Death
After the war, Lorenz Adlon remained reluctant about acknowledging the dethronement of the monarchs. For instance, he refused driving through the Brandenburg Gate by the central line, which had once been reserved for the German nobility; by this obstinacy, Adlon had suffered a severe street accident in 1918, at that spot. In 1921—again at the same place—Lorenz Adlon suffered a second accident, fatal one this time, being hit by a car.
His son Louis continued managing the hotel until it was burned down by Soviet troops in 1945. His wife Hedda Adlon relates in her autobiography that Louis himself was taken by the Soviets and shot, after they mistook him for a General because a servant called him by his title of "Generaldirektor". Great-grandson Percy Adlon, a German film and television director, created the film In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon in 1996 about the history of the hotel.
Read more about this topic: Lorenz Adlon
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Since the death instinct exists in the heart of everything that lives, since we suffer from trying to repress it, since everything that lives longs for rest, let us unfasten the ties that bind us to life, let us cultivate our death wish, let us develop it, water it like a plant, let it grow unhindered. Suffering and fear are born from the repression of the death wish.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 24:16.
““Promise me solemnly,” I said to her as she lay on what I believed to be her death bed, “if you find in the world beyond the grave that you can communicate with me—that there is some way in which you can make me aware of your continued existence—promise me solemnly that you will never, never avail yourself of it.” She recovered and never, never forgave me.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)