Hotel Eden

1914

The Eden Hotel was situated on the Kurfürstendamm, on the section of that street that today is called Budapester Strasse, close to the Gedächtniskirche and the Zoo. It was built in 1912. The hotel was partially destroyed during WW II.

Writer Jakob Wassermann was a regular guest when staying in Berlin. The hotel bar was considered one of the most elegant in town, and the prices were accordingly high. Successful writers, actors and artists such as Heinrich Mann, Albert Bassermann, Gustaf Gründgens or Erich Maria Remarque, but also film stars like Marlene Dietrich and Willy Fritsch met here.

Painter Max Beckmann documented the bar in 1923 in a woodcut called the Eden Bar group portrait. Also  Christopher Isherwood mentions the Eden in his Berlin-stories. After world premieres in the neighboring film theaters Gloria-Palast and Ufa-Palast am Zoo, premiere parties were often held. As early as 1926 Billy Wilder was also regularly active as a dancer at the tea dance in the roof garden of the building.

The hotel gained public notoriety in 1919 because of the place's connection with the military who illegally arrested and then murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

 

Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-10637 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5415014

 Minigolf on the roof-garden of the hotel (1930)

 

 

The roof-garden of Hotel Eden 1929

 

Max Beckmann: In the Hotel (Group Portrait, Eden Bar), of 1924

Hotel Eden is mentioned by Christopher Isherwood in his Berlin stories. For instance here:

"After the New Year (1932), the snow fell, but did not lie; there was no money to be earned by sweeping it away. The shopkeepers rang all coins on the counter for fear of the counterfeiters. Frl. Schroeder's astrologer foretold the end of the world. "Listen," said Fritz Wendel, between sips of a cocktail in the bar of the Eden Hotel, "I give a damn if this country goes communist. What I mean, we'd have to alter our ideas a bit. Hell, who cares?"

 

At another point, Christopher asks Sally Bowles:

"And how much longer shall you stay in Berlin?" I asked.

"Heaven knows. This job at the Lady Windermere only lasts another week. I got it through a man I met at the Eden Bar. But he's gone off to Vienna now. I must ring up the Ufa people again, I suppose"