Trotsky and the Copenhagen Bristol

The case of Leon Trotsky and the Hotel Bristol in Copenhagen has come under scrutinuty recently. The details of the Dewey trial in Mexico, which set out to vindicate Trotsky of the accusations brought against him by Stalin during the Show Trials of 1936, are laid out in the 'Leon Trotsky and the Hotel Bristol That Never Was' (chapter 9 in High Times at the Hotel Bristol). It centres on the allegation that Trostsky had met with anti-Stalinists in the cafe of the Bristol hotel in Copenhagen in 1927: his defence was that the hotel, adjoining the Grand Hotel, had burned down in 1917 and no longer existed, so he couldn't have met anyone there. The hotel and cafe are pictured here.

In 1920 the Hotel Bristol was opened in Oslo by Waldemar Jensen, who, according to the hotel's history, chose the name after buying a job lot of cutlery and silverware from the bankrupt Bristol in Copenhagen. The Oslo Bristol is a handsome building, with a long tradition for live music, and it remains one of the city's best.