. Led by Dr. Harry König, this facility focuses on preventive healthcare and individualized medical assessment, spanning integrative and holistic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, aesthetic medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, and medical fitness. Brenners offers both targeted appointments and residential medical programs, while consultations can take place privately in your room or suite.

The Medical Care Total program illustrates the difference between coming to Brenners for wellbeing and coming for a clinical health assessment. A more clinical approach can include a comprehensive medical history and examination; laboratory, urine, and stool testing; blood-gas analysis; abdominal ultrasound; ultrasound and duplex sonography of the thyroid and carotid arteries; resting and exercise ECGs; echocardiography; lung-function testing; heart-rate-variability assessment; vascular testing; musculoskeletal assessment; body-composition analysis; and nutritional counseling. This robust approach concludes with an individualized report and recommendations. The medical programs become more targeted from there and can include longer stays. Brenners currently offers, among other programming:

• Detox & Weight Loss Program: Available as a seven- or fourteen-day program, this stay combines medical assessment and laboratory testing with a tailored diet, hypoxic training, lymphatic therapy, physiotherapy, personal training, and detox body treatments.
• Best Sleep Program: A seven-day program that takes a medical approach to improving sleep, pairing diagnostic assessment with individualized strategies aimed at addressing sleep quality and its underlying causes.
• Immune Care Program: This seven-day program focuses on assessing and supporting immune health through Brenners Medical Care’s combination of preventive medicine, diagnostic testing, and individualized treatment.
• Orthopedics Program: A seven-day program that combines orthopedic assessment with medical movement training, a bioimpedance analysis, physiotherapy, meal planning, and massage to address musculoskeletal health and mobility.
• Kings Way Holistic program: This ten-day stay includes dietary programming, a dental hygiene session, vitamin infusions, spa and exercise programming, three ozone therapy sessions, and more.
• König’s ReLIFE Longevity Protocol: Requiring a ten-day minimum stay, this program is designed for total biological renewal, including a deep detox, stem cell treatment, and personalized plasma treatment.

In practice, a day at Brenners doesn’t have to feel like a succession of medical appointments. You might start outside with a walk, return to Villa Stéphanie for a personal-training session, then move to a body treatment before lunch. Leave the afternoon for the Roman-style pool, saunas, and cold plunge. The medical programming is designed to fit into those days seamlessly—whether you’re in for a short or long stay. Five nights allow for an initial medical evaluation, diagnostic testing, interpretation of those results, and follow-up recommendations; seven-day programs add repeated training, physiotherapy, or other targeted interventions, while Brenners’ longer protocols extend to ten or fourteen days.

Your Stay Beyond the Treatment Room

For all the clinical depth available through Brenners Spa & Wellbeing and Brenners Medical Care, Brenners still functions first and foremost as a grand hotel, and much of daily life takes place around the table. Wintergarten is the more traditional of its restaurants, with a menu shaped by Black Forest ingredients, French influences, and Brenners classics. Chef Stefan Naatz leads the kitchen, and the restaurant’s signatures include steak tartare prepared tableside. Fritz & Felix shifts gears in the evening. Chef Farid Fazel, whose background combines regional Black Forest cooking with international influences, works from an open kitchen centered on a three-ton, roughly ten-foot-long Galician charcoal grill, where prime cuts, fish, and vegetables are cooked over fire. For travelers following a more structured nutrition plan through Brenners Medical Care, dining can sit within that broader program rather than competing with it, with some multi-day health packages incorporating a prescribed program diet or full board as part of the stay.

Plenty of room for flexibility remains between your meals, treatments, and medical appointments for Brenners’ older grand-hotel character to come back into focus. The Kaminhalle, a cozy lounge, remains the hotel’s social center and hosts Brenners’ afternoon tea, while Minerva Terrace faces the private park and serves lighter dishes alongside afternoon drinks. Oleander Bar is the established gathering place, historically particularly popular after Baden-Baden’s horse races.

“…a practical evolution for a property where repeat visits and multigenerational travel increasingly overlap.”

Brenners has also adapted to travelers who first knew the hotel as couples and now return with children or grandchildren. Alois’ Nest, its professionally supervised kids club, occupies Villa Viardot directly across the street from the main building and offers activities ranging from pottery and glass painting to seasonal family programming, including programming for children between the ages of three and twelve. Children also have designated time in the hotel’s Roman-style pool during a daily splash hour, while babysitting can be arranged separately through Brenners. It’s a practical evolution for a property where repeat visits and multigenerational travel increasingly overlap.

Just as importantly, there is little reason to spend an entire wellness stay inside the hotel—and Brenners encourages its guests to get outside and explore the surrounding area. The hotel highlights e-mountain biking and forest yoga in the surrounding landscape, while the city keeps thermal bathing and cultural institutions within easy reach. That balance may best express what Brenners has preserved while evolving for a new generation.

As the flagship of Oetker Hotels, Brenners means many things to its myriad of guests. For some, it’s a trusted clinical retreat. For others, it’s a refuge along the Black Forest. And more than 150 years after first opening, the original Oetker continues to be inspired by the rich ecosystem that surrounds it. Its renovation does not treat that history as something to preserve behind glass; it uses Baden-Baden’s longstanding culture of health and wellbeing as a framework for what the European grand hotel can become next.

Ready to book your Baden-Baden retreat? Contact your SmartFlyer travel advisor today.