Written by Lori Balton on Feb 4, 2025. Posted in Contributors

Taking London and Germany by Storm: A Radisson Hotel Group/United/Lufthansa Production

Producer Becky Brake approached the photo pod of a restored Ilyushin iL-14P at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport and innocently inquired “what does that mean?” Sepi, our colleague from Lufthansa said, “Please Do not Touch!” Brake defensively replied, “I wasn’t going to touch it! I just wanted to know what it says…” Thus our first German lesson “Please do not touch.”

 

 

I’m envious of multilingual Europeans—language is key to understanding a culture. Yet despite our gaffes we did all right, In the words of Emile Zola, “Nothing develops intelligence like travel.” This trip was emblematic of why I love my job…I learned history, architecture, cuisine, and yes, a bit of language, while scouting unique locations. Your fam tour correspondent was fortunate to sojourn London, Berlin, Nuremberg, Rothenberg, and Munich courtesy of travel specialists, the Radisson Hotel Group, United Airlines, and Lufthansa; and Germany specialists, the Berlin Brandenburg Film Commission and Film Commission Bayern.

 

We began our journey at FOCUS/London—the world’s leader in global on-location production networking. Years ago I was introduced to the good folks at Radisson Hotel Group and United Airlines. Both were considering creative ways to attract production. The trip we took to Scotland was so successful, they inquired about another….and my longing to explore Berlin transformed to reality. Bridgette Thelen, Director, International Group Sales, RHG, enthused “I’m so proud of what a small group of collaborators were able to accomplish in less than 6 months of planning over multiple time zones and calls to create a successful project dedicated to film production and tourism.”

 

FOCUS was two intense days of nonstop connecting with old friends and new colleagues, including a well-received panel about bringing the director’s vision to the screen, with Studio Babelsburg’s Location Expert, SLM Markus Bensch, SLM turned producer Becky Brake, and myself. We stayed at the new RHG art‘otel in the hip neighborhood of Hoxton—convenient, comfortable, and cutting edge.

 

 

Joining Markus, Becky and I were Location Manager Zippy Downing; Randi Richmond, SVP Universal; Liz Newman, SVP Universal; Sara Ysayan, Director of Travel Services, Universal Studio Group; Cory Bennett Lewis, Executive Producer; Amy Krell, Executive VP, Production, MPCA; David Anselmo, CEO/ President of Production, Hideaway Pictures; Portuguese producer Margarida Adonis; Tracey Sandro, Strategic Partner, United Airlines; Sepi Rassouli, Account Manager, Lufthansa; Bridgette Thelen, Sr. Director, US-International Sales, RHG Hotel Group, and Maria del Mar Aguado, Global Sales Strategist, RHG.

 

 

UK location guru, SLM Harriet Lawrence, organized a brilliant, action-packed scout of London. “It was so much fun to be able to show fellow professionals our brilliant capital city, and see it through their eyes. Thanks to the Radisson Hotel Group for the initiative, and inviting me to be part of this great adventure.”

 

 

We began with a boat on the Thames, offering a unique angle on the city, and showcasing 1000 years of architecture and history—the Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Westminster, The London Eye, Lambeth Palace…

 

We disembarked at the dynamic Battersea development to tour the converted power station and the new RHG art’otel Battersea. This dynamic site includes residential towers by Frank Gehry and Norman Foster. The vibrant repurposing contrasts the intact Battersea control room where “The King’s Speech” was filmed Ironically, soon after we left, King Charles himself visited Battersea.

 

 

Following our near brush with royalty, we visited London’s highest public garden. The Sky Garden boasts 360º views of the city’s iconic skyline—including the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, situated on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. We were treated to a backstage tour of the art filled, film-friendly cathedral including the Hogwarts stairs and library, all to the accompaniment of a Christmas choir rehearsal with cherubic children garbed in red robes and Elizabethan ruffs. The acoustics in the Cathedral are astonishing.

 

One of London’s oldest sites, Charterhouse (The Crown, Downton Abbey), is an historic complex of buildings, courtyards, and streets dating to 1371. Amazing that it still exists in the heart of London—which in the 16th century was full of such sprawling mansions. We continued our time travel with a visit to No.4 Princelet Street—a well-preserved Georgian merchant's house from the 18th century. Located in historic Spitalfields, its 15 rooms and outdoor terraces are used f filming (The Danish Girl, Suffragette, Luther). Lawrence adds, “Directors and designers love t warren of old rooms, and texture of the wood and paint. In the dusk, Princelet Street, Wilkes Street and Fournier Street look much as they would have done nearly 300 years ago when the Huguenot silk weavers plied their trade.”

