es geht gut-------it goes well

Berlin 2007

My apartment is in the Hotel Grosser Kurfurst, which sits aside the Spree Canal which connects with the Spree River a block away. It was on the banks of this river that Berlin was settled some 800 years ago, within a few blocks from where I now reside.

The grosser what? You may ask, as I did at first glance.. What could be grosser than a Kurfurst. What the hell is a Kurfurst? In English the word gross, at east to teenagers, means something terrible, or yukky. But in German the word gross means “big or great.” So we have a great something here. A Kurfurst is an elector which means nothing today, but in the 17th and 18th century Germany it was an honor conferred on German princes by the pope, I believe, that gave them a vote for the Holy Roman Emperor. So being a Kurfurst was a big deal in those days.

There were several Kurfursts, or electors. appointed during those centuries but there was only one grosser Kurfurst, and that was Friedrich Wilhelm von Hohenzollern who ruled this Brandenburg area from1640 to 1688. He did much for the city of Berlin during his reign by leading it to unprecedented peace and prosperity, and so for that reason he is remembered as the great elector, or the Grosser Kurfurst.

So this hotel is named for the Grosser Kurfurst, the Great Elector, who had his palace on Museum Island just across the canal from here. Now the name makes sense. His equestrian statue promenently adorns the lobby.

9/27/2007 : view on map : permalink : add a comment