Where to Watch Hotel Bogota - Eine einmalige Geschichte (2015)

Summary

As of Mid-December 2013, the Hotel Bogota in Berlin closed its doors after almost 50 years, and thus ended a piece of Berlin history. Because the building Schlüterstraße 45 did not only house the Hotel Bogota, but it was much more than that. It looks back on a long history, which includes light and dark episodes. Built in 1911, it was first used as a residence; Oskar Skaller, a prominent Berlin entrepreneur, lived here and let, in one of the salons, perform the young Benny Goodman during legendary parties. Helmut Newton did his aprenticeship with Else "YVA" Neuländer, the then famous fashion photographer of Germany, which maintained her studio on the 4th floor (and was deported in 1942 and murdered by the Nazis in the concentration camp Majdanek). Newton later said that this was the best time of his life. During the 2nd World War the building was the headquarters of the Reich Chamber of Culture with its director Hans Hinkel. He managed from there the direct connection of all cultural work areas on German soil. Here, all the then known famous artists of the German entertainment industry had to negotiate their contracts and commitments (in line with the propaganda policy of the Nazis) - just to appear here after the war because the Allies had established their denazification authority in Schlüterstrasse 45. Later, the Chamber of creative artists was founded in the house, which organized the first art exhibition after the war in July 1945, as well as the Cultural Association for democratic renewal of Germany. The German Confederation of Trade Unions ran a training center here. Finally in 1964 the Hotel Bogota arose first in the 4th and 5th floors before the former hotel owner bought up the pensions in the lower floors and thus the entire house bearing that name.