Regarding the high profile restaurant in Palast der Rebublik,
I have asked myself many times. The restaurant was chosen
by one of the East German friends Mario Roellig, He had been
pressured by the Stasi to work as informer for them, he refused
and was moved from a lucrative waiters position at SXF to a
pot washer in the bahnhof mission next to Friedrichstrasse S-
bahn. Mario also had a close friendship with a West Berlin
politician, so was of great interest to the Stasi. I think that
Mario may have been pressured into arranging the restaurant
I and my American friends dine at. There us a lot of info on the
web about Mario, He also made a film "Der Ost Komplex"
which was released a couple of years ago.
Lance Shippey