Hotel Bristol (Berlin)


Hotel Bristol was a hotel on Unter den Linden in Berlin, Germany. It was designed by architect Gustav Georg Carl Gause and opened in 1891.

History

The Hotel Bristol was built in an era of economic boom and ever increasing travel and business. It was constructed between 1890-1891. It was designed by architect Gustav Georg Carl Gause for owner Conrad Uhl. The hotel opened fifteen years after the opening of the then leading luxury Kaiserhof Hotel. It also competed with the nearby Central-Hotel that opened 1881. The hotel initially had the address Unter den Linden 5–6, but after the numbering of the buildings on the street changed in 1936/37, it became Number 65.
In 1904, following the hotel's bankruptcy, the Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft acquired the hotel. The company paid over 10 million marks for the property, it also took over the nearby Behrenstraße property for 1.2 million marks.
On February 15, 1944, an Allied air raid on Berlin destroyed the Hotel Bristol. After the War, the Soviet Union built its embassy in Berlin on the site of the former hotel.
The Hotel Bristol was one of the most distinguished luxury hotels in Berlin. In 1904 it had 350 rooms and a garden. A hotel expert described it in a travel guide published in 1905 as the "most international" of Berlin hotels. Later, the total number of living rooms, salons, bedrooms, and bathrooms, was 515. The hotel's bar was popular with wealthy young naval officers during the World War I.

Events

On September 30, 1897, the first International Motor Show Germany was held at the hotel, with a total of eight motor vehicles on display.

Notable guests

Novelist Vicki Baum worked at the hotel as a chambermaid in order to get experience and inspiration to write Grand Hotel, her most well-known work.
Hotel Bristol is one of the locations in Theodor Fontane's novel, Der Stechlin.