Stasi Allegations
September 28, 2006
Reto Wittwer, Kempinksi's president, said in a press statement that the company wholeheartedly supported Thomas Klippstein, the director of Berlin's luxury Hotel Adlon, against the "grave allegations" against him.
Klippstein himself, who was named "hotel director of the year" in 2006 by Impulse magazine, has remained silent on the issue. He only issued a press statement saying that a district court judge had sided with his lawyers, who had called for an injunction against media allegations that Klippstein served as an informant of East Germany's infamous Stasi secret police.
"The court agreed with my lawyers, that media coverage about me was illegal and violated my rights," Klippstein wrote, according to German news service DPA.
Stunning coincidence?
Earlier in the week, German public broadcaster NDR had aired a documentary about the famous East German Hotel Neptun, where western VIPs had been spied on by the Stasi. According to the documentary, the hotel's concierge had provided the Stasi with information about guests under the code name "Benjamin."
According to DPA, the real name of "Benjamin" was Thomas Klippstein. That man was born March 31, 1962 and worked at Hotel Neptun before moving to Dresden in 1988. The informant's career path and birth year coincides with that of the current director of Hotel Adlon, according to news reports. Hotel officials would not confirm the exact birth date of the Adlon director.
Home to the stars
Taking over the reins at Berlin's Hotel Adlon, which sits on a square directly across from the city's landmark Brandenburg Gate, has crowned Klippstein's stellar career since reunification. He joined Kempinski in 1993 and held executive positions at hotels in Dresden, Bangkok, St. Petersburg and Istanbul before returning to Germany in 2001. One year later, he became the opening director of the group's new Heiligendamm resort on the Baltic Sea coast before coming to Berlin in 2005.
The Adlon, which was destroyed during the war and rebuilt after reunification, has hosted numerous heads of state, who have resided in the hotel's presidential suite. Celebrities, who have stayed there include Michael Jackson, who faced criticism for holding his baby son out of one of the hotel's windows.