Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin

Set next to Berlin’s famous landmark Brandenburg Gate, the Hotel Adlon Kempinski was originally founded in 1907 and became one of the most famous hotels in Europe when it opened. Although most of the original hotel was destroyed in World War Two, a new building opened on the same site in 1997 that takes creative inspiration from the hotel’s unique history.

History of Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin

The hotel was originally created by Lorenz Adlon, a successful coffeehouse entrepreneur, who had spotted an opportunity to launch a new style of hotel in the city, inspired by the famous luxury hotels of New York such as the Waldorf Astoria or The Ritz in Paris. These hotels offered a very different design experience to anything seen in Germany before. With their lavishly decorated dining halls, big ballrooms, smoking lounges and lively café culture, this new generation of hotel quickly became popular, and exciting, playgrounds for rich nobility to socialise in. The hotel also offered a suitable luxury base for the state guests of Kaiser Wilhelm II to stay in when visiting and he helped Adlon purchase property in a prime location in the German capital.

The hotel was the most modern in the country when it opened, offering the novelty of both hot and cold running water alongside unique facilities such as a ladies’ lounge, a music room, a barber shop, and an interior garden with a famous elephant fountain that was originally a gift from a Maharaja. It even had its own on-site laundry and an electric power plant to keep things running smoothly for its wealthy guests. From its launch until the end of World War Two, the hotel hosted some of the most famous names in modern history including the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and Franklin Roosevelt.  It was mostly destroyed during the war years, reopening in 1997 under the brand name of the Kempinski hotel group.

Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin today

Rebuilt in the image of its predecessor, the property sits on the same spot and continues to attract celebrity guests, most notably as the hotel that pop star Michael Jackson controversially dangled his child from one of the hotel’s balconies. The lounge area contains a replica of the elephant fountain that was a famous feature of the original hotel.

Getting to Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate S-Bahn and U-Bahn station is located next to the hotel, the closest stop is Brandenburger Tor (S-Bahn). From the airport, a taxi takes approximately 55 minutes.