The restored 1939 Royal Danish Embassy on the edge of Tiergarten — 78 rooms by Patricia Urquiola, the central glass extension by Axthelm Rolvien, and the only Berlin luxury hotel where the rooms look directly into the Berlin Zoo.
"The most distinctive single design hotel in Berlin — the 1939 Royal Danish Embassy reopened by Patricia Urquiola with a glass-paviliion extension, the rooms on the western flank looking directly into the Berlin Zoo, and a quiet Tiergarten address that is the city's strongest argument against staying in Mitte."
The building that now houses Das Stue was completed in 1939 as the Royal Danish Embassy in Berlin, designed by the Danish architect Johan Emil Schaumburg-Müller in a stripped-classical style typical of late-1930s state architecture — a U-shaped four-storey ashlar block with a generous central forecourt, tall ground-floor reception rooms, and an embassy chancery that survived the Battle of Berlin. After the Second World War the embassy function lapsed; the building stood largely unused for decades on its prime Tiergarten edge, then served various functions through the East-West Berlin period until reunification reactivated the Tiergarten diplomatic district. The building stood empty in the early 2000s.
A development team led by the Berlin firm Camargue acquired the property and undertook a comprehensive restoration that retained the historic ashlar envelope, the central forecourt, and the protected interior architecture, while adding a fully glazed central pavilion in the original courtyard space — a clear contemporary insertion that houses the lobby, the bar, and the principal restaurant. The Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola executed the entire interior of the historic wings; the German firm Axthelm Rolvien designed the glass-pavilion extension. The hotel opened in November 2012 as Das Stue (Danish for "the living room") with 78 rooms, including 17 suites, across the historic east and west wings.
The single uncopiable detail of the property is the position immediately adjacent to the Berlin Zoo: a substantial portion of the rooms on the western flank look directly into the zoo grounds, and a category of rooms (the Zoo-View rooms and the Zoo-View suites) actually face into the ostrich and antelope enclosures. No other Berlin luxury hotel has this. The original entrance hall — preserved at scale — has been redressed by Urquiola into the lobby with a famous resin crocodile sculpture; the Casual restaurant occupies the original embassy reception rooms; the spa runs to roughly 800 square metres on the lower ground including a 16-metre indoor pool and a hammam. The full property has the most coherent single-architect design vision of any Berlin luxury hotel.
Service is design-hotel rather than grand-hotel — younger team, less formal, with stronger reach into the Berlin design and architecture communities. The position is the second proposition: in the quietest stretch of central Berlin, eight minutes' walk from the Bauhaus-Archiv, ten minutes from the Kulturforum (Philharmonie, Neue Nationalgalerie, Gemäldegalerie), and twelve minutes from the Kurfürstendamm shopping spine — markedly different from the federal-political concentration of Mitte and a strong proposition for travellers who want central-Berlin access without the Mitte motorcade volume. Das Stue is Berlin's #4 hotel and the most distinctive design address in the city.
For Berlin anniversaries with a strong design-and-architecture pull, Das Stue is the most distinctive choice in the city. A Zoo-View suite is the central booking — the morning view across the antelope enclosure to the trees of the Tiergarten is unique to this property. The pool and hammam in the lower-ground spa, and the long Tiergarten walking route at golden hour, complete the brief. Pair with a single dinner at Lorenz Adlon or Tim Raue if the trip extends.
For Berlin solo retreats Das Stue delivers the city's quietest five-star environment. The Tiergarten edge is the longest walking-route base in central Berlin (Tiergarten itself, the Großer Tiergarten through to Brandenburg Gate, the Landwehrkanal, the Spree); the hotel's design-hotel scale (78 rooms) means a low-volume environment with consistent service; the glass-pavilion lobby reads as a working space rather than a transactional foyer. A long stay in a Stue Room with morning Tiergarten walks works particularly well.
For Berlin honeymoons the Das Stue is the most distinctive choice over the formal Mitte addresses. A Zoo-View Suite or the Owner's Suite is the central booking; the spa and pool, the morning view into the zoo, the long Tiergarten walks to the Brandenburg Gate, and the easy access to the Kulturforum museums and the Kurfürstendamm shopping make for a more design-led, less politically charged Berlin honeymoon than the Adlon or de Rome alternatives.
Drakestrasse 1
10787 Berlin
Germany
Berlin Zoo entrance 4 minutes on foot; Bauhaus-Archiv 8 minutes; Kulturforum 10 minutes; Kurfürstendamm 12 minutes; Brandenburg Gate 8 minutes by taxi; BER airport 30 minutes
78 rooms (incl. 17 suites)
Stue Rooms from EUR 350/night
Mezzanine Rooms from EUR 450/night
Zoo-View Rooms from EUR 550/night
Zoo-View Suites from EUR 950/night
Owner's Suite from EUR 2,400/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Building completed 1939 (Royal Danish Embassy); hotel opened November 2012; part of Design Hotels (Marriott Bonvoy)
Casual restaurant
Bar in the glass pavilion
16-metre indoor pool
800 sqm Susanne Kaufmann spa with hammam
Zoo-view rooms
Patricia Urquiola interiors
Design Hotels member
From EUR 350/night. Zoo-View rooms and suites book three months ahead for spring and autumn weekends; six months for Berlinale (mid-February) and Berlin Art Week (mid-September).
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