Ok guys. The opening of my spy novel has an English agent sent to Berlin to assassinate a German agent during the 1980's. I need this to be a well known hotel in which the German is staying, with a tall building opposite for my agent to snipe from. Any help is appreciated
Why not just make up a name? If the hotel itself doesn't serve a purpose other than to give a character a sniping spot, then you could even not mention the name at all. But if the name really is important, then I would recommend just making a name up.
well to be honest...its name isnt entirely important...but im tryin to locate my scenes in places people know. grounds them more in history
That only works if you actually know the places and their history....otherwise its a surefire way to screw up your book....
when it comes to a hotel where a man is killed, theres not much of the hotels history u need to know lol
you can probably just google it, or if you're really dedicated, go to a travel website, set your destination as berlin, and pick the most expensive hotel. chances are, it's famous.
Some additional holes to this. If set in the 80's hotels that exist now may not have then and names may be different and opposite buildings may or may not have been built. I think you're on a bit of a sicky wicket with what you're trying to do. You can get a feel for terrain and places by using Google maps, try zooming in on Berlin and switching to the satellite view, you'll find you can pick out hotels and you may even be able to locate a suitable opposite building. There are lots of uses for things like Google map views, for example if you're writing a car chase, you can glean lots of detail to factually portray the chase route, listing buildings you pass, bridges you cross, road names etc . . . without having to see, know or be on location.
One reason I advised you to make up a name is because having a fictional name for hotel makes the book more universal. If readers comes across some hotel in Germany in your book, they may think they are missing something. For all they know, the author may have written down the name assuming that his/her readers will understand what the hotel looks like, where it is, etc. Of course, this is ultimately your choice. If you really want a real hotel, then seije's advice is good.
In your story, is it going to be East Berlin or West Berlin? On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.
East Berlin also i just realised i called the second character a german agent...obviously i dnt mean an agent for germany...merely just an agent who is german....a double agent who is target for assassination by the east and the west
Check out this blog. Do a google search for Gridskipper: Nice Hotels in East Berlin You might want to contact the blogger to confirm which is the most appropriate hotel for your story.
By the way, have you read Len Deighton's Berlin Game. Berlin Game is a 1983 spy novel. Bernard, the protagonist, travels to East Berlin to assist the escape of Brahms Four, a double agent.
I've done that. I spent three weeks earlier this year planning out a car chase on google maps. I kept all of the streets and their real names, but I changed the buildings around to suite my needs. I only mentioned the Street names that needed to be mentioned though. If the Hotel name has little to do with the plot why are you wasting so much time and energy on it? Let me put it this way, the reader isn't going to even care for the name of the hotel if there is no reason to. I've fallen into the trap you're in, you're over thinking the research end of things, you're writing fiction right? There's no need for every location to be real and 100% accurate to the way it was back then, because if it was your characters couldn't be there.
Personally I think u can make up a hotel and describe it the way u want, that would be creative, don't u think?
if you want real places for your story, you'll have to do your homework and research the year your story takes place... it's easy to do now, with google... asking others to do your most basic work for you is not the way to go, if you want to succeed as a writer...
