A place with history

The ground on which the Historische Stadthalle now stands was privately owned by the Küpper family until 1894. In 1831, Abraham Küpper bought an old inn on the Johannisberg (one of the many hills on which Wuppertal is built), which had a hall seating some 1,000 people. The concerts held there may be regarded as the start of a long musical tradition on the Johannisberg.

The decision to construct a concert hall and assembly room on this spot led to the announcement of an architectural competition in 1895. The actual building phase lasted from 1896 to 1900 and the official opening of the Historische Stadthalle was celebrated from 6 to 8 July 1900 with a dazzling musical festival, one of whose conductors was a young Richard Strauss.

Although the Historische Stadthalle survived both World Wars more or less unscathed, the character and appearance of the rooms were altered substantially in the fifties in keeping with the architectural taste of the day. All the pictorial elements and colourful mouldings disappeared under a layer of monochrome paint.

The Historische Stadthalle was painstakingly renovated and rehabilitated between 1991 and 1995 in order to recreate and optimize the original aesthetic and functional qualities of the edifice.

On 8 December 1995, the ceremony to mark the opening of the „new“, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal enticed 40,000 admiring visitors into rooms which had been returned to their former glory by master craftsmen. Since then, the participants and organizers of up to 500 events a year have demonstrated their undiminished enthusiasm for this architectural gem.