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Konzerthaus Berlin

arts Maturity 7-9 Next article →

The Konzerthaus Berlin is a famous place for music. It sits on the Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin. This square is in the Mitte district.

The building is home to the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. This is a special group of musicians. Every summer, the hall hosts Young Euro Classic. This is a festival for youth orchestras. It brings young musicians together from many places.

Inside the hall, the sound is very special. It is built in a Neoclassical style. This style uses classic shapes and looks. The great hall has a huge pipe organ.

This organ was built by Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden in 1984. It has four manuals and a pedal. There are 74 stops to change the sound. It also has 5,811 pipes. The hall's sound is very clear and beautiful.

This building has a long history. Before this hall, there was a National-Theater. A fire destroyed that theater in 1817. Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the new building. He worked on it between 1818 and 1821. The new hall opened on 18 June 1821. It held the premiere of an opera. The opera was named Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber.

Many famous people used this space. In 1876, the play Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist premiered here. Later, Gerhart Hauptmann premiered his play in 1893. During the 1848 Revolution, the hall held a big meeting. The Prussian National Assembly met there for several weeks. After World War I, it was called the Preußisches Staatstheater. Leopold Jessner and Gustaf Gründgens were famous directors there.

The building was badly damaged during World War II. People began to rebuild it in 1977. The outside looks like Schinkel's original design. It has sculptures of composers by two artists. These artists were Christian Friedrich Tieck and Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber. In 1984, it reopened as a concert hall. It was renamed Konzerthaus Berlin in 1994. Experts say its sound is among the five best in the world.

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