Festhalle

The Festhalle Frankfurt stands in Frankfurt, Germany, as a multi-purpose arena for exhibitions, concerts, congresses, and other events. Its rectangular base carries a neo-baroque rotunda, crowned by a cupola that rises forty metres above the hall. Inside, a variable grandstand system changes the arrangement for seated or standing audiences.

Architect Friedrich von Thiersch won the design competition, and construction began in 1907 for Frankfurt’s fair. Emperor Wilhelm II officially opened the building in 1909, when its dome ranked among Europe’s largest. During the First World War, the hall became a soldiers’ camp in 1914. During the November pogroms of 1938, Jewish citizens were detained here before deportation to concentration camps.

A plaque in the rotunda preserves the memory of that persecution. After the Second World War, Frankfurt citizens and Mayor Walter Kolb prevented its demolition. Modernisation in the 1980s added air conditioning, while programmes brought Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Grateful Dead. The MTV Europe Music Awards also took place here in 2001 and 2012. The forty-metre dome later inspired designs including Centennial Hall in Wrocław.