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Radisson Collection Berlin’s famous hotel lobby aquarium explodes, injuring two

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Over the years we have used the photo below on the site in various stories about Radisson Hotels.

It is the Radisson Collection hotel in Berlin, until recently a Radisson Blu, which contains a huge aquarium in its lobby.

Or, indeed, ‘did’ contain a huge aquarium in its lobby.

Radisson Blu Berlin

Called the AquaDom and built at a cost of €12m, it is 45 feet high and contains 1,500 tropical fish.

The hotel called it ‘the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world’ although I’m not sure there is much competition for that title.

At 6.30am on Friday morning, the aquarium appears to have exploded. There is no indication as to how it happened.

Two people were reportedly injured by glass shards – a low number presumably due to the timing of the incident. The street outside the hotel has had to be closed due to flooding and, presumably, dead fish and lots of glass. The aquarium apparently contained over one million litres of water.

There is a video of the damage on the BBC News website here.

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Comments (69)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    16 Dec16 December 13:53

    The poor fish 😔

  • Dubious says:
    16 Dec16 December 14:18

    ‘There is no indication as to how it happened.‘
    Perhaps the tank decided to checkout of Radisson Rewards after the devaluation?

  • RobH not Rob says:
    16 Dec16 December 14:33

    The plaice looks absolutely battered.

  • Concerto says:
    16 Dec16 December 15:21

    It’s just shoddy workmanship. Look at the new Berlin airport for an example of what it’s become. Germany has come down to the level of the UK and France now and they’re capable of falling a lot further.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      16 Dec16 December 17:14

      It’s just short of being there for 20 years bet yes just blame shoddy workmanship

    • vol says:
      17 Dec17 December 06:09

      The initial workmanship may have been just fine.

      Was it well maintained afterwards?

      A good few large organisations fail here where they should be really investing the most. You would be very surprised (or not, depending on your experience with these things) at what companies are willing to forego in order to save money.

      More innocently, the pandemic also meant that organisations were unable to carry out their usual checks and high staff turnover means that the continuity and documentation could have been lost.

      If the person who was responsible for ensuring the fish tank received maintenance leaves the company and doesn’t do a handover, or the person taking over is not as conscientious with these things, then that’s how the decline begins.

      And if you have a workplace with a fish tank (albeit not on this scale – ( no pun intended 😳)) how often do you give thought to who maintains it?

      You just assume someone else is doing it.

  • Hooch says:
    16 Dec16 December 15:39

    Tom Cruise was seen running away from the scene having just spat out a piece of red-green chewing gum …

  • yonasl says:
    16 Dec16 December 16:46

    So no Blu anymore?

    • Rob says:
      16 Dec16 December 18:56

      No, it was upgraded very recently along with a few other Radisson Blu properties to pad out Collection a bit – to be fair, it has been fully refurbed in recent years.

  • WaynedP says:
    16 Dec16 December 18:00

    I posted a link to the German Bild YouTube report of first thing this morning on today’s chat thread. Much like HfP, it is the comments of every Thom, Dietrich & Herman that provide by far the best entertainment value.

    Vast majority express sympathy for the fish (a fair proportion only in jest), some indulge in gentle regional ribbing by lampooning anything built in or associated with Berlin, and others speculate about the possible cause of the accident from differential interior and exterior ambient temperatures, to ground subsidence. Some point out that a structure of this type comprises multiple sheets of glass with weak structural points at every inter-plate joint.

    But my favourite is from someone who predicts a spate of fish activists gluing themselves to aquariums everywhere. Who ever said that Germans don’t have a sense of humour ?

  • Gary says:
    16 Dec16 December 19:48

    I heard they used an anti-tank missile

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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