 

 

That evening the May Fair, a Radisson Collection Hotel, hosted “Behind the Lens: a Film and TV Insights Event.” Radisson Hotel Group’s Center Stage program supporting international filming with expert accommodation for the entertainment industry, and their n alliance with the European Film Commission Network (EUFCN) were front and center.

 

Onward to Deutschland. December is a great time to visit Germany—Christmas is pervasive, with endless holiday markets…a stark contrast to the some of the brutalist architecture we toured. It was a remarkable trip that, thanks to Studio Babelsburg’s Location Expert Markus Bensch, hit all the bases with perfect balance. He organized the trip with our diverse group in mind. “It was important to show the versatility of Germany as a filming location,” says Bensch, “But also to raise awareness for the various periods Germany has gone through. History was the underlying topic. I tried to illustrate how Germany changed in the last centuries, how it handled very dark times, and how it presents itself today.”

 

 

Almost all of the locations we visited had some historic relevance. We began In Berlin, Germany’s capital and largest city. After a quick Lufthansa flight, we toured Studio Babelsberg, the oldest large-scale film studio in the world, producing films since 1912. Not only did Fritz Lang film Metropolis here—the studio was a powerful propaganda instrument during the Nazi period. Today it is one of Europe’s largest film studio complexes, offering 21 state-of-the-art sound stages, flex backlots, vast production facilities on a 42-acre lot, and a nonpareil tour guide, Herr Bensch.

 

 

Built in 1907, the Glienicke Bridge crosses the Havel River, once the border between West Berlin and East Germany. It was used several times for the exchange of spies during the Cold War, most notably the trade of pilot Francis Gary Powers for Colonel Rudolf Abel, a KGB spy, in 1962 as depicted in Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies.

 

 

Berlin’s 1936 Olympics were controversial as Hitler had not yet come into power when the venue was selected. He demanded powerful architecture to dominate the landscape—a monument to German strength. Leni Riefenstahl had a moat built for camera placement making German athletes appear larger than life. It was surreal to walk the track where Jesse Owens won four gold medals. Today the Olympiastadion is the largest German stadium for international football matches.

 

 

During the Cold War Teufelsberg (“Devil’s Mountain”) was an NSA listening station built on a hill of war rubble—an estimated 400,000 homes devastated by WWII—pushed together in the Grunewald forest. Enormous dishes, radomes and antennae were constructed to intercept communications and jam Eastern Bloc radio signals. Today, frayed canvas panels snap in the wind and people brave the cold to admire over 400 works of varied graffiti covering the remnants  espionage.

 

 

One of the most iconic German landmarks, the Brandenberg Gate is an 18th century neoclassical monument that was obstructed by the Berlin Wall for nearly three decades, serving as a delineator of a divided city. Since reunification, it not on stands as a reminder of a heinous past, but as a thriving emblem of unity and peace. In just a short walk is the neo-renaissance Reichstag—a symbol for the new Germany.

 

 

The steel and glass dome perched atop the Reichstag lets viewers see directly into the debating chamber of the German Bundestag. Architect Norman Foster’s site explains, “At its core is a light sculptor that reflects horizon light down into the chamber…as night falls, this process is reversed—the cupola becomes a beacon on the skyline, signaling the vigor of the German democratic process.”

 

 

Kraftwerk Mitte, a disused power station that supplied heat for large parts of East Berlin, is now an industrial event space and frequent film site. Interesting to compare this roughhewn temple  culture with London’s slick commercial adaptation of its Battersea plant. We asked about a glowing corner of a shadowy cavernous room. Turns out their ghosts don’t like the dark. Hedging our bets we added to the lights, spare change and cigarettes on the makeshift altar—chocolates from the RHG and Lufthansa, and a sanitizing wipe from United. We like our ghosts well fed and clean.

 

 

In the heart of historic Berlin, Museum Island glows like a jewel box in the evening rain. On the northern end of Spree island this UNESCO World Heritage Site was designated for its architectural and cultural development of museums in the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s complex of inter nationally significant museums comprises one the most important museum sites in Europe. Sadly, time allowed only a quick peek into the Neo-baroque domed entrance to the Bode Museum.

 

 

One of Europe’s three iconic pre-WWII airports, Tempelhof was critical to the 1948 Berlin Airlift, when an allied plane landed every 45 seconds in one of the largest humanitarian aid missions in history. Once one of the world’s 20 largest buildings, Tempelhof’s semi-circular design echoes the colossal Olympic Stadium. The airport closed in 2008 and is now a protected landmark and recreational city park.

