Hotel Prince Heinrich

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hotel Prinz Heinrich was located at 28 Dorotheenstrasse in Berlin. Photo: before 1898.

In the Wilhelmine era and in the first years of the Weimar Republic, the Hotel Prinz Heinrich was a smaller hotel at Dorotheenstrasse 28, not far from the large, luxurious hostels Continental Hotel and Central Hotel, as well as the former Central train station in Friedrichstrasse . The renovated building of the former hotel is part of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government in Berlin.

Market hall IV

Map of Markthalle IV and the Prinz Heinrich Hotel (marked by the blue circle) with their surroundings on a city map from 1896.

The house at Dorotheenstrasse 28 (later no.22, later no.82) belonged to Preussische Hypotheken-Versicherungs AG in 1884 and to the Berlin magistrate in 1885 , who built market hall IV on a large site between the Reichstagufer to the north and Dorotheenstrasse to the south let.

From Dorotheenstrasse there was access to Markthalle IV through a large archway on the first floor of the house at Dorotheenstrasse 29. The market hall filled the entire backyard area of ​​this house and the neighboring houses up to the houses on the Reichstagufer.

Hotel Prince Heinrich

In 1887 the railway contractor Damm had a new building built on the property at Dorotheenstrasse 28, right next to the entrance to Markthalle IV, possibly including older side buildings. The style of the plastered masonry construction is to be assigned to the neo-baroque and neo-renaissance. Although the location next to the market hall, which was particularly noisy in the morning, was not entirely unproblematic, the Hotel Prinz Heinrich began operations in the new building in 1888 . The name of the hotel refers to Heinrich von Prussia , the famous brother of King Friedrich II. The first owner of the hotel was Adolf Pohl.

Advert of the hotel in the opening year 1888

In its opening advertisement, the Hotel Prinz Heinrich praised itself as "Hotel I. Ranges" and emphasized its "highly elegant furnishings" . The self-promotion emphasized the low room rates, the in-house bathrooms (not a matter of course at the time), the telephone connection and the adjoining restaurant, in which guests could dine à la carte “at any time of the day” as further plus points . In addition, the proximity to the former Central-Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse and the Berlin boulevard Unter den Linden was particularly mentioned.

The Hotel Prinz Heinrich benefited from the numerous visitors to the German capital, who needed a place in the central station district and offered a cheaper alternative to the large luxury hotels. In the Bahnhofsviertel numerous hotels competed for the favor of travelers, including the Prinz Wilhelm (No. 14), European Court (No. 17), Sach (No. 65), Prince Friedrich Carl (No. 66–67), City of Berlin (No. 70), Genfer Hof (No. 74), Prinzenhof (No. 75).

The Berlin post office

In 1913, Markthalle IV was closed and the site was used to build the Berlin post office.

In 1922, the Krosta heirs owned the house at Dorotheenstrasse 22 (old: No. 28). The hotel owner J. Stützer lived in the building. In 1924 the operation of the Hotel Prinz Heinrich was stopped and the building of the hotel was sold by its owners to the Reichspost , which used the house for the expansion of the neighboring post office. An internal connection was established between the two buildings. The building of the former Hotel Prinz Heinrich survived the destruction of the Second World War relatively undamaged in this form .

The building of the former hotel is part of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government in Berlin.

Use of the location

After the post office check office moved out in 1993, renovation work began on this office building and the hotel building. The renovated building complex is integrated into the Federal Government's Press and Information Office, which went into operation in 1997. The building is a historical monument.

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, 7th edition, Leipzig 1891.
  • 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. ↑ cf. Prince Heinrich on www.luise.de .
  2. ↑ The Baedeker from 1891 lists the hotel in the group of hotels north of Unter den Linden, without specifying the number of available rooms; see. Karl Baedeker: Berlin and surroundings. Guide for travelers. Verlag Karl Baedeker, 7th edition Leipzig 1891, p. 15.
  3. ↑ cf. Anonymous: Berlin. Griebens travel guide Volume 25. Small edition. Berlin 1920/21, p. 8 f.
  4. ↑ Architectural monument Dorotheenstrasse 84 (formerly 82), Hotel Prinz Heinrich, 1887

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 6 ″  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 1 ″  E