Dear lily351,
I did my best to collect as much information as possible about the
Hotel Bristol in Berlin. Here is what I found out about its history to
its destruction, including a vintage photograph. I hope that this will
be useful for you:
The Hotel Bristol was built in 1890/91 for owner Conrad Uhl
(1854-1921) after plans by architect Gustav Georg Carl Gause
(1851-1907) who was responsible for several prestigeous structures in
Berlin, including the legendary Hotel Adlon seventeen years later. For
about 10 years, the Bristol was considered the leading hotel in
Berlin, and even after that time it remained one of the most reputable
hotels.
The address of the Bristol was Unter den Linden 5-6, near Brandenburg
Gate, between the Russian Embassy and the Ministry of Culture. In
1936/37, the numbering scheme of the famous boulevard was changed;
from then on, the Bristol's address was Unter den Linden 65.
On 30 September 1897, the very first German automobile exhibition took
place in the Bristol. Cars by Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and
Friedrich Lutzmann were presented to the public.
During the First World War, Berlin Police President Traugott Achatz
von Jagow tried to achieve that all English words be eliminated from
German businesses' names. Although the name of the Bristol was
connected with its good reputation, the Hotel became the "Conrad Uhl",
after its owner, for some years.
For the postwar years of the 1920s and 1930s, the character of the
Bristol was described as follows:
"The Hotel Bristol was not furnished as opulently as the Hotel Adlon.
Prince Bülow had an apartment on the first floor whenever he came to
Berlin from the Villa Malta in Rome. Prince Fugger stayed here, the
Hohenlohe family, director-general Porsche, privy councillor von Opel,
the Czar of Bulgaria when he left his exile in Coburg, but also many
artists. The Bristol was the only big hotel in Berlin with no dancing
in the afternoons. It was the most busy about lunchtime, in the
dining-halls, where many important business artistic contracts have
been signed at the tables." [1]
During the 1920s, author Vicki Baum (1888-1960) worked incognito as a
chambermaid in the Bristol to collect impressions for her famous novel
"People at a Hotel" (1929).
On 1 August 1931, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw took residence
in the Bristol when he visited Berlin.
On 22 November 1943, the Bristol was destroyed in an air raid, with
200 casualties, together with numerous other hotels in Berlin.
After World War II, the Bristol was not rebuilt. In 1949, the Soviet
Union claimed the lot Unter den Linden 65 for building their huge new
embassy in the East German capital. The location of the former Hotel
Bristol is today part of the area of the Russian Embassy.
Please follow this link to see what the Hotel Bristol looked like:
http://home.arcor.de/poesenau/Hotel_Bristol.jpg
Sources:
[1] Egon Jameson: Berlin so wie es war. Droste Verlag, 1969
Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Gustav Georg Carl Gause
http://www.luise-berlin.de/lexikon/Mitte/g/Gause_Gustav_Georg_Carl.htm
Berlinische Monatsschrift: Berichte und Rezensionen
http://www.luise-berlin.de/bms/bmstxt00/0003reza.htm
Der Tagesspiegel: Die Nacht, in der die Uhr stehen blieb
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/archiv/22.11.2003/851334.asp
Berlin-Chronik: Berlin am 1. August
http://www.luise-berlin.de/Kalender/Tag/Aug01.htm
Old and Sold Antiques Digest: German People In War
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles30/germany-19.shtml
The Great War in a Different Light: Germany in War-Time
http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Belgium/Fortesque_01.htm
Friedrich Lutzmann - ein Pionier des Automobilbaus
http://www.monza.ch/opel_news/2005/21_04_2005_lutzmann.htm
Volldampf voraus (Article from Der Standard, 20 September 1999)
http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/~andi/somlib/data/standard_1999/output/files/19990920.224.HTM |
