One of the most modern and biggest
hotels in the world, opened in 1908 on Askanischen Platz, across the
street from the train station Anhalter Bahnhof.
This colossus had 600 rooms, 9 restaurants, an array of amenities including a butcher’s and a baker’s and, the cherry on the cake, an underground tunnel connecting the hotel to the station over the road. Hotel guests could even buy their train tickets at The Excelsior.
Vicki Baum's 1929 best-selling novel Grand Hotel was inspired by the Excelsior. It was filmed in Hollywood with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore and won an Oscar for Best Picture of the Year in 1932. The hotel was not a beauty from the outside, but behind the facade it was really grand. The largest hotel on the continent, besides the underground tunnel it had what was probably the first spa in the world (since Antiquity) and also a "Hall of Free Thought ", whose windows, with motives considered Jewish by the Nazis, had to be removed and replaced by others better suited to the new masters’ taste.
The hotel owner Curt Elschner had once in 1928 thrown away Hitler from his hotel. This was probably not politically motivated ; other guests had threatened with leaving if Hitler stayed. Later, Elschner was forced to apologize, but to no avail : his hotel was boycotted by the tyrant, a fact which had a positive side : it was the only Nazi-free large hotel in Berlin. Hitler didn't have to sleep in the street however: he find a welcoming roof at Hotel Kaiserhof, which he made to his headquarters.
The renowned musician Efim Schachmeister played with his orchestra at Hotel Excelsior.
See also: Hotel Adlon on the Unter den Linden.
This colossus had 600 rooms, 9 restaurants, an array of amenities including a butcher’s and a baker’s and, the cherry on the cake, an underground tunnel connecting the hotel to the station over the road. Hotel guests could even buy their train tickets at The Excelsior.
Vicki Baum's 1929 best-selling novel Grand Hotel was inspired by the Excelsior. It was filmed in Hollywood with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore and won an Oscar for Best Picture of the Year in 1932. The hotel was not a beauty from the outside, but behind the facade it was really grand. The largest hotel on the continent, besides the underground tunnel it had what was probably the first spa in the world (since Antiquity) and also a "Hall of Free Thought ", whose windows, with motives considered Jewish by the Nazis, had to be removed and replaced by others better suited to the new masters’ taste.
The hotel owner Curt Elschner had once in 1928 thrown away Hitler from his hotel. This was probably not politically motivated ; other guests had threatened with leaving if Hitler stayed. Later, Elschner was forced to apologize, but to no avail : his hotel was boycotted by the tyrant, a fact which had a positive side : it was the only Nazi-free large hotel in Berlin. Hitler didn't have to sleep in the street however: he find a welcoming roof at Hotel Kaiserhof, which he made to his headquarters.
The renowned musician Efim Schachmeister played with his orchestra at Hotel Excelsior.
See also: Hotel Adlon on the Unter den Linden.
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| Menu (1932) of one of the restaurants of Hotel Excelsior, |
    Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7757895 |
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