Hotel King of Portugal (Berlin)

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View of Burgstrasse and the Hotel König von Portugal (2nd house from the right), before 1882.
The Hotel König von Portugal was on Berlin's Burgstrasse on the eastern side of the Spree, directly opposite the Berlin City Palace. Detail from Selter's Berlin city map, 1846.

The Hotel König von Portugal was a traditional Berlin hotel in the immediate vicinity of the old Berlin City Palace at No. 12 Burgstrasse . The hotel had existed since the end of the 17th century and was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. It was named "Hotel König von Portugal" after King Frederick William I had a Portuguese special embassy billeted here.

Burgstrasse: location of several hotels

Burgstrasse once ran on the right bank of the Spree from the Mühlendamm Bridge to the arches of the Stadtbahn . In the second half of the 19th century, directly opposite the Spree side of the Berlin City Palace, several Berlin hotels were temporarily located on the eastern side of the river on Burgstrasse, which benefited from the attractive location for tourism and business: Böttcher's Hotel (No. 11, later No. 9), Cassel's Hotel (No. 13, from 1891 No. 16), the Hotel König von Portugal (1869: Burgstrasse No. 12), Netzler's Hotel (1912: No. 15), the Hotel de Saxe (1869: Burgstrasse No. 20) and the Börsen-Hotel (from 1880: No. 27 / 27a). Behind Burgstrasse and the hotels mentioned, Berlin's old town, a lively business district, stretched between the Marienkirche and the Nikolaikirche .

history

The Burgstrasse house (later number 12) was built in 1699 and originally housed the Logis zur Spree , which, as a "Freihaus", was exempt from taxes, billeting and city taxes, as were some other houses in the area. In 1769 Friedrich Nicolai gave a description of the services of the Hotel König von Portugal (innkeeper: Ziese) in his famous Berlin Guide, which also contains a list of hotels. In the later 18th century, the innkeeper Koch with the establishment Kon. v. Port. specified. At the time, house number 12 was owned by a goldsmith, while number 13 has a “still” with a garden. As early as 1801, the King of Portugall is run in house number 12 with the same innkeeper, chef. The inn, named King of Portugal , became a popular place to stay for court visitors, foreign envoys, wealthy business people and artists. Friedrich Nicolai already mentioned the hotel in his Berlin guide in 1786 and included it in the first class of Berlin hotels. The hotel had a larger courtyard. G. Seegers is entered in the 1870 address book as the owner of the house and hotel owner ( King of Portugal ) at Burgstrasse 12. In 1901, the hotel was owned by the N. (Mrs.) and G. Richter families, she as the owner and he as the merchant the operator. In the last year of the existence of the house at Burgstrasse 12, it was no longer a hotel, a merchant from Wilmersdorf is appointed as the manager and instead of the owner it is "anonymous". According to the address book of 1943, several people used the premises as an apartment.

Guests (selection)

Prima ballerina Barbara Campanini.
The Hotel König von Portugal specifically recruited Jewish guests. Advert of the hotel from 1885.
The Hotel König von Portugal in its extended form.

Over the years innumerable guests, including some extraordinary guests, have stayed at the King of Portugal : Lessing lets Miss Minna von Barnhelm meet Mr. von Tellheim here on her arrival from Saxony; the hotel was given the alienated name King of Spain in his play . King Friedrich II initially brought the prima ballerina Barbara Campanini (called Barberina) here and carefully instructed that a narrow basin made of Berlin “Delft” tiles should be built especially for the dancer. The Barberina later moved into a palace on Wilhelmstrasse . Theodor Fontane , who lived with his uncle August in one of the neighboring houses in 1833, lets Mr. von Vitzewitz in the King of Portugal enjoy the view of the opposite castle from his hotel room in his novel Before the Storm and say: "That can't go away overnight" . A mistake, as it turned out in the 1940s.

Competition and change

After the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867 and the founding of the Empire in 1871, numerous new hotels were built in economically prosperous Berlin, including several luxury hotels near the old town on Unter den Linden , which, with their standard, soon inherited the older Hotel König von Portugal from his Displaced place in the first class of Berlin hotels. The new luxury hotels not only had the latest technical equipment (electric light, lifts), but mostly also had a restaurant and café directly connected to the hotel, as well as magnificent ballrooms.

