The photograph above appears to be taken around 1925 from the street which is today called Budapesterstrasse, close to the Kurfürstendamm.
More photos by Willy Pragher:
http://www.weimarberlin.com/2020/05/the-potsdamer-bridge-seen-by-willy.html?q=pragher
http://www.weimarberlin.com/2020/10/heavy-traffic-in-berlin.html?q=pragher
http://www.weimarberlin.com/2020/07/the-river-spree-german-photographer-and.html?q=pragher
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Hotel Bristol was a luxury hotel on Unter den Linden. It was designed by architect Gustav Georg Carl Gause and opened in 1891. It had 350 rooms and a garden. The Bristol was on a block near Brandenburger Tor, between the Unter den Linden and the Behrenstrasse, quite close to another luxury hotel : the Adlon.
The hotel opened 15 years after the opening of the by then leading luxury hotel Kaiserhof. It also competed with the nearby Central-Hotel. The hotel initially had the address Unter den Linden 5–6, but since then the numbering of the buildings on the street has changed.
In 1904, following the hotel's bankruptcy, the Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft (now Kempinski) acquired the hotel.
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| The Tea Room |
On February 15, 1944, an Allied air raid destroyed the Hotel Bristol. After the war, the Soviet Union expanded its embassy area to include the former hotel.
The Hotel Bristol was one of the most distinguished luxury hotels in Berlin. In 1904 it had 350 rooms and a garden. A hotel expert described it in a travel guide published in 1905 as the "most international" of Berlin hotels. The hotel's bar was popular with wealthy young naval officers during World War I.
Hotel Bristol appears in Volker Kutscher's newly appeared novel "Olympia". One of the persons of the novel stays there during the Berlin Olympics 1936 (thanks to Jörn Bier for this information).
The hotel appears also in a novel by Theodor Fontane. Vicki Baum worked there in the 1920s and for her novel Grand Hotel, she drew on her experiences there.
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The luxury Kaiserhof was a hotel built in the 1870’s on the Wilhelmplatz, close to the Wilhelmstrasse, where the Chancellery of the Reich, as well as other ministries, were located. It was the capital’s first "grand hotel", many years before the Adlon.
The Kaiserhof had more than 260 rooms, fitted out in a modern and luxurious manner. It was the first Berlin hotel in which every room had an electricity supply, its own bathroom and its own telephone. The hotel also featured steam heating and pneumatic lifts.
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In 1878, it was here that the famous Berlin Conference, in which Africa was divided among the colonial powers, was held. An idea of the hotel’s importance at that time is the fact that the nearest U-bahn station (today called Mohrenstrasse) was named "Kaiserhof".
In 1924, the majority of the stock was purchased by Aschinger, better known for its restaurants. Its proximity to the government quarter made it a favourite of politicians. The name Kaiserhof is today mostly connected to Hitler and Goebbels, who made it their headquarters in Berlin, after Hotel Excelsior reputedly declined that dubious honour. The management had long been sympathetic to extreme conservative politics and on the facade it was not the republican gold-red-black flag but the old imperial red-white-black one which waved.
In the Kaiserhof’s behalf it has to be said that it was also frequented by more respectable, liberal politicians, for instance the SeSiSo club, with people like Harry Kessler, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Wilhelm Solf.
The majestic Kaiserhof was bombed in 1943 and demolished after the war.
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