Hotel Adlon. Two families. Three fates.

First episode (1904-1918)

Restaurant owner Lawrence Adlon plans to build a large and modern hotel in the heart of Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate. For construction, he finds support from Emperor Wilhelm II , who subsequently often bookes a hotel, after opening in 1907, for government guests. Gustaf Schadt, a financier and successful entrepreneur, is a good friend of the Adlon family and provides loans to Lawrence Adlon. In the film, the fate of the Schadt family is more dramatic than the Adlon family. Alma, the daughter of Gustaf and Ottilia Schadt, has a relationship that does not correspond to her social situation with Friedrich Leve, the son of a coachman, who do not remain without consequences. Alma is getting pregnant. To avoid scandal, Ottilia secretly gives out the daughter, Sonya, to her own child. Alma is forced to marry a noble officer Siegfried von Tennen, but she refuses and associates her fate with the American photographer Undine Adams, with whom she emigrates to the United States and remains there until the First World War. Her daughter Sonia remains with Gustaf and Ottilia, growing up as their daughter. All this time, Galla, the colored maid of the house, will be a good helper for them. Sonya's father, Friedrich Leve, gets a place as a messenger at the Adlon hotel, where he rises over the next years to a concierge. The first part ends with the First World War and the overthrow of the empire. After the loss of the German colonies, Gustaf Schadt returns terminally ill to his estate and dies a little later. On the deathbed, he informs Sonya that in fact, Alma's sister is her mother. Alma returns from his father’s funeral in Berlin and meets Friedrich Leva, and introduces his daughter Sonya. Hedda Berger, an American of German descent, appears at the Adlon Hotel and awakens the interest of the owner's son Louis Adlon.

Episode Two (1918-1933)

Ottilia Schadt, after the death of her husband, becomes depressed and commits suicide by drowning in a lake. Alma returns with America to Undine, Sonia refuses to go with them and stays at the Adlon hotel. There she meets the Jewish pianist and journalist Julian Zimmerman and falls in love with him. Louis Adlon, contrary to the wishes of his father, divorces his wife Tili, who has 5 children from him, to marry Hedda Berger. In 1921, Lawrence Adlon gets hit by a truck near the Brandenburg Gate, and soon dies. During the period of inflation, the son of Louis, with his new wife, takes over the management of the hotel. In the “Golden Twenties” Hotel Adlon came to world fame and began to be home to the most important personalities of that time. Sonya Schadt begins a career on the radio. Sonia loses sight of her friend Julian Zimmerman until after a while she was invited to his Jewish wedding with actress Tamara Liberkoff. She is accompanied by a childhood friend Sebastian von Tenen, Siegfried von Tenen's brother. Siegfried joins the Nazi party of the NSDAP and becomes a key figure in it. In 1926, after a concert by Josephine Baker in Berlin, a squad led by Siegfried killed Galla, the black servant of the Schadt family. Friends of Sonya Julian and Sebastian are caught up and beaten. Berlin police do not intervene. In the early 1930s, Julian Zimmerman divorces his wife Tamara and divorces Sonya. After the National Socialist “seizure of power,” Sonya, while working on the radio, is more and more in conflict with the new authorities. Meanwhile, Siegfried von Tenen, who occupies a key place in the police, is trying to express “new ideas” of the new government via radio. Sonia and Julian get closer and live together for a while. After the fire of the Reichstag, Julian is arrested and detained in a prison colony.

Episode Three (1933-1997)

Sonia visits Julian in a prison camp and tells him about the pregnancy. Only 3 years later, Julian frees herself, returns to Sonya and meets her daughter Anna-Maria. Julian wants to leave Germany, but because of a fake British passport is arrested by the Gestapo Siegfried von Tennen. Sebastian insists that Julian should not be tried, but deported from the country, since he believes that Sonya would betray him and not decide to cooperate with the Nazis. A little later, Juliana, along with her daughter Anna Maria, is deported from the country. Sonya strongly resists rapprochement with Sebastian and leaves the radio. She gets a job at the Adlon hotel at the reception. Louis Adlon is trying to stay away from politics and the Nazis, although Louis and Hedda Adlon are members of the NSDAP. During the Second World War, especially during the battle for Berlin, the Adlon Hotel more and more turns into a military hospital. In 1945, the sick Louis and Hedda left the hotel and left for their estate. Friedrich Leve and his daughter Sonia stay at the hotel. Patient Louis Adlon is arrested by Russian soldiers, interrogated and released, but on the way to his estate dies of a heart attack. After the battle for Berlin ended, the Russians occupied the Adlon Hotel, which is still largely untouched and intact. The wounded Siegfried von Tennen lurks in the basement of the hotel, but is discovered by drunk Russian soldiers and is being chased. As a result of the shooting, a fire occurs in which part of the hotel burns down. Friedrich Leve tries to save Siegfried von Tenen from the fire, but dies. The hotel is occupied by Russians and Sonya is entrusted with the position of manager in the part of the hotel left untouched by the fire. Sebastian von Tennen, who lost his leg in the war, returns to Berlin. He becomes a life partner of Sonya and her partner at the hotel. In 1952, an Israeli socialist appeared at a congress in the German Democratic Republic , in which Sonya recognized her daughter Anna Maria. She learns from the girl, after 17 years, that Julian is alive and in Israel, married and has two daughters. Anna-Maria wants to study in the GDR and forces Sonya to sign documents that Sonya is her mother. In 1953, Sonia, as a witness in a Nazi trial, testifies against Siegfried von Tennen, whom she considered dead and who disappeared in a hotel fire. When meeting with her partner’s brother, she learns the truth about the events of 1936 and the deportation of Julian Zimmermann. To be with Sonya, Sebastian asked his brother for the deportation of Julian along with his daughter. This was the end of Sonya's relationship with Sebastian. In the same year, Julian visited Berlin and met with Sonya, with whom she was reconciled. Julian returns to his family in Israel. Sonia runs the hotel until its closure by the German Democratic Republic in 1970 and then leaves for the house of her dead mother in Long Island . The last scene of the film shows modern Berlin, where 93-year-old Sonya, in the newly opened Adlon Hotel, tells the girl messenger her whole story. Viewers learn that she lives in Long Island, and that the widowed woman 20 years ago Julian appears with her daughter Anna Maria and her granddaughter.

• Full list of awards on the IMDb website

• “Adlon Hotel: The Family Saga” on the Internet Movie Database