Founded in Berlin in 1897 as the Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft, the group currently operates 77 five-star hotels and residences in 35 countries.

In 1872 it extended its company to Berlin, where Berthold Kempinski opened a wine merchant's business under his name in the Friedrichstraße.

Since Berthold Kempinski and his wife Helena had no son, they invited their son-in-law Richard Unger (1866–1947) to join the business.

Alongside his wine and restaurant activities, Richard Unger developed his property business up to the start of World War I.

Ten years later, M. Kempinski & Co. took over the "Haus Vaterland" on the Potsdamer Platz, where the firm exploited a concept that was unique in Berlin for a long time and is still known as "event gastronomy" ("Erlebnisgastronomie").

The Restaurant at 27 Kurfürstendamm was destroyed by fire shortly before the end of the War, and the other properties fell victim to bombing raids.

[citation needed] In 1953 Friedrich Unger sold his shares and the name Kempinski to the "Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft", which already ran hotels such as the Baltic, the Bristol and the Kaiserhof.

[4] In February 2017, the two existing shareholders of Kempinski AG formalized previous plans for an equity transfer between them.