Hotel Bristol Berlin

The Bristol has anchored the western end of the Kurfürstendamm since 1952, making it one of the few grand hotels built in Berlin during the Cold War, when West Berlin needed institutions that projected normality and sophistication in equal measure. The plot carries an older and darker story. The Kempinski firm, founded by Berthold Kempinski, a Jewish wine merchant from Raschkow, opened a restaurant at number 27 in 1927; the Nazis expropriated the family firm in 1937 under the euphemism of Aryanisation, and family members were driven into exile or murdered. Berthold's grandson Friedrich Unger recovered the site and built the hotel that opened here in 1952. He sold the name the following year. For decades afterwards the Bristol was the address of choice for visiting heads of state and diplomats posted to the divided city. 301 rooms, with the KaDeWe, the Zoo and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church all within walking distance.