Berlin was easily the most consequential capital of the 20th Century.
Punctuated by two world wars followed immediately by a cold one, it’s almost too easy to view the city of emblematic of conflict. But the city’s preciously few 20th Century moments without upheaval happened to shine just as bright a light on our collective consciousness as did the times of strife. One of these brief-but-brilliant flashes was during the Weimar Republic, when Berlin was one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas and a renowned capital for art and design.
It was from those heady days of the 1920s when art deco and Berlin’s booming film industry were at the top of the zeitgeist that the designers behind The Ritz-Carlton Berlin’s recent refresh of guest rooms and public spaces took their inspiration. Public spaces are equal parts silver screen glamor and Teutonic majesty, with gold accented lines and broad columns—part film premier, part artistic salon.
It’s a bold revisiting of a brief but spectacular burst of color in a century that was otherwise one of grey dowdiness. Situated on Potsdamer Platz, which was virtually demolished during the Second World War and lain fallow by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, the hotel is plunked right in the center of the city center’s rebirth. What was once a wide swath of guard towers and searchlights is now an alley of modern highrises and a shopping center just steps from the Brandenburg Gate.
Although Potsdamer Platz has plenty to entertain on its own, there’s no shortage of exceptional nightlight inside the hotel.
Leading the pack is the bar Fragrances, which offers an experience quite unlike any other bar in the city. Guests enter through a long corridor lined with perfume vials that serve as a menu. It’s up to eager tipplers to sample the fragrances of each of the vials and read the flavor profile before making their selection. After being seated at a table or at the bar for the best views of the action, the drinks arrive in high style—mine arrived in a perfume bottle, and the (delicious) flavor was an exact match to the fragrance.
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Guests wanting the experience of a classic cocktail or afternoon tea can take up residence in the Lounge, which dominates the main floor lobby. Tea sommeliers make flavor suggestions to the strains of a pianist for an experience that is both solidly Berlin and classically Ritz-Carlton.
POTS is the hotel’s three-meal restaurant. The name is a playful twist on the hotel’s location overlooking Potsdamer Platz, and that’s further underlined by the copper pot features throughout. Convivial is the best descriptor for the atmosphere here, where tables and dishes are designed to be shared in groups (although more intimate dining is certainly possible). In the mornings, the breakfast spread is wall-to-wall with European and American favorites: every conceivable pastry, a wall of honeycomb slowly melting, endless plates of cold cuts and smoked fish and pickles alongside copper pots of hot eggs and bacon.
Glitzy silver screen themes continue into the guest room design, and the refreshed rooms are conceived with the modern business traveler in mind. A modular desk/table perches near a desk chair or couch, there are as many electronic outlets (many of them USB for international travelers) as one could wish for. Standard Ritz-Carlton finery punctuates throughout, with Nespresso coffee makers (concealed secret agent style in a console), Tivoli clock radios and the luscious Asprey Purple Water bath amenities that feel just as appropriate in Berlin as they do in Maui.
On the cold and wet afternoon of our visit, the sauna and steam that are part of the pool complex were are a welcome amenity. The pool itself is large enough for a couple of half-laps, and it’s notable that there even is one—they’re still a relative rarity in European city hotels.
The Takeaway
With an ideal location in the revived heart of the city with fine, inventive restaurants and bars, gracious service, and the uniform niceties that one would expect from a global luxury hospitality brand counterbalanced with flashes of local color make this gorgeous hotel in the heart of Berlin one worth checking out.
The Math
From 289 € per night.
Instagrammable Moment
Fragrances Bar is almost built for Instagram.
Loyalty
Marriott Bonvoy.
Good to Know
Check-in and check-out functions are sufficiently wired for guests paying by credit card—if settling accounts using cash or check, it might be worthwhile to do so at any moment when there’s not a wait at the front desk; it can get busy during peak check-out periods.
The fitness center and pool have changing rooms so it’s not necessary to traipse through the hotel in a bathing suit or a bathrobe.
POTS is a popular dinner spot for Berliners, which makes reservations ideal.
