On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, the Beethovenhalle Bonn reopened after nearly 10 years of renovation. The concert hall welcomed audiences back with a “Beethoven Night” concert lasting almost four hours.
In front of approximately 1,600 guests, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivered the opening address. He thus followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Theodor Heuss, who inaugurated the “bold and modern building” (as the then Federal President described it in his speech) in September 1959.
At the opening of the renovated venue, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier noted that the Beethovenhalle is not only dedicated to Bonn’s most famous son and his music. “It is also — and you can surely guess that this is particularly close to my heart — a place of democratic history.”
This democratic history began after World War II, Germany lay in ruins — destroyed, divided and internationally isolated. How might the country begin again? The Western Allies required German leaders to establish a new democratic order and form a republic its citizens could trust in. But which of the devastated cities could serve as a seat of government?
The orchestra rehearsing in the newly renovated BeethovenhalleImage: Anastassia Boutsko/DW
After considerable debate, the choice fell on Bonn, a small university town on the Rhine River in the country’s West — and also the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven.
An exciting commission
Bonn was unprepared to function as a capital, and residents had to improvise. The Parliamentary Council first met in the Natural History Museum, surrounded by taxidermied animals and prehistoric artifacts. There was also no concert hall: The 19th-century municipal Beethovenhalle had been destroyed in a bombing raid in 1944.
A new building, however, was already planned. The architect was 29-year-old Siegfried Wolske, who won the 1954 design competition out of 100 submissions.
Siegfried Wolske in 1959 in front of a drawing of the BeethovenhalleImage: Theo Schafgans/Schafgans Archiv
“Wolske was one of those very young, motivated, creative people who represented the desire for a fresh start in a new Germany, in a young democracy,” says architectural historian Constanze Falke. She spent more than 15 years working to save and restore the Beethovenhalle and oversaw the renovation as the city’s chief conservator.
“But the young architect had already lived through a long and dramatic chapter,” Falke told DW. Drafted into the army at 18, the Berlin native became a prisoner of war and, after returning home, earned his high school diploma at 21 before beginning his studies. “The city of Bonn was courageous enough to entrust him with the overall construction management,” she explains.
After three and a half years of construction, the hall — simple, comfortable and elegant — was completed and handed over to the city.
The newly designed forecourt of the Beethovenhalle shines after a long construction periodImage: Marc John/Bonn.digital/picture alliance
For the next 60 years, the Beethovenhalle served as the “parlor” of German democracy. It hosted federal assemblies, party conferences and, above all, concerts. During its six decades of operation, more than 15,000 events were held: The building eventually deteriorated. After heated debates over whether to demolish or renovate it, the inhabitants of Bonn decided to preserve the hall.
A gem of post-war modernism
Falke describes the Beethovenhalle as a “special feature of postwar modernist architecture.” In architectural terms, the building exemplifies “organic architecture,” a style closely associated with Hans Scharoun. Wolske was actually Scharoun’s student at the Technical University of Berlin and applied his mentor’s ideas here,” she says.
The façade of the Beethovenhalle features blue Italian mosaic tileImage: Anastassia Boutsko/DW
The school of thought, which emerged during the Bauhaus era, suited the post-war moment: Away from ostentation and rigidity, toward a simple functionality that consciously rejected Nazi monumentalism. The aim was to create buildings that harmonized with their surroundings, with forms shaped by function.
The hall’s modest exterior contrasts with its richly detailed interior. The list of materials reads like a travelogue: Italian marble, Swedish granite, precious woods from West Africa and Japan. According to Falke, the Beethovenhalle incorporates these international materials for two main reasons. First, trade routes reopening after the war had made such materials available again. More important though, she says, is the building’s commitment to authenticity. “The material itself should have an impact; it appears just as it is.”
The space opened in 1959 was praised as ‘bold and modern’Image: Schafgans Archiv/Theo Schafgans
The variety of spaces posed major challenges during the renovation. Adapting rooms designed during a different era to meet modern standards took years and cost millions. Ultimately, the total cost rose above 220 million euros ($258 million), whereas Wolske completed the original building for just under 10 million Deutschmarks: Roughly an eighth of that.
Borrowing a metaphor from a colleague, Falke likens it to driving a truck into a garage intended for a car. Working with existing structures is expensive, she notes, but she doesn’t question that necessity. “If we have a monument that is significant for its time, it’s our duty to protect and preserve it properly, ensuring it remains accessible for future generations as a testament to the past.”
Conductor Dirk Kaftan, interviewed by DW in the foyer of the new concert hallImage: Anastassia Boutsko/DW
Opening with Beethoven and Mahler
Above all, the Beethovenhalle can now reclaim its original role: As a place for people to experience music. It will once again be the home venue of the municipal Beethoven Orchestra.
After an almost ten-year absence, conductor Dirk Kaftan is eager to return to this “new-old home.” The Beethovenhalle, he says, is meant to “reflect the city’s diversity — through music, through culture, through discursive programs, participation and community projects, youth work and music education.”
The works to be performed during the long Beethoven Night, which this year takes place one day before Beethoven’s255th birthday, include Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, performed by Bonn’s star pianist Fabian Müller, as well as a work by the young Croatian composer Sara Glojnaric.
Construction site concert: The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn gave a concert in October 2024 for those involved in the long-term construction workImage: Marc John/Bonn.digital/picture alliance
“But the highlight of the evening is Gustav Mahler’s’Resurrection’ Symphony, the Second,” Kaftan told DW. It will be performed “with a wink, but really only a very small one. Because this piece is about the things that remain, even when we no longer exist.”
The editorial team thanks the Schafgans Foundation and Boris Schafgans for their generous support.
DW broadcasts the opening concert and ceremony on December 16, 2025, beginning 7 p.m. CET on the DW Classical YouTube channel.
This article was translated from German.
