Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle

Bombs destroyed the first Liederhalle on the night of 7–8 October 1943: fourteen halls, opened in 1864 to designs by Christian Friedrich von Leins, reduced to shell. The Stuttgarter Liederkranz went on singing among the ruins and campaigned for a successor. What Adolf Abel and Rolf Gutbrod built in 1955–56 was not a reconstruction but an argument — mosaic-clad, irregular, unmistakably of its decade — opened on 29 July 1956 and under monument protection since 1987. Inside are two auditoria of deliberately asymmetrical shape: the Beethovensaal, seating a little over two thousand, its ceiling a sculptural form often likened to a grand piano, and the smaller Mozartsaal, an irregular pentagon for some 750. The Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics have both played here, along with visiting orchestras from across Europe, while congresses fill the building between concerts. Few post-war German halls have worn their period so well.