It is a lesson in the spiralling decadence of modern luxury hotels that the suite from which Michael Jackson dangled his son in 2002 is no longer the most expensive the Adlon has to offer. Nowadays, you can relieve yourself of €15,000 in one night at the hotel, by staying in the 5-room Royal Suite, which includes maximum security, a personal butler, a 24-hour limousine service, personalised stationary (they’ve got to spend 15K on something), and a sauna. You also get a free newspaper in the morning, and a bowl of fruit.

Where some luxury hotels prefer to cloak their guests in muffled discretion, the Adlon is the hotel of the super-rich extrovert – why else would a celebrity subject himself to its open lobby, where tourists mill about pretending to be on the verge of ordering a €7 coffee on the off-chance of an autograph. But as tourist attractions go, the Adlon is certainly as illustrative of Berlin’s tumultuous 20th century as anything else. Originally built in 1907 at the personal request of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Adlon was burnt down by the Red Army in 1945 when one of their special victory parties got out of hand. By the time it was ready to re-open, Berlin was divided, and no-one wanted a luxury hotel this close to the minefields and guard towers, so in the GDR it was actually run as a youth hostel. Post-Wall, it was re-opened by President Roman Herzog in 1997.