Interhotel

Interhotel

Industry	Hotels
Founded	1965
Defunct	2006
Number of locations	37
Area served	East Germany (prior to reunification)
Services	Lodging, dining
Owner	Ministry for State Security

Interhotel was an East German chain of luxury hotels. It was founded in 1965 as a chain.

Originally, the hotel chain consisted of a hotel each in Berlin, Erfurt, Jena and Magdeburg, two hotels in Chemnitz (then Karl-Marx-Stadt) and five hotels in Leipzig.

5-star hotels were exclusively for guests from non-socialist states, 4-star hotels were mainly for guests from Comecon countries, for example, Park Inn Berlin (then Stadt Berlin) was built for Soviet people. There were also some 3-star hotels in smaller towns, such as "Hotel Elephant" in Weimar.

Practically all luxury hotels in East Germany were part of the Interhotel chain, notable exceptions being hotel "Neptun" in Warnemünde and Cecilienhof castle in Potsdam. The Verband Deutscher Konsumgenossenschaften (VDK), the union of consumer co-operatives in the GDR also ran hotels, mainly 4 star and three star hotels such as the Konsum Erholungsheim in Oberhof, which is still part of what remains of the co-operative movement in Germany.

After German reunification, most of the hotels were still run by Interhotel AG. In 1991, some hotels were sold to the Klingbeil group, and in December 2006 some were sold to the Blackstone Group.

The Interhotel hotels were under the control of the East German state security service, the Stasi, under the Tourist Department. The Stasi tried to monitor the activities of international tourists, by sending prostitutes to audio- and video-controlled hotel rooms. They focused on hotels where political decisions were discussed, such as Hotel Bellevue in Dresden.

List of Interhotel hotels

Berlin

Grandhotel Berlin, 2006

• Grand Hotel
• Palasthotel
• Hotel Metropol
• Domhotel
• Hotel Stadt Berlin
• Hotel Unter den Linden
• Hotel Berolina

Leipzig

Hotel Merkur in Leipzig, 1981

• Hotel Merkur
• Hotel Astoria
• Hotel Deutschland
• Hotel Stadt Leipzig
• Hotel International
• Hotel Zum Löwen

Weimar

Hotel Elephant in Weimar

• Hotel Elephant
• Hotel Belvedere