The Konzerthaus Berlin is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...

in Berlin, the home of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Situated on the Gendarmenmarkt square in the central

Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kre ...

district of the city, it was originally built as a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. It initially operated from 1818 to 1821 under the name of the Schauspielhaus Berlin, then as the Theater am Gendarmenmarkt and Komödie. It became a concert hall after the Second World War, and its name changed to its present one in 1994. The Konzerthausorchester Berlin is the resident

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

of the Konzerthaus Berlin. The concert hall also hosts Young Euro Classic every summer, an international festival of

youth orchestra A youth orchestra is an orchestra made of young musicians, typically ranging from pre-teens or teenagers to those of conservatory age. Depending on the age range and selectiveness, they may serve different purposes. Orchestras for young stude ...

History

National-Theater (1802–1817)

The building's predecessor, the ''National-Theater'' in the

Friedrichstadt Friedrichstadt (; da, Frederiksstad) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km south of Husum. History The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. D ...

suburb, was destroyed by fire in 1817. It had been designed by

Carl Gotthard Langhans Carl Gotthard Langhans (15 December 1732 – 1 October 1808) was a Prussian master builder and royal architect. His churches, palaces, grand houses, interiors, city gates and theatres in Silesia (now Poland), Berlin, Potsdam and elsewhere bel ...

, and was inaugurated on 1 January 1802.

Königliches Schauspielhaus (1817–1870)

The new hall was designed by

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...

between 1818 and 1821. The new ''Königliches Schauspielhaus'' was inaugurated on 18 June 1821 with the acclaimed premiere of

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...

's opera ''

Der Freischütz ' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 ...

''. Other works that have premiered at this theater include ''Undine'' by

E. T. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in ...

in 1816. During the

1848 Revolution The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

its main auditorium housed the Prussian National Assembly for several weeks in September, with the Gendarmenmarkt a major arena of political events.

Preußisches Staatstheater (1870–1944)

Notable premieres during this period included '' Penthesilea'' by

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amph ...

in 1876, and '' The Assumption of Hannele'' by

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He rece ...

in 1893. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

the ''Schauspielhaus'' reopened under the name of ''Preußisches Staatstheater Berlin'' in October 1919. Under the direction of noted German Expressionist producer and director

Leopold Jessner Leopold Jessner (3 March 1878 – 13 December 1945) was a noted producer and director of German Expressionist theater and cinema. His first film, '' Hintertreppe'' (1921), is considered a major turning point which paved the way for the later ...

, it soon became one of the leading theaters of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

, a tradition ambivalently continued by his successor Gustaf Gründgens after the Nazi takeover in 1933. Gründgens directed a famous staging of ''

Goethe's Faust ''Faust'' is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as ''Faust, Part One'' and ''Faust, Part Two''. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely st ...

'' and the premiere of

's tragedy ''Iphigenie in Delphi'' in 1941.

After World War II

Severely damaged by Allied bombing and the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

, the building was rebuilt from 1977 onwards and reopened as the concert hall of the ''Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester'' in 1984 with a gala concert. The exterior, including many of the sculptures of composers by Christian Friedrich Tieck and Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber, is a faithful reconstruction of Schinkel's designs, while the interior was adapted in a Neoclassical style meeting the conditions of the altered use. The great hall is equipped with a notable four-manual

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

built by

Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden is a privately owned organ building and restoration company in Dresden, Germany. History The company was founded in 1808 in Cämmerswalde by three brothers, Gotthelf Friedrich, Johann Gotthold und Carl Gottlieb Jehmlic ...

in 1984. The organ has four manuals and pedal, 74 stops and 5,811 pipes. In 1994 the venue was renamed the "Konzerthaus Berlin". As of 2004, the hall's acoustics were considered to be among the five best concert venues in the world for music and/or opera.Long, Marshall
"What Is So Special About Shoebox Halls? Envelopment, Envelopment, Envelopment"
''Acoustics Today'', April 2009, pp. 21–25. . The other venues are Buenos Aires'

Teatro Colon Teatro may refer to: * Theatre * Teatro (band) Teatro, Italian for "theatre", is a vocal group signed to the Sony BMG music label. The members of Teatro are Jeremiah James, Andrew Alexander, Simon Bailey and Stephen Rahman-Hughes. Band members ...

, Vienna's

Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Great ...

, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boston's Symphony Hall. Schauspielhaus berlin.jpg, Karl Friedrich Schinkel's design, copper engraving, about 1830 150524 Konzerthaus Berlin (Nacht) - clone.jpg, Konzerthaus Berlin at night (2015) BerlinKonzerthaus.JPG, Interior in 2005

Notes

Bibliography

* Felix Pestemer: ''Alles bleibt anders : das Konzerthaus Berlin und seine Geschichte(n)'', avant-verlag (Verlag), Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3-96445-046-3, .

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Mitte Concert halls in Germany Music in Berlin 1821 establishments in Germany Karl Friedrich Schinkel buildings Rebuilt buildings and structures in Berlin Classicist architecture in Germany Greek Revival architecture in Germany Neoclassical architecture in Berlin