The Stadthalle Hannover (Municipal hall) is a concert hall and event venue in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, the capital of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, Germany. The large hall is called Kuppelsaal, after its dome. The hall was opened in 1914. It is the largest hall for classical music in Germany, seating 3,600. Severely damaged during World War II, it was restored slightly altered. The hall is now part of the . The listed historic building is a landmark of the city.
Location
The Stadthalle is located in the district
Zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological g ...
, near the
Eilenriede
The german: Eilenriede, italics=unset (literally 'alder marsh', meaning 'marsh populated with alder trees') is a municipal forest in Hanover, Germany. It is the largest urban city forest in Germany, one of the largest in Europe, and is nearly ...
and the
Eilenriedestadion
The Eilenriedestadion (also known as the 96-Stadion) is a football stadium in Hanover, Germany. It is the home ground of the reserve team of Bundesliga club Hannover 96, Hannover 96 II, and is situated at the edge of the Eilenriede forest in th ...
, right next to the with a Japanese tea garden and a rose garden. It is connected to the highway system by
Messeschnellweg, and can be reached by bus.
History
The Stadthalle was designed by architects
Paul Bonatz
Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many styl ...
, a young architect from
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, and his partner , who won a competition in 1910. It was built from 1912 to 1914.
The domed hall in
neoclassical style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...
was inspired by the
Pantheon
Pantheon may refer to:
* Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building
Arts and entertainment Comics
*Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization
* ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...
in Rome.
It was conceived as a multi-functional municipal hall for concerts, congresses and conventions, with a rising podium for 80 players and 400 to 600 singers. Seating an audience of 3,600,
it is the largest hall for classical music in Germany by capacity.
The hall was opened in 1914 with a large Musikfest. It proved an impressive space (''beeindruckendes Raumerlebnis''), but had problematic acoustics.
The hall was severely damaged by
bombing in World War II. It was restored slightly altered, supervised by the original architect Bonatz. Changes were made to the roof and the
tholobate
In architecture, a tholobate (from el, θολοβάτης, tholobates, dome pedestal) or drum is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism.
In the earlier Byzanti ...
.
[Broschüre ''100 HCC Hannover Congress Centrum''] After the founding of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
in 1946, with the city to be the state capital, the
state parliament met there temporarily from 1947 until the new building in the
Leineschloss
The Leineschloss (English: Leine Palace), situated on the Leine in Hanover, Germany, is the former residence of the Hanoverian dukes, electors and kings. Currently it is the seat of the Landtag of Lower Saxony.
The first building on the site w ...
was completed in 1961.
The Kuppelsaal was restored again from 2015 to January 2016, including technical modernisation, more comfortable seating and improved
acoustics
Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...
.
References
Further reading
* : ''Stadthalle.'' In: (ed.): ''Stadt Hannover'' (= '', Baudenkmale in Niedersachsen'', vol. 10.1.) Vieweg, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1983, , pp. 155ff.
* Landeshauptstadt Hannover (ed.): ''50 Jahre Stadtpark. 1. Bundesgartenschau 1951.'' Hannover 2001.
*
Waldemar R. Röhrbein: ''Hannover – H. Congress-Centrum (HCC).'' In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.): ''
Stadtlexikon Hannover. Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart.'' Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, , p. 254.
* Birte Rogacki-Thiemann: ''„Einen ganz gewaltigen Eindruck macht der eigentliche Kuppelsaal...“'' In: ''Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter, Neue Folge'', No. 68. Wehrhahn-Verlag, Hannover 2014, , pp. 3–18.
* Jörg Friedrich, Annett Mickel-Lorenz, Christoph Borchers (eds.): ''Kuppelsaaltraum. Eine Philharmonie für Hannover.'' Jovis Verlag, Berlin 2014, .
External links
* (in German)
{{authority control
Concert halls in Germany
Domes
Buildings and structures in Hanover
Buildings and structures completed in 1914