In 1890 Emil Eitel emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago, amongst other German immigrants.

In 1890 Chicago had about 160,000 and in 1900 about 170,000 residents of German ancestry, representing 15% and 10% of the total population (#Hofmeister 1976, page 10).

[1][2] After Emil Eitel had made a start, he was followed by four of his brothers to Chicago: Charles in 1891, Robert in 1898, Max in 1901 and Otto in 1912.

[citation needed] In 1938, Emil Eitel donated to the Institute at least 17 lithographs and etchings, and in 1948, a calendar of Regiomontanus from 1476.

[5] In the wake of the World Wars Emil and Karl Eitel participated in relief efforts of the Red Cross for Germany.

He was born as the first child of his parents, Emil and Charlotte Eitel,[8] attended the trade school in Stuttgart,[9] and served in the Army as a one-year volunteer before beginning, in 1885, to work in his father's factory on the production of photo albums.

Karl Friedrich (Frederick) Eitel (January 17, 1871 Stuttgart – March 19, 1954 Santa Barbara, California) was a German hotel and restaurant contractor in Chicago.

In 1891, Karl Eitel emigrated to Chicago and began collaborating with his brother Emil.

Karl Eitel took many years an active part in social and political life in Chicago.

He went into the accounting department of the Bismarck Hotel Company, owned by his brothers Emil and Karl.

He returned to Europe, studying the hotel and restaurant industries of England, France, and the Netherlands.

Following the closure of the beer garden due to Prohibition, in 1923 he and his brother Robert Eitel, founded the restaurant company Eitel Incorporated, with Robert as President and himself as Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.

In 1911, Max Eitel married as his first wife, the widow Marie Heine née Bush (?–1934), the daughter of a German manufacturer, who bore him two children.

In 1935, he joined in his second marriage, the widow Ella Gleich née Harder, the daughter of a German real estate agent.

Robert Eitel (June 16, 1877 Stuttgart – 1948) was a German restaurant contractor in Chicago.

A chronology of the Bismark Hotel: Chicago, Cottage Grove Avenue / Sixty-Third Street, 41°46′50″N 87°36′21″W / 41.780433°N 87.605912°W / 41.780433; -87.605912.

Due to the strong demand of its German and Austrian suppliers for accommodation for the first Chicago World's Fair 1893 (World's Columbian Exposition), the Eitel brothers rented an apartment house near the fairgrounds and converted it to a hotel with 150 beds.

The famous Walnut Room ballroom hosted numerous big bands and orchestras during the late 1930s and 1940s including Art Kassel and his Kassels in the air whose performances were carried live every Saturday night on WGN radio in Chicago.

Reportedly, President William Howard Taft described the Marigold Gardens even as a "national institution".

From 1923 to 1943 Robert and Max Eitel operated five restaurants with bakery and laundry facilities in the Chicago and North Western Railway station.

After the end of the first Chicagoan World's Fair, Max and Robert Eitel built on 14 West Randolph Street, the restaurant, the Old Heidelberg Inn.