Berlin itself is a city in a remarkable transition to the new capital of Germany. Rather like the experience during the rebuilding of London’s Docklands regular visitors will find the rearrangement of architecture and streets quite disconcerting. Driving in this time from the east, I was impressed by how the Stalinist architecture of the old eastern zone of the city had been transformed, achieving a stature and grandeur lacking in the old western part. The colour and vitality added by sun blinds and planting and through cleaning the buildings was helped by the sunshine that only enhanced the sense of transmogrification

Around the Alexanderplatz the concentration of cranes and building sites continued to mark the regeneration of this, the old centre of Berlin, and the growth of the hotels provision was evident from the number still under construction. It seemed to me at one point that all the space previously occupied by the Wall and its ‘death zone’ was being populated by new hotels!

The relaxed political maturity of Germany is symbolised by the addition of the holocaust monument near the Brandenburg Gate and the acceptrance of the necessity of satisfying curiosity by indicating the Hitler bunker site on tourst maps.

Nearing the Brandenburg gate from the East and turning into the Charlotten Strasse it is evident that the area bounded by the Charlotten Strasse and the Unter den Linden is beginning to achieve some maturity. The affluent shops and boutiques that grace this area mark this out as an affluent part of town, comparable to many such shopping areas in other rich European cities.

Opened originally as a Four Seasons, this hotel is now operated as a Regent by Rezidor and this change of branding reflects in microcosm the changes in the old East Berlin. As the German Parliament first met in 1990 in the newly re-unified capital of a newly unified country, there were over 25 new five star hotels being built in the town, with a resulting depression of room rates. Having changed hands the hotel is itself being changed, in some areas with subtlety, in other areas not so subtly, to match the brand standards within Regent, recently stock market listed Rezidor’s premier brand.

Rated as a five star superior, the hotel occupies a wonderful location on the Charlotten Strasse itself, within walking distance of the Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Alexanderplatz, Potsdammer Platz and for those hunting other history, Checkpoint Charlie. The modern exterior is striking and fits easily in a city full of striking modern buildings; even if its exterior is slightly at odds with the formulaic interior that Four Season created (it is strikingly similar in layout and feel to the previously reviewed Four Seasons Prague).