Cultural and Congress Center Liederhalle, Stuttgart Stuttgart, Berliner Platz 1–3, 1954–1956 Architects: Adolf Abel and Rolf Gutbrod (Liederhalle); Wolfgang Henning (annex) Photos: Brigida Gonzalez Author: Christian Holl The Cultural and Congress Center Liederhalle is nowadays considered to be one of the most important cultural buildings of the postwar period, one that approaches the ideal of the total work of art as only a few do. The catalogue of the German Museum of Architecture on German twentieth century architecture describes the Liederhalle as conveying to the young Federal Republic “a completely new idea of culture, community, celebration and public life”. In this concert hall elements of expressionist and organic architecture have been united in a very special way, and architecture and the fine arts have been merged into a unity in which one discipline cannot be imagined without the other. While the specialists took at first little notice of this building, which was dedicated on July 29, 1956, the reaction of the daily press was much more lively; it was called a great and right idea of building and also a revolutionary new idea, but one that did not originate from the need to be modern at any price. The newspaper Die Welt wrote about an “exciting vision”. Even the inhabitants of Stuttgart got used to this extraordinary building much faster than had been expected. Using exposed concrete for public buildings had been until then rather unusual, and it evoked associations with wartime bunkers, but the few mocking voices soon fell silent.