Gewandhaus (German: ) is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics.

Venue: Gewandhaus
Address: Augustusplatz 8
Town: Zentrum, DE

Gewandhaus (German: ) is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first concert hall was constructed in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe inside the Gewandhaus, a building used by cloth (garment) merchants. Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (The Emperor Concerto) premiered there in 1811. Felix Mendelssohn is particularly associated with the first Gewandhaus, of which he became director in 1835. Wagner's overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2 June 1862; the full opera was not performed until 1868) Brahms's A German Requiem (first full performance, 18 February 1869) The Altes Gewandhaus was used for concerts until 1886. Despite several expansions, it eventually became too small to accommodate the burgeoning number of concertgoers from Germany's newly emergent middle class. Between 1893 and 1896 it was repurposed, partially demolished, and refitted to form an annexe of the Städtisches Kaufhaus. The second Gewandhaus was designed by Martin Gropius. It was in the new neighbourhood Musikviertel and opened on 11 December 1884. It had a main concert hall and a chamber music hall. During this era the Gewandhaus was directed by conductors such as Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. It was severely damaged in the firebombing of Leipzig in World War II during raids on 4 December 1943 and 20 February 1944. Despite initial plans for rebuilding, the East German government deemed the ruins too structurally unsound, and they were demolished on 29 March 1968. The site was used as a car park for decades until the Humanities faculty of Leipzig University opened on the grounds in 2002. The third, current Gewandhaus, on Augustusplatz and the eastern part of the inner city ring road, opened on 8 October 1981, 200 years after the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra moved into the original hall. Conductor Kurt Masur laid the foun