A Present Built on the Past
120 Years. Four Generations.
Four Different Challenges.
One Family.
The Hippies of Their Day
In 1905, the lung specialist Christian von Mengershausen and his wife Barbara purchased an empty farmhouse just above Bayrischzell, with its retirement cottage, bread oven, meadows, mountain forests and an alpine pasture.
Inspired by the ideas of the "Back to Nature" movement and FATHER KNEIPP'S NATURE CURE, they founded the Tannerhof spa retreat. Silesius's saying:
"Become essential, human being."
shaped their view of life and the world.
The closest one could get to nature was in the freshly built Lufthütten on the mountainside, and as early as 1905 the first guests came up for their Sommerfrische (summer retreat).
The Faster and Green Pioneer
In 1934, the second generation took over: Johannes with Ursula (died 1955), and later with Anneli.
Johannes, a committed natural-medicine doctor, brought the Tannerhof to nationwide renown even before the Second World War.
After the war, in 1953, he dared a bold new beginning by adding a guest wing to the "Alte Tann." Here too, guests already supported the project in the form of financial "building stones." Johannes brought
Buchinger therapeutic fasting
to the Tannerhof with conviction, and built up a BIODYNAMIC NURSERY. In his later years, Johannes became increasingly active in environmental and health policy, and in his mid-seventies he was an enthusiastic early member of the GREENS in Bavaria.
The Quietly Determined Custodians
Malte and Andrea von Mengershausen took over a flourishing sanatorium for naturopathy. The classic spa-cure tradition had the Tannerhof firmly in its grip.
Both doctors themselves, they placed greater emphasis on sport and cardiovascular training.
Malte's gymnastics classes were famous,
and Andrea was the tireless, loving soul of the place — for guests and staff alike.
Their shared focus was on preserving the buildings and gently, modestly adapting them to the times: small en-suite bathrooms replaced the shared floor bathrooms.
In the 1970s, the swimming pool was built,
tucked behind the orangery beside the fireplace lounge. Malte's sister Nele created the beautiful canyon mural, shaped by her life in the USA.
A New Start — Back to the Roots
By 2004, a classic spa-cure business was no longer of its time. The buildings of the Tannerhof needed renewing too. The fourth-generation Tannerhof doctors Burgi and Roger dared
a new beginning
as a Naturhotel & Health Resort, and as a "hideaway in the mountains." Their vision is rooted in the original ideas of the earlier generations.
In an age of
"superficial indifference"
and over-materialism, the longing turns toward less rather than more. People may once again become essential — and with modern (but devoted) alpine architecture, the Tannerhof was reborn, again. With fasting. With good treatments. 100% organic.
