The Odeon is a former concert hall in the Odeonsplatz in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, which is named after it. Built in the early 19th century to a design by Leo von Klenze and forming a counterpoint to the externally identical Palais Leuchtenberg, it was rebuilt after being almost totally destroyed in World War II and now houses the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior.
The Odeon was built in 1826–1828 on a commission from King Ludwig I of Bavaria and was originally a concert hall and ballroom. Klenze designed the exterior as an identical counterpart to that of the Palais Leuchtenberg, so that there was no outward indication of its function. [1] The auditorium, which measured 75 by 125 feet (23 by 38 m) and seated 1,445, had two superimposed colonnades which provided access on the ground floor and a gallery with standing room, and a ceiling 50 feet (15 m) high with a skylight. [1] [2] The orchestra was accommodated in a semi-circular exedra, behind which in niches were busts by Johannes Leeb of the ten composers then considered most important in the history of music: Beethoven, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Haydn, Vogler, Méhul, Weber, Cimarosa and Winter. [2] The ceiling was decorated with frescoes in the Nazarene style: Apollo among the Muses by Wilhelm Kaulbach, Apollo among the Herdsmen by Adam Eberle and The Judgement of Midas by Hermann Anschütz. [2] [3] The hall, which has been called "one of the most extraordinary classical architectural solutions of the concert hall", [4] had excellent acoustics and was popular with the public. [1]
The building was gutted in an air raid on the night of 25 April 1944. Beginning in 1951, it was rebuilt by Josef Wiedemann to house the Ministry of the Interior. [1] Recreation of the façade took until 1954. The former auditorium became an interior courtyard. Numerous lovers of music and architecture asked for it to be restored as a concert space, but this was not technically or financially feasible. The preservationist and architect Erwin Schleich campaigned for it to be recreated on the site of the Palais Leuchtenberg, also destroyed in the war, but despite widespread support organised by the Arbeitskreis Odeon (Odeon Working Group) formed by Schleich in 1960, that plan was also rejected. It pitted preservationists who argued that such a recreation would be a "forgery" against those like Schleich who valued "social utility" over authenticity. [5]
In 2003–06, the courtyard was covered with a glazed roof (a gridshell) by the architecture firm of Ackermann and Partner. [6]
Charles VII was Prince-Elector of Bavaria from 26 February 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 to his death. He was also King of Bohemia from 1741 to 1743. Charles was a member of the House of Wittelsbach, and his reign as Holy Roman Emperor thus marked the end of three centuries of uninterrupted Habsburg imperial rule, although he was related to the Habsburgs by both blood and marriage.
Bavaria is the name given to a monumental, bronze sand-cast 19th-century statue in Munich, southern Germany. It is a female personification of the Bavarian homeland, and by extension its strength and glory.
The National Theatre on Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich, Germany, is a historic opera house, home of the Bavarian State Opera, Bavarian State Orchestra and the Bavarian State Ballet.
Leo von Klenze was a German architect and painter. He was the court architect of Ludwig I of Bavaria.
This article gives an overview about the architecture of Munich, Germany.
The Ludwigstraße in Munich is one of the city's four royal avenues next to the Brienner Straße, the Maximilianstraße and the Prinzregentenstraße. The avenue is named after King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The city's grandest boulevard still maintains its architectural uniformity envisioned as a grand street "worthy the kingdom" as requested by the king. The Ludwigstraße has served for state parades and funeral processions.
The neoclassical Brienner Straße in Munich is one of four royal avenues next to the Ludwigstraße, the Maximilianstraße and the Prinzregentenstraße. The boulevard was constructed from 1812 onwards, during the reigns of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his successor Ludwig I, in accordance with a plan by Karl von Fischer and Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell. The avenue is named after the Battle of Brienne.
Eugénie Hortense Auguste Napoléone de Beauharnais, princess of Leuchtenberg was a Franco-German princess. She was the second daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais and Princess Augusta of Bavaria, and a member of the House of Beauharnais. In 1826 she married Constantine, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche is a Catholic church in the Munich Residenz designed by Leo von Klenze and built between 1826 and 1837.
The Odeonsplatz is a large square in central Munich which was developed in the early 19th century by Leo von Klenze and is at the southern end of the Ludwigstraße, developed at the same time. The square is named for the former concert hall, the Odeon, on its northwestern side. The name Odeonsplatz has come to be extended to the parvis (forecourt) of the Residenz, in front of the Theatine Church and terminated by the Feldherrnhalle, which lies to the south of it. The square was the scene of a fatal gun battle which ended the march on the Feldherrnhalle during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
The Ministry of War was a ministry for military affairs of the Kingdom of Bavaria, founded as Ministerium des Kriegswesens on October 1, 1808 by King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. It was located on the Ludwigstraße in Munich. Today the building, which was built by Leo von Klenze between 1824 and 1830, houses the Bavarian public record office, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv und Staatsarchiv München.
Memorial for Franz Xaver Gabelsberger is a monument located in Maxvorstadt, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The monument is a bronze sculpture by the German sculptor Syrius Eberle. It was dedicated shortly after the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (1789-1849), the inventor of a cursive shorthand system. Casting was by Ferdinand von Miller.
The Palais Leuchtenberg, built in the early 19th century for Eugène de Beauharnais, first Duke of Leuchtenberg, is the largest palace in Munich. Located on the west side of the Odeonsplatz, where it forms an ensemble with the Odeon, it currently houses the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance. It was once home to the Leuchtenberg Gallery on the first floor.
The Palais Ludwig Ferdinand is an early 19th-century palace in Munich, Germany, designed by Leo von Klenze. It is located on the Wittelsbacherplatz but forms part of an ensemble with the buildings on the west side of the Odeonsplatz. It was Klenze's own residence, then belonged to Princes Alfons and Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria. It is now the headquarters of Siemens.
Ernst Haiger was a German architect.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Munich:
Volker Staab is a German architect.
Herzog-Max-Palais was a neoclassical palace at Ludwigstraße 13 in Munich, Germany. It belonged to the House of Wittelsbach and was built from 1828 to 1830 for Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria, father of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
Erwin Schleich was a German architect, architectural conservator, and architectural historian known for his post-war reconstruction of buildings and monuments in Munich.
Bavaria is the female symbolic figure and secular patron of Bavaria and appears as a personified allegory for the state of Bavaria in various forms and manifestations. She thus represents the secular counterpart to Mary as the religious Patrona Bavariae.
