Hotel Adlon Kempinski review Berlin, Germany: Wall to wall glamour

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 8 years ago

Hotel Adlon Kempinski review Berlin, Germany: Wall to wall glamour

By Katrina Lobley
The Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, Berlin, us close by the Brandenburg Gate.

The Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, Berlin, us close by the Brandenburg Gate.Credit: Hotel Adlon Kempinski

The Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's most potent monument. When the wall went up in 1961 it curved right around the 18th-century gate, which quickly became a symbol of the city's astonishing overnight division. After the wall fell in 1989, the gate was recast as a symbol of unity. Hotel Adlon Kempinski overlooks this cultural icon.

Today's Adlon isn't the original 1907 hotel. That was largely destroyed in 1945 — not by warfare, as you might expect, but by Russian soldiers who were sampling wines in the hotel cellar and somehow started a fire. The hotel was a military field hospital at the time; patients were stretchered out to Unter den Linden (the boulevard's pretty name translates to "beneath the lindens") where nurses tended to them until they were transferred elsewhere. Post-blaze the hotel was demolished in stages until it disappeared altogether in 1984. After reunification a new incarnation opened on the same site in 1997, with touches inspired by the original hotel (such as mechanical elevator floor counters).

The Adlon hit the headlines in 2002 for the strangest reason: this is where pop star Michael Jackson dangled his baby "Blanket" from an open window on the third floor. The Adlon has always attracted the rich and famous. Albert Einstein was fond of a particular corner suite, Charlie Chaplin almost lost his trousers when admirers ripped his braces as he entered the hotel for the City Lights premiere and Greta Garbo uttered the famous words, "I want to be alone", while filming Grand Hotel in the Adlon. In June, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh checked in during their state visit. The Adlon has also enjoyed celluloid fame, with a mention in the 1972 film Cabaret, set during Berlin's anything-goes Weimar Republic era.

An entry-level Executive Room at Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, Berlin

An entry-level Executive Room at Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, BerlinCredit: Hotel Adlon Kempinski

The Adlon is well versed in dealing with stickybeaks. As we return from a stroll through the neighbouring Tiergarten with cameras slung around our necks, the doorman asks, "Can I help you?" "We're guests," I reply, refraining from mentioning we're in the Pariser Platz Suite – easily the most expensive hotel room of my life. The suite offers an extraordinary view over the Brandenburg Gate. Two windows, tucked into the hotel's verdigris garret, can be flung open to soak up every inch of the vista, which takes in cyclists zipping through the sandstone gate's five arches and pedestrians strolling around Pariser Platz below.

The Adlon houses multiple eateries, including the Lorenz Adlon with two Michelin stars. I opt for the hotel's signature dish: the Adlon currywurst (17 euros). The lobby lounge serves the city's iconic sausage-and-sauce dish with a twist: the Adlon's version is topped with gold leaf and served with a cone of fries and bread roll on the side. As I devour the lot, I spy on the couple opposite: they're sipping cocktails in company with their two poodles while jazz standards are picked out on the piano on the mezzanine above. Life is indeed a cabaret, old chums.

With just 12 hours left to enjoy the suite life, a sense of urgency strikes. I whip off my boots and deposit them outside the door for the shoe-polishing fairy who shines and returns shoes between 3am and 6am. I ponder calling housekeeping to light the fire (but it's a warm night, I think not). I examine the second toilet off the entry foyer – it has a heated floor. Should I order a room-service brekky? Gulp – the menu contains a 1920-themed gourmet breakfast with truffled omelette, salmon and caviar, Angus steak and Dom Perignon ($1270 for two). Perhaps the buffet (where I can add caviar for another $34) will be more to my taste after all. I tumble into the four-poster (love how all the light switches are grouped together in the bedside table drawer), catch a few zeds and tumble back out for morning laps in the downstairs pool.

The lobby of the Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, Berlin.

The lobby of the Hotel-Adlon-Kempinski, Berlin.Credit: Hotel Adlon Kempinski

An elderly gent clambers out to rinse off in the nearby shower and, even though my goggles are fogged, I glimpse naked buttocks. I swing past the saunas – one mixed-use, the other ladies-only – and inhale menthol-scented steam. I'd love one of those centrifugal spinners to help dry my cossie but the only contraption in the change room is an automatic foot disinfector.

Advertisement

Back to my bathroom with its separate his and hers vanities (one features a shaving kit, the other disposal bags), toiletries from custom parfumeur Blaise Mautin, a dressing table with magnifying mirror, bathtub and shower. Suitably primped, it's off to the buffet. Yes, I would care to start with a flute of Mercier champagne, chase it with muesli and berries, cheeses and jamon, and add an egg florentine to finish. The spread even includes beers on ice and twists of pretzel.

Breakfast finishes on a sweet note. As we exit, paper bags holding jam doughnuts are thrust into our hands. These treats are known as a Berliner. Those who remember John F. Kennedy's famous line — "Ich bin ein Berliner" – might recall some thought the president had called himself a jam doughnut. If this is the Adlon's in-joke for history buffs, I very much like the taste of it.

The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, a symbol of German unity.

The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, a symbol of German unity.Credit: Hotel Adlon Kempinski

HIGHLIGHT: Location, location, location - the Adlon sits right near the famous Brandenburg Gate.

LOWLIGHT: Staff (especially the doormen) can be a little formal for Australian tastes.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

visitberlin.de

GETTING THERE

British Airways flies daily from Sydney to Berlin's Tegel Airport via London. See ba.com.

STAYING THERE

Entry-level executive rooms start at $385 a night; the Pariser Platz Suite, overlooking the Brandenburg Gate, starts at $5765 a night. See www.kempinski.com.

SEE + DO

Within five minutes' walk is Peter Eisenman's powerful Holocaust memorial of 2711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid. Nearby (although you'll have to look hard for it) is a carpark marking the spot where Hitler's bunker was located.

The writer was a guest of the hotel.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading