Harmonie

The Harmonie in Heilbronn is a concert and congress complex with two principal halls that can accommodate different scales of public event. The Theodor-Heuss-Saal covers 1,280 square metres and provides up to 2,015 seats in theatre configuration. Its 220-square-metre stage supports musical and staged presentations. The smaller Wilhelm-Maybach-Saal covers 558 square metres, accommodates up to 688 in theatre seating and can be divided for separate uses. Concert programmes share the complex with conferences, assemblies and receptions. The combination of a large performance hall, divisible secondary spaces and supporting facilities enables the Harmonie to serve both cultural and civic programmes in the city. Heilbronn's Harmoniegesellschaft, founded in 1814 as a reading and entertainment society, built itself a hall in 1876 to plans by Robert von Reinhardt. Allied bombing left nothing of it. The rubble was cleared in 1951 and a wholly new Harmonie was inaugurated on 29 November 1958, with the 2,000-seat Theodor-Heuss-Saal and the smaller, divisible Wilhelm-Maybach-Saal among its rooms. The Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn keeps its offices and rehearsal room in the building, which works now as much as a congress centre as a concert hall.