Over two years after Berlin’s giant aquarium exploded into the surrounding streets of the capital, the site’s re-opening ceremony did not go exactly to plan.

Former site of giant aquarium re-opens in Berlin

A new attraction in the lobby of the Radisson Blu hotel in Berlin-Mitte has opened. The site has been closed since December 2022, when a 16-metre-high aquarium containing 1.500 fish of over 100 species burst and spilled out into the surrounding city streets.

The aquarium has been replaced by a vertical garden installation, featuring nearly 2.000 plant species over 120 square metres. Former mayor and current economics senator for Berlin, Franziska Giffey, gave a speech at the opening ceremony.

Despite extensive research, it still isn’t entirely clear why the aquarium burst back in 2022. By piecing together 2D copies of the debris pieces in a storage unit in Brandenburg, engineers developed four main theories: incorrect usage, a flaw in construction, a flaw in production methods or flawed materials.

Aquarium re-opening ceremony disrupted by fire brigade

For a few moments during Giffey’s speech at the re-opening ceremony, it looked like the Radisson’s lobby may in fact be cursed. With the senator just a few words into her speech, a fire alarm began to sound and guests were instructed in German, English and Spanish on a tannoy to “leave the hotel immediately”. 

Luckily, it was a figurative false alarm; the hotel’s fire alarms had been set off by fog machines used during the re-opening ceremony.

Thumb image credit: Sergiy Palamarchuk / Shutterstock.com