National-Theater (1802–1817) The building's predecessor, the
National-Theater in the
Friedrichstadt suburb, was destroyed by fire in 1817. It had been designed by
Carl Gotthard Langhans, and was inaugurated on 1 January 1802.
Königliches Schauspielhaus (1817–1870) The new hall was designed by
Karl Friedrich Schinkel between 1818 and 1821. The new
Königliches Schauspielhaus was inaugurated on 18 June 1821 with the acclaimed premiere of
Carl Maria von Weber's opera
Der Freischütz. Other works that have premiered at this theater include
Undine by
E. T. A. Hoffmann in 1816. During the
1848 Revolution its main auditorium housed the
Prussian National Assembly for several weeks in September, with the Gendarmenmarkt a major arena of political events.
Preußisches Staatstheater (1870–1944) Notable premieres during this period included
Penthesilea by
Heinrich von Kleist in 1876, and
The Assumption of Hannele by
Gerhart Hauptmann in 1893. After
World War I the
Schauspielhaus reopened under the name of
Preußisches Staatstheater Berlin in October 1919. Under the direction of noted
German Expressionist producer and director
Leopold Jessner, it soon became one of the leading theaters of the
Weimar Republic, a tradition ambivalently continued by his successor
Gustaf Gründgens after the Nazi takeover in 1933. Gründgens directed a famous staging of ''
Goethe's Faust'' and the premiere of
Gerhart Hauptmann's tragedy
Iphigenie in Delphi in 1941.
After World War II Severely damaged by
Allied bombing and the
Battle of Berlin, the building was rebuilt from 1977 onwards and reopened as the concert hall of the
Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester in 1984 with a gala concert. The exterior, including many of the sculptures of composers by
Christian Friedrich Tieck and
Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber, is a faithful reconstruction of Schinkel's designs, while the interior was adapted in a
Neoclassical style meeting the conditions of the altered use. The great hall is equipped with a notable four-manual
pipe organ built by
Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden in 1984. The organ has four manuals and pedal, 74 stops and 5,811 pipes. In 1994 the venue was renamed the "Konzerthaus Berlin". As of 2004, the hall's acoustics were considered to be among the five best concert venues in the world for music and/or opera. ==Gallery==