What do you do when your country is bankrupt and is in desperate need of foreign currency? Well, you rent out the buildings that house your foreign embassies. At least this is what North Korea has done with parts of its Berlin embassy, which has been turned into a hostel.
The Cityhostel Berlin opened on July 1. 2008 and has around 100 rooms covering two floors in the former embassy building.
The embassy was built in the 1970s on Glinka Strasse in the old East Berlin and consisted of two buildings. After the Cold War, staff numbers at the embassy were cut and now one of the buildings has been rented out and turned into the Cityhostel Berlin. The other building on the site still houses the North Korean embassy .
We hope that the money North Korea recieves from renting out its embassies will be spend on improving the miserable living conditions in North Korea, but we fear that the money will be converted into sustaining Kim Jong-Il’s repressive regime and the 'Dear Leader’s reputed exorbitant private consumption.
The history of the building and Cityhostel Berlin's location right next to the North Korean embassy will probably be attractive to many. Communist kitsch is a big thing in Berlin where the Ostalgie vibe has been going on for several years and in May 2007 the city got its first DDR design-hostel.
Author David Rich Momondo
Go further: Experience a night in the old East Berlin together with Erich Honecker and other former communist leaders at Ostel.
Find more hotels in Berlin here.