Askanian court

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hotel Askanischer Hof in Berlin, around 1910.
The Askanischer Hof was located between Potsdamer and Anhalter Bahnhof.

The Hotel Askanischer Hof (also spelled Ascanischer Hof ) was a well-known hotel in the German capital of Berlin during the Wilhelmine epoch and in the first years of the Weimar Republic , where the writer Franz Kafka also stayed several times. The hotel was established in 1878 and closed in 1923.

Location between major train stations

The Hotel Askanischer Hof was located on the southwest side in Königgrätzer Straße (then No. 21, today: Stresemannstraße No. 111), not far from Askanischer Platz , which is reminiscent of the Askanians from the Anhalt family. The long Königgrätzer Straße connected Potsdamer Platz with Hallesches Ufer near what was then Belle-Alliance-Platz (today: Mehring-Platz). The Hotel Askanischer Hof was a little north of the middle between the two important train stations that connected Berlin with southern Germany and Europe, the Potsdamer Bahnhof and the Anhalter Bahnhof (see map). The exact location of the hotel was in the row of houses between the intersections of Dessauer and Köthener Strasse. The Ethnological Museum was located diagonally across from the Hotel Askanischer Hof at the confluence of the extended Zimmerstrasse (later: Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse , today: Niederkirchnerstrasse) and Königgrätzer Strasse.

Conversion to a hotel

The area between Potsdam and Anhalter Bahnhof experienced rapid development at the beginning of the 1880s, which was characterized by the establishment of new road connections and numerous new buildings (museums, hotels, private buildings and authorities).

The property at Königgrätzer Straße 21 was owned by the Secret Commerce Councilor Lachmann in 1876, who rented the building on this property to a large number of private individuals and small businesses. In 1877 he had the house converted to accommodate a hotel business. Since 1878 the Hotel Askanischer Hof has been listed in the Berlin street directory with the address Königgrätzer Straße 21. The first owner of the hotel was A. Trabert.

Standard and services

The Askanischer Hof had 50 rooms with 70 beds, its own restaurant, baths and a garden terrace. Drivers were later able to park their vehicle in the hotel's own garage. The Greaves travel guide from 1920 classifies the hotel as one of the less luxurious hostels compared to the grand hotels, but gives it a recommendation.

Judging by the prices that the Askanischer Hof charged for its rooms, it was one of the more expensive small hotels. He must have offered his guests a correspondingly upscale accommodation. There were a number of other hotels both on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse and near the two railway stations mentioned, which sought the favor of travelers.

Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer

Franz Kafka.

The Prague writer and poet Franz Kafka was a guest at the Hotel Askanischer Hof in Berlin several times . On Easter Sunday in 1913, in cloudy weather, he sat in one of the rooms of the hostel and waited for a message from his friend Felice Bauer . When Felice finally got to the hotel, they both went on a trip to the Grunewald . An engagement took place on June 1, 1914, but it did not last long. Because already on July 12, 1914, Kafka experienced an embarrassing scene in the Hotel Askanischer Hof , when his (first) engagement to Felice Bauer was dissolved after a "trial" in the hotel in the presence of Felice's sister Erna and her friend Grete Bloch .

Closure of the hotel

In 1923 the hotel was rented out permanently to various businesses by its owner at the time, Zuelsdorf. Obviously, a hotel that was open to the general public ceased to take place from this point on. As a result, the Hotel Askanischer Hof has not been included in the hotel list in the Berlin address book since 1924 . In 1931, a property management company took over the building and continued to rent it to various commercial parties.

Today's use of the location

Today (2014) the building of a large German health insurance company is located at the location of the former Askanischer Hof hotel at Stresemannstrasse 111.

During the Second World War , the building of the former Askanischer Hof hotel was destroyed by Allied bombing . In Stresemannstrasse, where the Hotel Askanischer Hof used to be , is now a modern office building that is used by the German health insurance company .

An Askanischer Hof in a new location

A modern hotel, which has given itself the traditional name “Askanischer Hof” , existed until June 2015 at Kurfürstendamm 53 in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

literature

  • Anonymous: Berlin. Griebens travel guide Volume 25. Small edition. Extract from the 60th edition of the large edition. Albert Goldschmidt Verlag, Berlin 1920/21.
  • Karl Baedeker : Berlin and surroundings. Guide for travelers. Verlag Karl Baedeker, 5th edition, Leipzig 1887.
  • Karl Baedeker: Berlin and the surrounding area. Guide for travelers. Verlag Karl Baedeker, 18th ed. Leipzig 1914.
  • Bodo-Michael Baumunk: Grand Hotel. In: The trip to Berlin. Ed. I. A. of the Berlin Senate for the exhibition of the same name, Berlin 1987. P. 192ff.
  • Wolfgang Bernhagen / Heinz Schlottke: From inn to luxury hotel. A journey through Berlin's hotel history - from the beginning to the present. Edited by the General Directorate of the Interhotel DDR, o. O. o. J. [1988].
  • Renate Düttmann: Berlin inns of the 18th and 19th centuries. In: The trip to Berlin. Ed. I. A. of the Berlin Senate for the exhibition of the same name, Berlin 1987. pp. 181–191.
  • Hans-Christian Täubrich: A guest in old Berlin. Memories of the old Berlin hospitality with hotel palaces, entertainment bars, excursion restaurants and distilleries. Verlag Hugendubel 1990. ISBN 3-88034-482-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Both train stations were terminal stations. From Potsdam train station, trains ran on the so-called “Stammbahn”, the oldest Prussian railway line, in the direction of Potsdam and Magdeburg and on to West Germany. The railway lines to Halle (Saale), Leipzig , Frankfurt am Main and Munich ran from the Anhalter Bahnhof via the Anhalter Bahn and to Dresden via the Dresdner Bahn. The Anhalter Bahnhof connected Berlin with Vienna , Budapest , Trieste , Marienbad , Karlsbad (in Austria-Hungary), with Rome , Milan , Genoa , Venice , Marseille , Nice , Cannes and Athens . There was even a direct connection to Naples .
  2. ↑ In the hotel list of the Berlin address book it is listed with this address from 1880 onwards.
  3. ↑ cf. Anonymous: Berlin. Griebens travel guide Volume 25. Berlin 1920/21, p. 9.
  4. ↑ cf. Karl Baedeker: Berlin and surroundings. 1887. p. 14.
  5. ↑ cf. Florian Illies : 1913. The summer of the century. Publisher S. Fischer. Page PT 65 ff.
  6. ↑ Peter-André Alt : Franz Kafka: the eternal son: a biography . Munich: Beck 2005, pp. 375-384
  7. ↑ Brigitte Schmiemann: Askanischer Hof am Kudamm has closed. In: In the west of Berlin. August 19, 2015, accessed July 28, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Website Hotel Askanischer Hof, Kurfürstendamm 53 ( Memento from September 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 25 ″  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 43 ″  E