30 Nov 2012

Hotel Atlantic - Hamburg

"The PM would have my head if he knew we were investigating him."


In Tomorrow never dies, Bond is sent to Hamburg in order to investigate scrappy Media Mogul Elliot Carver. Carver is holding a party to celebrate the launch of his new satellite and Bond is posing as a banker. Appropriate to his assumed identity Bond is checked in to the Hotel Atlantic just by the lake Außenalster in central Hamburg
Bond is staying in the corner suite and after a visit from Dr. Kaufman he escapes through the window and up on the roof, observed from the other building by Stamper. Bond accesses the parking garage where his Ericsson remote controlled BMW is parked. The following car chase was not filmed on location in Germany but in Brent Cross shopping center in England and will be covered at a later date. The interior of Bonds hotel suite was actually filmed at a previous Bond location, namely the Stoke Park Country Club in Buckinghamshire seen in Goldfinger.

"Tomorrows news today..."

The hotel was opened in 1909 and has been considered to be the best hotel in Germany. Since 1957 it belongs to the international hotel chain Kempinski and the rate for a standard room is approx. € 250 per night. One of the Atlantic suites, probably similar to what Bond stayed in would cost about € 3,500 per night. 

Other famous guests, besides the banker James Bond, that have stayed in the hotel are among several others: Zarah Leander, Charles de Gaulle, Maria Callas, Michael Jackson and Willy Brandt.

"-Well, we know where you stand. You've made your bed.
          -I'm standing in your doorway..."
                   -Bond and Paris-

1 comment:

  1. david marlborough5 December 2012 at 15:17

    Interesting info overall and in particular that the interior scenes weren't actually filmed in the hotel. I visit Germany quite a bit as my wife's family are from there and passed the Atlantic, visiting Hamburg for the first time this August. You're right, it is one of the Premier German hotels (up there with, say, the Brenners Park Hotel in Baden Baden)and would be on my agenda for a stay some time in the future.

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