Berlin's restored Adlon Hotel celebrates its 25th anniversary after it hosted royalty from around the world and film stars such as Queen Elizabeth, the Dalai Lama, and even being home to the dinner date of Angela Merkel and Barack Obama.

Unforgettable is the scene from November 2002, when "King of Pop" Michael Jackson held his baby out of an upper floor window to show his shocked fans. It scratched Jackson’s public image, but the moment certainly gave the Adlon a publicity "push," according to hotel director Michael Sorgenfrey.

It was on Aug. 23, 1997, that the Adlon Hotel was opened on precisely the same spot as the original Adlon. It was the first new building erected on the Pariser Platz, the historic square destroyed in World War II bombing and by further demolition of the stately buildings by communist East Germany. The rebuilding of the legendary luxury hotel also came to be seen as a symbol of German reunification. Where nowadays tourists converge to take selfies with the Brandenburg Gate in the background, after the war and during Berlin’s east-west division there was only a huge empty space.

The original luxury Adlon Hotel that opened in 1907 was a world-famous address. Back then, the businessman Lorenz Adlon offered the first rooms ever with electrical lights and warm running water – far more modern than the nearby palace of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The emperor opened the hotel and became a regular guest, like many other leading politicians over the years.

In Berlin’s wild and decadent 1920s, Lorenz Adlon’s son Louis and his wife Hedda made the Adlon the place sought out by guests such as Charlie Chaplin, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich. In the 1930s, leading Nazi officials loved to party at the Adlon as well.

Fast-forward to April 1945, the end of World War II: The Adlon was now a burned-out shell with only a side wing still standing. In 1984 this last remnant, located close to the death strip of the Berlin Wall, was torn down. But the Adlon name remained legendary. During the Cold War, more than 30 years before the Berlin Wall fell, the Kempinski hotel group acquired the rights to the name from the Adlon heirs.

Felix Adlon, great-grandson of the hotel founder, notes that there were "very well some lucrative offers" to build an Adlon hotel in another location. There was talk of such a hotel in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, but this was rejected. "If there ever was to be an Adlon again, then at the Brandenburg Gate," he said.

The wall fell in November 1989 and Germany and Berlin were soon reunified. Pariser Platz at the Brandenburg Gate was once again free of barbed wire barriers. Businessman Anno August Jagdfeld set up an investment fund to build a new hotel. "Everything was in ruins here at the outset of the 1990s. It was difficult to launch the fund and find investors," recalled Jagdfeld. The city of Berlin supported his hotel plans.

Now, 25 years since its reopening, the Adlon is internationally famous, even though some celebrities might prefer to stay in the newer luxury hotels at Potsdamer Platz or the Staatsoper opera house that feature more modern furnishings. But it’s the Adlon’s location at the Brandenburg Gate that still makes the hotel a part of Berlin’s history. Its neighbors include the British, French and U.S. Embassies as well as the Academy of Arts.

"The Adlon stands for the luxury hotel trade and at the same time is an attraction," said Christian Taenzler, spokesperson for the tourism promotion outlet Visit Berlin. The location at Brandenburg Gate is a unique selling point. "Additionally there’s the turbulent history and the many famous guests. Many people who visit Berlin want to go to the Adlon – if only for a coffee or tea."

Meanwhile, a new chapter to the Adlon Hotel story has been opened in court. Felix Adlon has sued the city of Berlin in a legal fight to get the property returned to the family, arguing that the Adlons had been "effectively expropriated" under the Nazi regime and are therefore eligible to seek compensation.

But, as Christian Plöger, spokesperson for the Jagdfeld investor group stresses, nothing would change regarding the ownership structure of the Adlon Hotel. "A retransfer of the property as well as of the hotel is out of the question. Instead, there could be financial compensation by the state at the most."