Interhotel

Inter Hotel was a hotel chain founded on 1 January 1965 in the GDR. Inter hotel were upscale hotels where preferred guests were brought out of " non-socialist economic areas " (NSW).

History

Originally, the hotel chain of one hotel in Berlin, Erfurt, Jena and Magdeburg, two hotels in the former Karl -Marx-Stadt and five hotels in Leipzig. The five-star houses nearly all of the visitors from the " non-socialist economic region " open, the payment had to be made for them in foreign exchange. The subgroup of so-called " value - hotels " were invariably reserved for visitors from the West, in 1985 belonged to the " metropolitan " and the "Palace Hotel " in Berlin, the " Mercury " in Leipzig, the "Bellevue" in Dresden, later came about in Berlin, the " Grand Hotel " and the " Dom-Hotel " to do so. In four- star establishments often accommodating guests from the area of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. A well-known example is the Hotel Stadt Berlin in East Berlin, which was considered primarily as a hotel for Soviet guests. The lowest level of interactivity hotels were some three- star establishments, especially in smaller towns, such as the Hotel Elephant in Weimar. According to international standards, the Inter Hotel were each classified as a star too high up on exceptions.

Almost all upscale hotels in the GDR were Interhotels; known exceptions introduced the HO- Hotel Neptun in Warnemünde and the hotel Cecilienhof dar. In most district towns existed Inter hotels, but also in Jena (up to the early 1980s: Hotel International), Oberhof and Weimar.

1989 was the Inter Hotel chain, Hotel Dresdner Hof (1990 opening, since 1992 Hilton Dresden) build. In addition, construction of the Domhotel on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt, but which was sold shortly after its opening in 1991 /92 Hilton began. In Weimar, the excavation for the Hotel Belvedere already been excavated, but was the first opened in 1992 and shortly thereafter also operated by Hilton.

After the reunification of numerous Interhotels were continued by the Inter- Hotel AG. In 1991, a sale to the Klingbeil Group took place; according to their insolvency, the Inter Hotel GmbH & Co KG was further operated by a consortium of banks led by Deutsche Bank.

In December 2006, the hotels of the German Inter Hotel were sold to the Blackstone Group. The American financial investor Blackstone, who had previously purchased the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport for 168 million euro, and the Grand Hotel Esplanade in Berlin, has acquired twelve houses of the Inter Hotel Group. The German Inter Hotel Holding GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank and the Aarealbank the hotels did in December 2006 for an undisclosed price.

The German bank and Depfa Bank had taken over the German Inter Hotel Holding GmbH & Co. KG, all houses in the year 1995 by the Berlin Trigon Group (formerly Klingbeil - Groenke Guttmann group). The German bank held 45.6 per cent at the German Inter Hotel, the Aarealbank held about one-third. One of the of the financial investor now acquired Interhotels also the The Westin Grand Berlin is one of the Friedrichstrasse.

Inter Hotels and Ministry of State Security

Inter hotels were under the control of the Department VI of the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi), Department of Tourism. The Stasi tried to both monitor the activities of international guests as well as intelligence- use. Often compromising situations were constructed (use of pledged as IM prostitutes in audio- and video-monitored hotel rooms ) to "move" the parties concerned to cooperate to. Due to the contact opportunities with travelers from capitalist countries and the percentage of IM hotel staff was disproportionately high. Especially the focus was on hotels, where policy decisions were discussed, such as the Hotel Bellevue in Dresden.