Continental Hotel (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Continental Hotel in Berlin, around 1900.
Advertisement for the Continental Hotel in the magazine "Berliner Leben", 1903.
The Continental Hotel was not far from the Berlin Central train station in Friedrichstrasse.

The Continental Hotel was a large luxury hotel in Berlin from the Wilhelmine era until the Second World War .

109 meters street front

The Continental Hotel was in Berlin near the Friedrichstrasse train station . It was built in 1884/1885 by the Berlin building officer Heim in the back of the Central Hotel , which had already been established in the same building block . This was made possible by the demolition of the dilapidated “Maison d'Orange”, a home for needy Huguenot families, and the development of previous open spaces. After the Hotel de Rome and the Central Hotel, the Continental Hotel was the third large hotel to be located in the immediate vicinity of the Friedrichstrasse train station. The main front with the impressive length of 109 meters was located at Neustädtische Kirchstrasse No. 6/7.

A travel guide from 1887 counted it among the largest Berlin hotels and described it as "new, consistently and tastefully and elegantly furnished up to the top floor, with elevator, train ticket sales". In 1887 the hotel had 200 rooms and salons.

Built as a "private building", the hotel became the property of the Berlin hotel company in 1890.

An Adlon hotel

Later Louis Adlon, "the uncrowned hotel king" of Berlin, became a co-owner of the Continental Hotel. A hotel expert described the Continental Hotel in a travel guide from 1905 as an "older and quieter, first-rate hotel, popular with the rural and military nobility".

Based on his experience in running the Continental Hotel, Louis Adlon had the world-famous Hotel Adlon built at the Brandenburg Gate in 1906/1907 . Just like the Continental Hotel, the Hotel Adlon was also valued for its wine restaurant with international cuisine.

Standard and special services

The Greaves Berlin Guide of 1920 presented the Continental Hotel as a hotel "with an elegant restaurant" and "telephone in every room" and called it an "elegant and quiet hotel". In its advertising, the hotel described itself as “the most elegant family hotel in the capital” and described its location as follows: “Directly opposite the Centralbahnhof Friedrichstrasse and in the immediate vicinity of the boulevard 'Unter den Linden'. - In the midst of all the sights, museums, theaters, etc. - Because of its extremely favorable and above all quiet location, particularly suitable for longer stays. "

The Continental Hotel was open all year round and had rooms for conferences and celebrations “of any size”. An artist concert was held every evening for the guests in his restaurant. For the first time, the hotel also offered tennis, golf, sailing and horse riding as a service. "Elegant private vehicles" were available for trips into the area. Foreign guests could use foreign language guides. A hotel's own travel agency provided information about train, ship and air transport connections, which procured tickets for travel and sleeping cars, but also offered to obtain theater tickets and foreign visas and to take care of passport extensions.

Destruction in World War II

During the Second World War, the Continental Hotel and the neighboring Central Hotel were destroyed in the allied bombing . Today, the former location of the Continental Hotel is a development with modern residential and commercial buildings.

gallery

  • View of the Continental Hotel from the north-west, corner of Georgenstrasse and Neustädtische Kirchstrasse, around 1905.

  • The central building of the Continental Hotel on Neustadtische Kirchstrasse. Photo: Wilhelm Wicke, 1885.

  • View from the southwest, corner of Neustädtische Kirchstrasse / Dorotheenstrasse. Photo: Wilhelm Wicke, 1885.

  • The entrance hall of the Continental Hotel on the side of Friedrichstrasse train station, around 1900.

  • View of the restaurant of the Continental Hotel, around 1900.

  • Salon in the Continental Hotel, around 1900.

  • View of the location at the corner of Georgenstrasse and Neustädtische Kirchstrasse in 2014.

literature

  • Anonymous: Berlin and the Berliners. People, things, customs, hints. J. Bielefeld Publishing House, Karlsruhe 1905.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Hasso Noorden: German big city hotels. In: Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, Vol. 24, Issue 1, pp. 42–55.
  • 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 .
  • Volker Wagner: The Dorotheenstadt in the 19th century: from the suburban residential area of ​​baroque style to part of the modern Berlin city. Verlag De Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1998. Publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin, Vol. 94. ISBN 3-11-015709-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Wagner: The Dorotheenstadt in the 19th century: from the suburban residential area of ​​baroque character to part of the modern Berlin city. De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin, New York 1998. pp. 656f.
  2. ↑ cf. Karl Baedeker: Berlin and surroundings. Guide for travelers. Verlag Karl Baedeker, 5th ed. Leipzig 1887, p.
  3. ↑ cf. Wolfgang Bernhagen / Heinz Schlottke: From inn to luxury hotel . Ed. By the General Directorate of the Interhotel DDR, o. O. o. J. [1988], pp. 53–56.
  4. ↑ cf. Hans-Christian Täubrich: A guest in old Berlin . Verlag Hugendubel 1990, p. 96.
  5. ^ Anonymus: Berlin and the Berliners. People, things, customs, hints. Verlag J. Bielefeld, Karlsruhe 1905. p. 429 [?].
  6. ^ Hans-Christian Täubrich: A guest in old Berlin . Verlag Hugendubel 1990, p. 96.
  7. ↑ cf. Anonymous: Berlin. Griebens travel guide Volume 25. Small edition. Berlin 1920/21. P. 7.
  8. ↑ cf. Reprinted by: Wolfgang Bernhagen / Heinz Schlottke: From inn to luxury hotel. Edited by the General Directorate of the Interhotel DDR, o. O. o. J. [1988], p. 55.
  9. ↑ cf. the advertisement of the hotel, shown by: Wolfgang Bernhagen / Heinz Schlottke: From inn to luxury hotel. Edited by the General Directorate of the Interhotel DDR, o. O. o. J. [1988], p. 55.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '8 "  N , 13 ° 23' 8"  E