Palasthotel

Miscellaneous

• The Palasthotel was an important part of the Stasi-surveillance of all foreigners that entered the GDR. At all times there were four Stasi-officers employed in monitoring the hotel. Using cameras and microphones they kept the receptionhall, elevators, corridors and several rooms under strict surveillance. 25-30 rooms in the hotel were technically equipped so necessary monitoring of especially "interesting" guests could take place. Video- and taperecorders were placed in the "Stasi-suite"; room 51.01/51.03 on the fifth floor.
• On the eight floor, room 80.26/80.27, was the office of Herbert Rübler. From here he carried out his work; organising commerce between the DDR and the west. He was found dead in the same hotel in May 1989.
• It was referred to as "Valuta-hotel" and "Stasi-nest".
• It was used by the leading figures in the SED and for receiving distinguished guests from abroad.
• Famous guests include:Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, Udo Lindenberg, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Katja Epstein and British rock band Barclay James Harvest when they performed their "Glasnost" concert at Treptower Park in East Berlin on 14 July 1987.
• The hotel plays an important part in the German novel "Wie es leuchtet" by Thomas Brussig.
• The Palasthotel is referenced in the U2 documentary "From The Sky Down". The band stayed in the Hotel during the recording of Achtung Baby in late 1990. Bono described the Hotel as a "festival of brown...meaning everything in the hotel was brown. Brown carpet, brown knobs on the stereo. But I was looking out on a beautiful cathedral, that was nice. From the brown room, in the brown hotel".

  Literature

• Anne Holper, Matthias Käther, DDR-Baudenkmale in Berlin-Berlins Osten neu entdeckt, 2003.
• Kristie Macrakis, Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World, Cambridge University Press; 1 edition.