Quiet luxury

With the opening of the 5-star hotel “The Florentin by Althoff Collection,” Frankfurt am Main has regained an urban retreat, that offers its guests a subtly composed design. It is a festive new beginning, in which the moving history of the building should not be forgotten.

by Anna Moldenhauer | 12/1/2025

Today marks the beginning of a promising new chapter for the listed villa in the Sachsenhausen district: The Florentin hotel is opening its doors with 98 deluxe rooms and 49 suites. Althoff Hotels chose two design studios whose signature styles reflect the exclusive character of the hotel for the redesign: atelier zürich and Unscripted Design. The interior design is deliberately soft, a calm, elegant luxury in warm earth and sand tones, which focuses on high-quality materials such as marble, travertine, and oak wood and shows Mediterranean influences. Thanks to the minimalist forms and natural materials, the historic stucco moldings and wood paneling are not overshadowed, but rather integrated into a contemporary design. Intense color accents are reserved for a few rooms, such as the “green salon.” The shapes of the furniture are mostly rounded, and the lighting is indirect. A holistic atmosphere of relaxation is created, making it easy to settle in.

Another highlight is “The Garden Courtyard,” the hotel's green inner courtyard, which will offer a blooming retreat from spring onwards, in keeping with the hotel's Latin name. In addition, there is a diverse culinary offering, such as the destination restaurant the dune. Meanwhile, active recovery is offered by the 4 elements spa, which includes saunas and a 14-meter indoor pool.

A retrospective

Despite all the excitement surrounding the reopening, the building's eventful history should not be forgotten: designed in 1901 as Villa Speyer by architect Alfred Günther, he drew inspiration for the stone façade, risalit structure, and striking corner tower from Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles. Jewish banker and patron Eduard Beit von Speyer together with his wife Hanna Louise were the building's owners. In 1936, the castle-like estate was “Aryanized,” meaning that the family who owned it was expropriated for 137,000 Reichsmarks, a fraction of the value of the land with its entire buildings. According to the website of the Institute for City History in Frankfurt am Main, the amount was also transferred to an account that the heirs, who had emigrated to the United States, had no access to. After the end of World War II, the family filed a claim for compensation and agreed to a comparatively small settlement of DM 150,000. After being converted for their intended purpose, the stately rooms and the extensive garden were subsequently used for research into radiation by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics, which was renamed the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in 1948.

In 2000, a private investor purchased the property for DM 18 million. The villa was restored and expanded by architect Demetri Porphyrios and supplemented with new buildings in a similar style. In 2006, the five-star Hotel Villa Kennedy opened and quickly established itself as a destination for international guests – until its closure in 2022. Local historian Dieter Wesp has written a book on the history of the building: Villa Kennedy: Residence – Research Laboratory – Luxury Hotel. As “The Florentin,” the historic property is now being led into the future by the owner-managed Althoff Hotels.