The Orania.Berlin is a 21st-century hotel in a landmarked art nouveau building opened in 2017, with 41 rooms and suites, a restaurant overseen by noted chef Philipp Vogel, an all-day café, a penthouse literary salon and library, bar and concert stage, where performances - from Bach to jazz - are hosted daily.
The hotel décor and ambiance combine post-modernism with cozy furnishings and lavish fabrics that offset the massive art nouveau windows overlooking lively Oranienplatz. The Orania.Berlin is located in hip Kreuzberg, in what was, from 1945 to 1989, West Berlin's funkiest neighborhood -- comparable to New York's Lower East Side or London's East End. Throughout the 20th century and to this day, Kreuzberg has been known for its cultural diversity and avant-garde style.
The art nouveau Oranienpalast (Orania "palace") opened in 1913 ago as a five-story office "tower" with, on the ground floor, the Oranienplatz Kabarett Café, which quickly drew a lively post-Great War audience dancing the Charleston and trying to forget the horrors of The Great War. In 1924, the café became a department store. Miraculously surviving the ructions of the Weimar Republic, the near destruction of Berlin in World War II and the 28-year division of the city, the building was proclaimed a National Landmark (Gedenkmal) in 1995, with offices on the upper floors and the "Trash" nightclub downstairs. In 2010, it was converted into a trendy gallery for the Berlin Biennale and in 2014, Bavarian entrepreneur and hotelier Dietmar Mueller-Elmau was commissioned to convert the building into a casual yet luxurious "design" hotel.
The Orania.Berlin is a sister hotel to Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, a breathtaking resort devoted to culture, gastronomy, spa and wellness. Schloss Elmau, a member of Leading Hotels of the World, was the location of the G7 Summit in 2015.
For more information about Orania.Berlin, visit: https://orania.berlin/.
