Cruising The Past Cruise News great youTUBE video of Berlin in 1929 with views for the Hotel Adlon…
Sailing in the 1920s to Germany from New York on the SS Bremen was very popular. Upon arrival, tourists enjoyed a quick train ride from Hamburg to Berlin and then accommodations at the world famous Adlon Hotel in Europe’s favorite destination in the 1920s.
Hotel Adlon in 1928…
Located in the very heart of Berlin, right by the Brandenburg Gate and in the immediate vicinity of the Reichstag, which houses the German Parliament, one of the world’s most illustrious luxury hotels in all its majestic splendor cordially welcomes its guests: not only is the Hotel Adlon a legend in its own time, it was – just like the famous Pariser Platz on which it is built – a witness of Germany’s eventful and turbulent history of the 20th century.
SS Bremen leaving New York in the 1930s…
When the Adlon was opened for the first time in 1907, the builder and visionary Lorenz Adlon gladly fulfilled the wish of Wilhelm II, who was the German emperor at that time and had urgently wanted a stately hotel in his town of residence. Due to the Hotel’s unparalleled luxuries and its unique equipment of the highest standards of technology, political leaders and celebrities soon made the Hotel Adlon their hotel of choice in Germany.
College students heading to Berlin and the Hotel Adlon having sailed from New York to Hamburg on the SS Bremen…
The Adlon was one of the most famous hotels in Europe between the two World Wars and hosted celebrities including Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Herbert Hoover, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich.
It was also a favourite hangout of journalists, being located in the heart of the government quarter next to the British Embassy, on the same square as the French and American Embassies and only blocks from the Chancellery and other government ministries.
Luckily, the Hotel survived the Second World War without any major damage.
In 1945, however, a devastating fire raged and almost entirely destroyed the magnificent building. In accordance with a resolution made by the GDR’s National Council of Defense, the surviving wing of the building was demolished in 1984.
Hotel Adlon today…
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany, the people in the reunified city of Berlin soon refused to be without their legendary hotel, and a few years later, in 1997, Roman Herzog, who was then the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, reopened the new Hotel Adlon in a splendid ceremony. Since that day the truly “best hotel in town” has rejoiced in its past and present splendor and fame.
