The glass cylinder in the foyer of the Radisson Collection Hotel in Berlin was 16 meters high, contained a million liters of water and 1,500 fish. Now the operators are a mess: the famous Aquadome exploded early Friday morning. Two people were injured by broken glass, police said. Most of the hotel guests were still asleep. Happy.
But the exotic fish perished. The accident also destroyed a legacy of the hotel legend Werner Knechtli († 72), who died in August: when the hotel opened in March 2004, the director of Aargau was in charge. In December 2003 he proudly presented the water tower to Blick. “This is, in its own way, the largest aquarium in the world,” Knechtli said at the time. 50 tons of salt were dissolved in it.
For Blick he went diving himself
The marine animals would be fed by trained divers, Knechtli explains. Your job is also to clean the mega aquarium. For Blick, the hotel manager dived into his mega aquarium himself. “I would have preferred not to show up at all,” he said enthusiastically afterwards.
Knechtli worked for the Radisson Hotel Group for more than 30 years, including in Kuwait, Kenya, Denmark, Great Britain and Austria. In 2017, at the age of 68, he took over the management of the chic Savoy Hotel Baur en Ville on Paradeplatz in Zurich. After two years he had to leave his job there due to illness. He spent his last years with his wife in Brissago TI.
Reopened after extensive renovation
The Aquadom only reopened in the summer after a renovation of two and a half years. During the renovation, silicone seals were renewed and the entire container was cleaned at high cost. Costs: more than 2.5 million francs.
The aquarium contained about 100 different species of fish, including clown and surgeonfish. It even had a glass elevator that ran through the center of the cylinder. Inside, visitors could float dry through the underwater world.