Hungry? Have a quick bite at Aschinger's!

"The restaurant of all Berliners", says the menu.

In episode 4 of the first season of the TV series Babylon Berlin, Charlotte Ritter takes her hungry friend Greta Overbeck, who is desperately looking for a job, to a restaurant. It happens to be one of the classical Berlin eateries: Aschinger. 

Aschinger was the name of a chain of beer halls and restaurants where it was possible to eat fast, good and cheap. The first "Aschinger Bierquelle" in Berlin opened 1892

Aschinger soon became Europe's largest restaurant group with 30 beer-pubs, 15 pastry shops and eight other restaurants. Meals were cheap, that is why the name Aschinger became popular - especially among poorer sections of the population. Especially well-known and popular were Aschinger's beer sausages or its pea soup.

The decor of the premises was meant not to be poor, but to have a somewhat posh look, which is why the restaurants were lavishly equipped with chandeliers and mirrors.

Alfred Döblin names several times Aschinger in his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. As for Erich Kästner, he makes Fabian, the protagonist of one of his novels, stop at Aschinger for a quick cup of coffee. And Gereon Rath, leading character of Volker Kutscher’s novels set in 1930s Berlin, is found several times in the Aschinger on Alexanderplatz. The succesful TV-series « Babylon Berlin » are based on Volker Kutscher’s novels.

And, come to it, I had myself the opportunity of sampling their famous pea soup, back in 1971, a short time before their last restaurant closed. It was situated near the Zoo-train station at the price was anything but expensive: one D-mark.