Architecture and History

The GLS hotel occupies 2 of 5 houses, which form the GLS campus. The other 3 buildings house the GLS language school and a restaurant.

All 5 houses have always functioned as schools - whether under Prussian Wilhelm II, under Hitler or after the war in communist Germany.

The oldest building dates back as far as 1867, the youngest was built on debris left by WW II bombings.

 

GLS Hotel Berlin 1871-1918: Deutsches Reich 1867

... the oldest house on campus is built - as a school. 4 years later Bismarck founds the German Reich.

GLS Hotel Berlin The old school, now one of the 2 hotel buildings
GLS Hotel Berlin 1914-1918: WW I 1918

... World War I sets an end to German monarchy. Classes go on at the school - unlike later in WW II, bombs go down at the front lines, but not on cities

GLS Hotel Berlin Stairway in the hotel before renovation
GLS Hotel Berlin 1919-1933: Weimar Republik 1930

... a second school is built next door, now part of the hotel as well. The architecture foreshadows a style the Nazis would like as well: monumental and imposing.

GLS Hotel Berlin The second of the 2 hotel buildings, typical 30ies "classicism"
GLS Hotel Berlin 1933-1945: Drittes Reich 1945

During WW II bombs destroy the houses next door. The schools "survive".

GLS Hotel Berlin Basement of the hotel, used as a bomb shelter in WW II
GLS Hotel Berlin 1949: Foundation of the DDR (communist Germany) As of 1949

... the schools belongs to a newly founded state: to the communist German Democratic Republic. Whatever is built from now on follows socialist design: simple and functional.

GLS Hotel Berlin The GLS language school next to the hotel: typical DDR architecture
GLS Hotel Berlin 1961: Buliding of the Berlin Wall In 1960

... DDR architects add a cafeteria to the school - implementing the Bauhaus motto: form follows function

GLS Hotel Berlin The Lounge in front of the hotel, DDR architecture at its best
GLS Hotel Berlin 1990: Reunification 2005

... the school is closed, due to a lack of students. The Berlin Senate sells all buildings to GLS, who converts them into a hotel plus language school.

GLS Hotel Berlin A fim shooting on campus
GLS Hotel Berlin
Kastanienallee 82
10435 Berlin
Fon (0049 30) 780089 - 260
Fax (0049 30) 7874192
hotel@gls-berlin.com