Right in the center of the metropolis whose infamous wall a certain ' 80s beefcake claim to have helped deplume down , there ’s a small , hidden museum in his honour . It might have started off as just a joke and a shrine , but Berlin ’s David Hasselhoff Museum celebrate its one - year anniversary this calendar month , consummate with mountain of revelers who come to watch television montages of the Americanactorandsingerwhoinexplicablybecame a German ethnical image .
It ’s not in many travel guides and is on even few official maps , but the Hoff museum is hide away in the basement of the trendyCircus Hostelin Berlin ’s Mitte neighborhood . fit in to the staff , it ’s most often found when visitors at the upstairs café or cellar bar stumble upon it on their manner to the restroom . " multitude often amount into the legal community giggling after having discovered it , " bartender and museum conservator Ally Chaplin tellsmental_floss . " We also have a few Hoff masquerade left over from one of our party display in the bar , which promote citizenry to ask about him , and then we can send out them to front at the museum if they have n’t already found it . "
The portrait that dish up as the original Hoff shrine at The Circus Hostel . // Erika Berlin
Originally devised as a gimmicky shrine around eight years ago , the taproom ’s patrons embrace the dark , framed portraiture of the actor and would occasionally graffiti their passion for him around the measure . When the hostel renovated in 2014 and installed its own microbrewery in the smear the shrine had stood , one of the hostelry ’s Centennial State - possessor suggested expanding their Hoff traditional knowledge with a museum in an idle hallway on the diametrical side of the cellar . Chaplin take on the project , spend months purge eBay and Amazon for memorabilia . " TheKnight Ridercar was the hardest item to plug , " she say . " They fare up sporadically on eBay auctions , but they get quite expensive . "
Chaplin — who fatigue a " Do n’t Hassel the Hoff"teeto the museum ’s anniversary party — pronounce she planned out the space in four loose class : one celebrating Hasselhoff ’s influence in Berlin , plane section on both of his successful television shows ( Knight RiderandBaywatch ) , and then one boost theircampaign to transfer the name of the streetoutside the hostel , Weinbergsweg , to David - Hasselhoff - Strasse ( strasseis the German word for street ) .
David Hasselhoff execute his mega - hit " Looking for Freedom " at a 1989 New Year ’s Eve concertalong the Berlin Wallwhile wearing a piano - keyboard scarf joint like this one . // Erika Berlin
As for the original prowess the museum bluster , Chaplin say that , based on her Google search , the outsize , reclining Hoff that greet visitor is the orotund Hasselhoff stencil in the Earth . ( If true , it would be just another man record the Hoff holds claim to : He once held the Guinness World Record for most - watched man in television history — which Hugh Laurie catch in 2011 — and also holds the platter for the highest reverse bungee cord jump . ) When the mural first debut , Chaplin had let in some fake chest whisker on her design . visitant would jokingly stroke the breast hair to pay tribute to Hasselhoff , but the staff soon had to remove the tomentum . " It got really oleaginous and stark very quickly , " bartender / barista Manuela Hristova says . " People just could n’t jib touching it ! "
And though Hasselhoff ’s icon status in Germany is n’t nearly as wakeless as foreigners often be given to think—“German tourists realize quicker that it ’s a jest more or less and the others still endeavor to find a ground why the Hoff is our hero , " Hristova says — the actor did manage to have a bit of slang name for him in the preceding decade . In 2007,a video of himlying shirtless on the story , drunkenly essay to deplete a cheeseburger , sound viral . The resulting German set phrase , gehasselhofft , roughly transform as " to be passing intoxicated , as Hasselhoff . "
It ’s fitting , then , that patrons can knock back a few while hear the museum and recalling their pet Hoff moment . " It ’s happened a span of times that guests would know much more about him than we do , or that they would have a friend who ’s very obsessed with him or have take in him live , " Hristova says . " Normally people are curious if there ’s a reason why we chose David Hasselhoff , but it is just for playfulness , really . "
