Enjoying concerts in a place of democracy: the Goldsaal in the Funkhaus am Dornbusch was built as a plenary hall for the Bundestag.
In 1949, architect Gerhard Weber, who had trained at the famous Bauhaus, was commissioned to build a plenary hall for the future German Bundestag. However, it was not Frankfurt that became the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, but Bonn - and the shell of the building was quickly converted into the studio building and headquarters of Hessischer Rundfunk (hr). Its jewel: the 1950s-style Goldhalle, once conceived as a plenary hall. Two high-calibre music ensembles regularly perform here in the listed Großer Sendesaal: The hr-Bigband is regarded as one of the world's best professional big bands and the hr-Sinfonieorchester as a musical jack-of-all-trades with an enormous spectrum of concert formats. Both orchestras give concerts all over the world, but their home ground is the Großer Sendesaal. Also exciting: on guided tours of the Funkhaus am Dornbusch, you can see not only the Gold Hall but also the building where the US broadcaster American Forces Network (AFN) had its European headquarters until 1994.
In 1949, architect Gerhard Weber, who had trained at the famous Bauhaus, was commissioned to build a plenary hall for the future German Bundestag. However, it was not Frankfurt that became the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, but Bonn - and the shell of the building was quickly converted into the studio building and headquarters of Hessischer Rundfunk (hr). Its jewel: the 1950s-style Goldhalle, once conceived as a plenary hall. Two high-calibre music ensembles regularly perform here in the listed Großer Sendesaal: The hr-Bigband is regarded as one of the world's best professional big bands and the hr-Sinfonieorchester as a musical jack-of-all-trades with an enormous spectrum of concert formats. Both orchestras give concerts all over the world, but their home ground is the Großer Sendesaal. Also exciting: on guided tours of the Funkhaus am Dornbusch, you can see not only the Gold Hall but also the building where the US broadcaster American Forces Network (AFN) had its European headquarters until 1994.