As a result of this development, the Hotel König von Portugal became a mid-range hotel. While Springer's Berlin guide still included the hotel in the first category of Berlin hotels in 1861, Kapp downgraded it to second class in his Berlin guide in 1869. The Baedeker of 1887 (and in the following years) no longer mentions the Hotel König von Portugal in his review of Berlin's old town hotels.

Target group Jewish guests

In 1885 the traiteur Elkan was the owner of the hotel building in Burgstrasse (from 1906 with the number 16). The owner of the hotel was the wine merchant G. Richter. Now ballrooms and salons were also created in the Hotel König von Portugal, which could be used for various purposes, including exhibitions and conferences. Jewish travelers and guests were also considered as a new target group. In an advertisement that also contained Hebrew characters (see illustration), the hotel (under the management of Ms. N. Richter) advertised that it had an in-house synagogue and offered strictly ritual cuisine. In addition, reference is made to the “great ballrooms”, which are supposed to offer space for up to 300 people, along with their associated “comfortable salons”. This orientation determined the business policy of the hotel up to the "Third Reich". During this time, the increasingly reduced cultural activities for the Jewish population were concentrated in the Hotel König von Portugal .

extension

In order not to lose touch with the larger new hotels, the Hotel König von Portugal was also significantly expanded by including a neighboring house. In this way, the Hotel König von Portugal , unlike many other old hotels, managed to maintain its economic basis and to adapt to the changed conditions.

Destruction in World War II

View of the destroyed buildings opposite the Berlin City Palace on the eastern side of the Spree in 1950.

At the end of the Second World War, the Berlin City Palace and the neighboring old town district fell victim to Allied bombing, including the Hotel König von Portugal . The entire section of Burgstrasse could not be rebuilt and was cleared . During the construction of the Berlin television tower , the area was included in the surrounding green area ( Marx-Engels-Forum ), which extends to the Spree.

literature

  • Karl Baedeker : Berlin and surroundings. Guide for travelers. Verlag Karl Baedeker, 5th edition, Leipzig 1887.
  • KL Kapp: Berlin in 1869. New and complete guide with special consideration for traffic, trade, industry, art and the public. Life. Published by KL Kapp, Berlin 1869.
  • Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, and all peculiarities there. In addition to an appendix, it contains the lives of all artists who have lived in Berlin since Elector Friedrich Wilhelm the Great, or whose works of art are located there. (1 volume). Verlag Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin 1769.
  • Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 volumes). Berlin 1786.
  • Robert Springer: Berlin. A guide to the city and its surroundings. Verlag II Weber, Leipzig 1861.
  • 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, ISBN 3-11-015709-8 . Publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin, Vol. 94.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hotel König von Portugal - Berlin's latest hotel renovation . Undated leaflet.
  2. ↑ Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal residence cities Berlin and Potsdam and all peculiarities located there. Verlag Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin 1769, pp. 414 and 417.
  3. ^ Karl Neander von Petersheiden Burgstrasse 9 . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative tables , 1799.
  4. ↑ Burgstrasse 12 and 13 . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative tables , 1799.
  5. ↑ Burgstrasse . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative tables , 1801, p. 13.
  6. ^ Nicolai: Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam , vol. 2, p. 965.
  7. ↑ Seegers, G. In: Allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger together with address and business manual for Berlin , 1870, part 1, p. 702. “Burgstrasse 12”.
  8. ↑ Burgstrasse 12 . In: Address book for Berlin and its suburbs , 1901, part 3, p. 94.
  9. ↑ Burgstrasse 12 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, part 4, p. 126.
  10. ↑ Fontane, FA In: General housing gazette for Berlin, Charlottenburg and surroundings , 1833. “Material magazine for painters and draftsmen, Burgstrasse 18”.
  11. ↑ On the development of the city of Berlin and the transformation of the Berlin hotel industry, see the presentation by Volker Wagner: Die Dorotheenstadt im 19. Jahrhundert , p. 650 ff
  12. ↑ Springer, Berlin, p. 80.
  13. ^ Kapp: Berlin in 1869 , p. 205
  14. ↑ Baedeker: Berlin and Umgebung , 1887, p. 12 ff.
  15. ^ Hans-Christian Täubrich: A guest in old Berlin. Verlag Hugendubel 1990, p. 70.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 6 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 15 ″  E