Lorenz Adlon, a man with ambitions, a plan and Kaiser Wilhelm II’s ear, was the founder of what must be Berlin’s best-known hotel. The “Adlon”, even though a replica, stands for elegance, quiet but honed to perfection service and discreet air of celebration.
The hotel has seen them all: Tsar Nicholas II, Enrico Caruso, Josephine Baker, Thomas Mann, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Queen of Romania, brilliant US reporter to Berlin Dorothy Thompson, and Michael Jackson (his waving that poor baby out of the window is something most of us, including the “Adlon” itself, would wish to be able to unsee).
Unsurprisingly, the hotel’s reputation has always been highly treasured - it is the make-it-or-break-it of such institutions.
So when in 1922, of all people, it was Lorenz’s son, Louis Adlon, the hotel’s new director, who caused one of the greatest scandals of the 1920s Berlin, all eyes turned onto the “Adlon” again…