 

 

Few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall exist today. We drove past the mile long stretch of the East Side Gallery, covered in murals after the border opened. We also visited Bernauer Strasse, where the border ran directly in front of the buildings on the East Berlin side of the street. Their sidewalks were in the West. The Berlin Wall Memorial commemorates this death strip in a divided city. For 28 years the wall separated neighbors, families and friends.

 

 

Initially, people escaped by jumping out windows in the buildings directly next to the Wall until the buildings were evacuated, eventually bricked up and then demolished. At least 160 people were killed trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. The last victim was a young man who was killed in the summer of 89, just a few months before the wall came down. This historical site also marks where demolition of the border fortifications began in 1990, creating new East-West crossing.

 

 

We then took a train to Bavaria, stopping in Nuremberg. Due to its central location Nuremberg was the site of the huge Nazi conventions, followed by the Nuremberg trials—the first international war crimes tribunal in history. We visited Saal (courtroom) 600, where the worst of the Nazis met their fate. Nuremberg was a prominent city during the middle ages and continues to thrive today with its world-famous Christkindlesmarkts and toy manufacturing. An evening walk through the old town (“Altstadt”) was a walk through the past….rows of half-timbered houses, cobble stones, ornate signs, the buildings and bridges over the Pegnitz River.

 

 

Picturesque Rothenburg ob der Tauber had many of us inquiring about the cost of real estate. Rothenburg dates back to 950 and while the town seems lost in time, Harry Potter and other movie crews were able to find it. The half-timbered yellow house on the Plönlein was the inspiration f Disney’s Pinocchio. Its medieval city walls with 42 towers and an amphitheater are intact, and lovely to stroll. After enjoying bratwurst and mulled wine at another ubiquitous Christmas Market, we reluctantly got back on the road.

 

 

We arrived in Munich or München (“Home of the Monks”) at nightfall. Founded as a Benedictine monastery in 750, it became the capital of Bavaria. Hitler joined the Nazi party and became its leader in Munich; and two assassination attempts on him failed. Our first stop was to the 1972 Olympic Stadium, itself no stranger to controversy. Its sweeping, transparent canopy symbolizes the open democratic Germany, in designed contrast to Berlin’s 1936 stadium built to celebrate the third reich.

 

 

The current film September conveys the tumultuous Olympic Games where terrorists attacked the Israeli team. We walked onto the field from the athlete entrance with, to our delight, the Olympic theme song blaring from speakers. BMW Welt, a futuristic delivery and experience center features a steel and glass double cone and a cloud like roof that creates the illusion of floating. I was far more interested in the deconstruction architecture (Coop Himmelb(l)au, 2007) than the glinting BMW vehicles on display.

 

 

We got an early start on our last full day, traveling toward the Bavarian Alps. Schloss Neuschwanstein near the Austrian border was built as a residence for King Ludwig II who died before it was completed. It’s the fairytale castle of Sleeping Beauty that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flew over. Romanticist interpretation of the Middle Ages and a paean to composer Richard Wagner, it was one of the last palaces built in the 19th century.

 

 

It’s a pleasing combination of Romanesque (thick walls, round arches, large towers, Gothic (pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses), Byzantine (dome columns, mosaics, gold coffered ceilings) and Moorish (intricate patterns, delicate shapes and colors) architecture. As filmed in “The Monument Men,” Neuschwanstein was used during WWII as a storage depot for the stolen art the Nazis seized throughout the war. Nearby Füssen, Bavaria’s highest town, delights with its medieval alleys, Baroque churches, old town wall, Known for lute and violin manufacturing in the 16th century, this Roman settlement has also hosted numerous films including the Steve McQueen classic The Great Escape.

 

 

Our final stop was Munich’s Penzing Studios, Europe leading virtual production facility, incorporated into an expansive former air force base.  The Bayern and Berlin Brandenburg Film Commissions concluded, “This fam trip was a great opportunity for us to present Germany as a filming location for international productions in person. We hoped to give an insight into the experience, professionalism and creativity that our country offers as well as the support of the Film Commissions and the German film funding system.

 

 

We provide a unique variety of film locations—from historic cities to impressive landscapes and modern metropolises. With Germany’s studio landscape and English-speaking crews, it offers excellent conditions for international production.”  United Airline’s Tracey Sandro added, “We were especially proud to support this entertainment initiative, helping to bring this amazing group of folks together, to network with locales, explore possibilities, and inspire opportunities to create. Our vast global network, joint venture partners, and premium Polaris service positioned United to ensure this team traveled seamlessly and arrived ready to make their vision a reality. We’re thrilled to be part of the journey.” Bridgette Thelen, Radisson Hotel Group, gets the last word. “It’s all about collaboration, moving the team forward, toward success.”