Back in Berlin I had to find another job. After a brief intermezzo at the Hotel Eden am Zoo, where I didn't survive the probation period because of the same DAF problem as at the Excelsior, I finally found another job at the Hotel Alhambra, a small but elegant hotel on the Kurfürstendamm. After the war it became Hotel Tusculum, and later a training school for hoteliers was added and it became the Hotel am Kurfürstendamm; it closed in 2011.

The hotel belonged to Willy Hein, who owned about a dozen cinemas in Berlin, mainly in the west end. The hotel was his hobbyhorse. It had one of the best restaurants in Berlin, also called Tusculum. Willy Hein gave the hotel director, a Herr Fenner, free rein, including in personnel matters. Fenner had no reservations about hiring me, and I had no problem with him as a manager. He was objective and always fair. From the very first day I felt in my element. There weren't many staff in the hotel; a couple of chambermaids for each of the four storeys, and – before they were called up for military service – two or three porters and as many bellboys. At the beginning there was also a telephonist, but he was soon called up and the switchboard remained unmanned. I was given the job of handling phone calls, and because that took place in the reception area I often took on the porter's job when he was away.

The hotel was a relatively small operation, and the staff got to know the regular guests very well. They included a lot of well-known personalities, like the writer Jo Hans Rösler and the actors Rudolf Fernau and Waldemar Leitgeb. They stayed with us regularly. But there were also a lot of officers. One day a whole detachment of officers from the Waffen-SS was stationed in the hotel, led by Standartenführer Hermann Fegelein from Munich. The way I heard it, Fegelein had been leader of an SS cavalry unit which wasn't needed for the war. When the Soviet Union was invaded in June 1941 he was sent to the Eastern Front, and after that I saw him a few times again in the hotel – each time with a higher rank and a new medal.