Grand Hotel

In 1929, Austrian novelist Vicki Baum found international success with the publication of Menschen im Hotel ("People at a Hotel"). The English translation, Grand Hotel became an American bestseller, a Broadway play and a film that won the 1932 Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Grand Hotel is the

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place to stay for anyone who wanted to be surrounded by luxury and high society in 1920’s Berlin. The guests that were at the hotel in March of 1929 were an interesting mix of misfits whose stories all collide together in a clever plot.

One of the central characters is Otto Kringelein, a bookkeeper who has travelled from the country to Berlin to live the high life for a week or two. After many years of bullying and penny pinching both at work and at home, Kringelein has come to the city with the knowledge that he has only a few weeks left to live. Backed by funds from his savings and life insurance policy, Kringelein is intent on experiencing life and everything it has to offer before his time is up. The first person he meets is Colonel-Doctor Otternschlag, who has lost half his face. "A souvenir of Flanders" says the ruined man.

Everyone at the Grand Hotel is enchanted by the friendly Baron Gaigern, but little do they know that he is actually a cat burglar. Aging Russian ballet dancer Grusinskaya realizes the lack of warmth and true love in her life has taken in toll, leaving this once great dancer somewhat vulnerable and fragile. Grusinskaya is the real reason for Baron Gaigern’s visit to the Grand.......he has his eye on her pearl necklace.

Another guest is Hermann Preysing, the general manager of a failing textile mill, who believes the long anticipated merger with a Boston company is off, spelling financial ruin. He brings along Flammchen, a stenographer with whom he is obsessed and plans to seduce. Unfortunately, Flammchen has fallen for the Baron.

The atmosphere and mood of the novel does take the reader into Berlin in the 1920's and is filled with fabulous characters. I didn't like it as much as I had hoped, but I believe that I just had some trouble with translated dialogue from ninety years ago.


TBR 1268

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