Germany is often admired as the home of fiscal discipline and public modesty.
Hamburg’s concert hall the Elbphilharmonie illustrates two other enviable qualities: a passion for music, and a competitive relationship between its largest cities, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, that triggers huge cultural investments.
Made in Germany, six years late and, at €789m, 10 times over budget, the Elbphilharmonie – one of Europe’s biggest ever regeneration-through-cultural-renewal projects.
It has overcome some seemingly insuperable obstacles. One of Hamburg’s most famous sons, the late chancellor Helmut Schmidt, once said the project reminded him of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s desire to make “as big an impression as possible”. It nearly broke its Swiss architects, Herzog & De Meuron.
1917, in the depths of the first world war, the German modernist architect Bruno Taut made drawings of his feverish architectural dreams, of crystal halls built on the tops of the Alps, in which there would be nothing but silence and a little beautiful music.
A century later the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, authors of Allianz Arena and the Beijing Olympic stadium, have come closer than anyone might have expected to realising Taut’s fantasy. They have put a crystalline palace for music in the air, albeit on top of a large warehouse in Hamburg rather than a mountain, and with a hotel, apartments and car park added to the brief, at the cost of an effort only slightly less than Taut imagined.
In 2003, when Herzog & de Meuron’s concept was put forward, the first public and press reactions were enthusiastic, even though there wasn’t an absolutely overwhelming need for a new concert hall – WE WANT IT said one headline – so the city adopted the project and eventually paid for most of it.
The association of the city’s architects wrote a letter saying that they liked Herzog & de Meuron’s concept so much that they didn’t mind if the city waived the usual requirement to hold a competition to choose the architects.
Since then, the agonies of budget and contract changed the public mood in a way that may now be changing again. The legality of the architects’ appointment was also challenged, until the European court decided in their favour.
Source: The Guardian view on culture and devolution: the Hamburg model Editorial
Hamburg’s concert hall the Elbphilharmonie illustrates two other enviable qualities: a passion for music, and a competitive relationship between its largest cities, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, that triggers huge cultural investments.
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| Elbphilharmonie, ‘a crystalline palace for music in the air, albeit on top of a large warehouse’ |
Made in Germany, six years late and, at €789m, 10 times over budget, the Elbphilharmonie – one of Europe’s biggest ever regeneration-through-cultural-renewal projects.
It has overcome some seemingly insuperable obstacles. One of Hamburg’s most famous sons, the late chancellor Helmut Schmidt, once said the project reminded him of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s desire to make “as big an impression as possible”. It nearly broke its Swiss architects, Herzog & De Meuron.
 |
| German modernist architect Bruno Taut made drawings of crystal halls built on the tops of the Alps |
1917, in the depths of the first world war, the German modernist architect Bruno Taut made drawings of his feverish architectural dreams, of crystal halls built on the tops of the Alps, in which there would be nothing but silence and a little beautiful music.
 |
| Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, authors of Allianz Arena the home of the FC Bayern München |
A century later the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, authors of Allianz Arena and the Beijing Olympic stadium, have come closer than anyone might have expected to realising Taut’s fantasy. They have put a crystalline palace for music in the air, albeit on top of a large warehouse in Hamburg rather than a mountain, and with a hotel, apartments and car park added to the brief, at the cost of an effort only slightly less than Taut imagined.
 |
| Hamburg, and Elbphilharmonie by Herzog & de Meuron |
In 2003, when Herzog & de Meuron’s concept was put forward, the first public and press reactions were enthusiastic, even though there wasn’t an absolutely overwhelming need for a new concert hall – WE WANT IT said one headline – so the city adopted the project and eventually paid for most of it.
The association of the city’s architects wrote a letter saying that they liked Herzog & de Meuron’s concept so much that they didn’t mind if the city waived the usual requirement to hold a competition to choose the architects.
Since then, the agonies of budget and contract changed the public mood in a way that may now be changing again. The legality of the architects’ appointment was also challenged, until the European court decided in their favour.
Source: The Guardian view on culture and devolution: the Hamburg model Editorial
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