Hotel am Steinplatz

 

The building, constructed in 1907 in the heart of West Berlin, served as a residential building and, for a while, as an officers' mess. In 1913 the businessman Max Zellermayer bought the building and converted it into a hotel. 

It is a particularly quiet spot on leafy Steinplatz in a residential area, a short walk from Savignyplatz and the Kurfürstendamm.

After the October Revolution, Russian aristocrats and intellectuals moved into the stately suites, and the hotel became a meeting place for people like Vladimir Nabokov and Yehudi Menuhin. After all, the hotel was located in Charlottenburg, known in those years as Charlottengrad because of the large number of Russian exiles living there.

After WW II, Hotel am Steinplatz with its artist bar Volle Pulle in the basement, established itself as a meeting place and secret stage for artists and intellectuals. Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Paul Celan but also Brigitte Bardot, Luciano Pavarotti and Romy Schneider were some of the guests.

After three years of renovation and remodeling, the hotel reopened in 2013 as a 5-star hotel with 84 rooms and three suites. Prices start at 150 euros the night.

The Art Nouveau building, originally designed by August Endell, architect of Berlin's celebrated Hackesche Höfe complex, continues to fascinate passers-by with its striking olive-green facade, complete with sweeping arches and reminiscent of Moorish architecture. In connection with the restoration work, the architects incorporated new elements such as the ornamentation on the entrance canopy. They drew inspiration, as the Art Nouveau movement had done in its time, from shapes and patterns found in nature. If you look closely, you will discover shell, fern and bat motifs throughout the building.