Shadow Guide Berlin logoHISTORICAL TOURSSHADOW GUIDE BERLIN

Stay in history

Historical hotels of 1930s Berlin

For travellers who want the city’s past to continue after the tour ends, these three hotels are housed in buildings from the 1930s.

Shadow Guide Berlin is not affiliated with these hotels. This list is shared without commercial arrangement, simply as a service for history enthusiasts.

Back to the tour

  1. SO/ Berlin Das Stue

    Approx. €250–€500+ per night
    Built
    1938–1940
    Original function
    Royal Danish Embassy (residence and chancellery)
    Address
    Drakestraße 1, 10787 Berlin (Tiergarten, near Berlin Zoo)

    Das Stue occupies the former Royal Danish Embassy, a monumental Neoclassical building designed by Johann Emil Schaudt, who also designed the KaDeWe department store. The limestone-clad embassy was completed during the Second World War and served briefly as a diplomatic residence before Denmark broke relations with Germany in 1943.

    After the war the building housed various offices and institutions until it was converted into a hotel. Today it is a five-star boutique property, with interiors by Patricia Urquiola and views over the Berlin Zoo and Tiergarten.

  2. The Posthouse Berlin Potsdamer Platz — Leonardo Limited Edition

    Approx. €120–€250 per night
    Built
    1930s (built as Postamt SW 11, the main Berlin mail-sorting centre)
    Original function
    Postamt SW 11 — Berlin’s central postal distribution office
    Address
    Hallesche Straße 10, 10963 Berlin (Kreuzberg, beside the Anhalter Bahnhof ruins)

    This red-brick and natural-stone building was constructed in the 1930s as Postamt SW 11, the Reichspost’s principal mail-sorting centre for the capital. Designed by architects Kurt Kuhlow and Georg Werner, it was linked to the Anhalter Bahnhof by an underground tunnel so that post could move directly between train and sorting hall.

    Badly damaged in the war, the building was repaired and continued postal operations for decades. It has since been converted into a 4-star Leonardo hotel, keeping the original facade and much of the structural character of a major piece of Berlin’s communications infrastructure.

  3. Hotel Vita Berlin

    Approx. €90–€180 per night
    Built
    1938–1941
    Original function
    Office building for Philipp Holzmann AG and the Reich Youth Leadership
    Address
    Heerstraße 12, 14052 Berlin (Charlottenburg-Westend)

    The building at Heerstraße 12–16 was designed by architects Paul Emmerich and Paul Baumgarten and erected in two phases between 1938 and 1941. One wing was occupied by the construction firm Philipp Holzmann AG; the other housed the Reich leadership of the Reich Youth Leadership (Reichsjugendführung).

    After 1945 it served various West Berlin authorities. Today the listed complex contains the three-star Hotel Vita Berlin, a social-enterprise hotel whose proceeds support the work of the VITA e.V. association. It is the most modestly priced option on this list, but the corridors still occupy a carefully proportioned 1930s office block.