Plot

In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run its course.—Anonymous

In Hotel Lux by Leander Haußmann, Michael "Bully" Herbig ends up in a Moscow hotel (which at the same time is a drop off for Communists) due to a misunderstanding while he is on the run from the Nazis.

Satire is allowed! That's how the cabaret artist Hans Zeisig (Michael Herbig) thought when, in 1938, he picked up Adolf Hitler as the target of his Stalin show in Berlin. Shortly thereafter, he sits in Moscow with false papers, and instead of a comedy career in Berlin or Hollywood, he is at the Hotel Lux, which has become a notorious focal point for exiled Communists. There he also meets his old Jewish buddy Siggi Meyer (Jürgen Vogel) again, whose Hitler impersonations in Berlin where also met with little enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it is unthinkable to get some rest in the hotel, because the false papers show Hans Zeisig as Hitler's personal astronomer, in which the Stalinist regime is highly interested.

Background information about Hotel Lux

The famous Hotel Lux is not an invention of the film, but a real historical venue. Originally built on top of a bakery, the luxury hotel on Gorkistraße 10 became a focal point for foreign communists in the 1920s, as it accommodated visitors to the Communist International. With rising fascism, Hotel Lux also became a haven for many Germans, including Walter Ulbricht and Wilhelm Pieck. Under the weight of the emigrants, the Hotel Lux lost all touches of luxury. Former residents reported beds with bugs and rats and screaming children in the corridors. But that was not all, because Hotel Lux was also the target of Stalin's great "purges", which is why the stay there ended fatally for a great number of communist elite (who actually sought protection from Hitler) .

Director Leander Haußmann chose Hotel Lux to show that even for good-natured but naive idealists like Zeisig and Meyer this period of persecution and upheaval could lead even harmless comedians to find themselves suddenly in midst of world history.