History

At the start of the 20th century the Kurfürstendamm was a prestiguous boullevard in the style of the Champs-Élysées. This area quickly established itself as the centre of the city.

The Kurfürstendamm reached it's peak in the golden 20 when the pulsing life of the numerous cafés, cabaretts, theatres, dancing clubs and exclusive shops gave the area a world famous reputation. In 1910, Kurfürstendamm Nr. 25, for this period one of Berlin's most magnificent residential buildings was converted into a hotel (Opening 1911). It was quickly accepted as a hotel with an exceptional atmosphere and the literary stars of the day such as Kästner, Remarque and Heinrich Mann often stayed at the Hotel ZOO.

After the war the hotel made headlines as the place to stay as a hotel for accommodate the political giants of the era; alongside Konrad Adenauer, the first post war German chancellor and Ludwig Erhard, father of the Wirtschaftswunder the allied commanders stayed and held conferences here. The Hotel ZOO became the political centre of post-war Berlin.

Especially worth mentioning is that during the 1950's the Hotel ZOO was the official Hotel of the Berlin movie Festival, the Berlinale. During the Berlinale the Hotel ZOO was the central point of the festival organisation, national and international screen stars resided in the Hotel ZOO.