The New Royal Opera House in Berlin was a project of the Prussian government and Kaiser Wilhelm II to build a new opera house in Berlin, which was prevented by the First World War and the financial shortage of the Weimar Republic. It was one of the most protracted and convoluted building projects of the imperial era. In 1924, the critic and journalist Paul Westheim described it as the "most grotesque architectural comedy of all time".Das Kunstblatt, 8, pp. 135
Previous history
The plans for a new opera house were triggered by the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago on December 30, 1903. After the Berlin State Opera had previously been considered too small, with its 1,500 seats, its safety was now also in doubt. The Emperor sent a telegram to his Finance Minister Georg von Rheinbaben, suggesting a "speedy new building" and ending with the words: "I can no longer sleep peacefully at night". The Prussian government then began planning a new building for at least 2,500 spectators and demolished the old building.
Designs by Felix Genzmer
The first choice for the new building project was the architect Felix Genzmer, who had worked as an architect for the royal theaters in Berlin and as a professor at the Charlottenburg Technical University after building the foyer of the State Theatre Wiesbaden. Genzmer was proposed by the General Director of the Royal Theatre Georg Graf von Hülsen-Haeseler and was also known and liked by the Emperor through his work in Wiesbaden. Between 1904 and 1905, Genzmer remodeled the interior of the Berlin Schauspielhaus, focusing on fire protection and a more representative interior. At the same time, he began plans for the new opera house.
Genzmer's commission was met with criticism, especially from the national associations of architects. The opera house was the only major project planned at the time, and the architects demanded a competition, while the Kaiser rejected competitions on principle. Genzmer himself was also criticized, for example by the publicist Maximilian Harden, who wrote in the Zukunft in 1906:
In 1906, Genzmer presented his first plans, which the Emperor rejected, as he did not want to see "the simple but elegant architecture from Frederick the Great's time, which dominates the area around the current opera house, damaged by a colossal building".after Seidel: Der Kaiser und die Kunst. 1907 Genzmer needed to develop a new project for the Königsplatz opposite the Reichstag building, where the Kroll Opera House had been converted into the "New Royal Opera Theater" in 1896 and considerably more space was available.
The plans presented by Felix Genzmer in 1909 called for the opera house to be built south of the east–west axis on Königsplatz, with a second building on the north side. This design was rejected by the Prussian Ministry of Public Works because:
The ministry also had a problem with the cost of the new building - mainly because the financing had not been clarified at the time. The main issue was the shares to be paid by the Prussian state and the Crown. The Crown did not want to make a significant contribution to the construction, although the Emperor considered the new building to be "his" opera house. Even the contribution of the Kroll Opera property by the Crown without compensation was questioned internally. The imperial advisor Count Philipp zu Eulenburg described the building as a cultural task of the state; on the other hand, the Prussian Ministry of Finance could find no reason to erect a building with rooms for the court without a contribution from the court. From the finance minister's point of view, it was almost impossible to explain this distribution of costs to the Prussian House of Representatives and to enforce it. After Genzmer's second plan had also been rejected, the view prevailed that he was not the right architect for the planned building, especially as external pressure from the architects' associations and the public increased. Graf von Hülsen-Haeseler, at whose suggestion Genzmer had already been chosen, apparently wanted to appoint another architect for the project first, and on January 11, 1910, he sent a non-binding request to the Berlin city planning commissioner Ludwig Hoffmann, who declined.
First architects competition On March 28, 1910, Graf von Hülsen-Haeseler cautiously suggested to Wilhelm II that several architects should compete in a closed competition (restricted competition) for the construction of the opera house. His argument was the importance of the building, which should be a monument to the glorious reign of Wilhelm II. He emphasized the architects' interest in the building and stressed that the competition should be a non-binding call for proposals (ideas competition), which should bring out the best ideas. The Emperor himself was to remain the final decision-maker. The Emperor finally agreed to the competition, but rejected a review committee (jury) and made it clear that he would not give the architects a free hand under any circumstances. He commented on the proposal accordingly:
The proposal also met with the approval of the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Finance, which saw the competition as a way to solve the critical issue of financing. The Budget Commission of the Prussian House of Representatives had to be persuaded to approve the use of a tender to cover the costs.
On June 28, the ministries involved developed the framework conditions for the competition. The site of the Kroll Opera House continued to be considered, but the architects were also allowed to suggest alternatives. The opera itself was to have 2,250 seats, with an "amphitheater" as the final tier in addition to the stalls and four tiers. An entrance wing with a representative entrance hall (vestibule) and box offices as well as a staircase hall with access to the stalls and the first tier were to be built in front of the auditorium. Two foyers for the different tiers and the stalls were also to be planned. An important part of the planning included the area for the courtyard. This would include a large banquet box on the first tier with 80 seats, as well as additional seating in the stalls and on the first tier of the left stage vestibule (proscenium). The boxes were to be equipped with various lounges and a separate entrance was to be provided on the left side. All courtyard areas should be interconnected, but separated from the rest of the audience.
In August 1910, the selected architects were notified; in addition to Felix Genzmer, they were Eduard Fürstenau, Ludwig Hoffmann, Ernst von Ihne, Anton Karst, Max Littmann, Heinrich Seeling and Friedrich von Thiersch. The choice fell on architects who had already worked successfully for the Kaiser and whose work had impressed him. Anton Karst was consulted by the Emperor himself due to his new building of the Royal Court Theater in Kassel (predecessor of today's Staatstheater Kassel). Max Littmann and Heinrich Seeling in particular were well-known theater architects. The designs submitted by the selected architects were to be transferred to the state as property with unrestricted right of disposal in return for payment of a fee. Ludwig Hoffmann did not take part in this tender, citing his various tasks for the city of Berlin and a development plan for the city of Athens, which he was currently working on.
The ministries justified the limited competition to the public by citing the particular technical difficulties of the building. However, this could not calm the criticism that was voiced by both the press and architectural associations. The latter called for an open competition, referring in particular to the construction of the Paris Opera. The lack of a jury and the lack of a binding contract award to the competition winner provoked further criticism, which violated the basic rules of competition postulated by the associations. As a result, the Berliner Tageblatt of September 2, 1910 reported:
The results were available at the beginning of December 1910. Von Ihne and Littmann in particular integrated key elements of Charles Garnier's Paris Opera into their design, including the central multi-story grand staircase within a separate central space between the foyer and the auditorium. Further ideas were provided by the Vienna State Opera of Eduard van der Nüll and August Siccard von Siccardsburg. Based on the results, the ministers involved suggested the joint creation of a floor plan. They suggested that this should be carried out by the participants Ernst von Ihne, Heinrich Seeling, and Friedrich von Thiersch. Under pressure from the court, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Finance agreed at the end of 1910 to regard the construction of the opera house as a Prussian state building and thus to finance it at state expense with a subsidy from the Crown. The further organization was completely under the control of the Ministry of Public Works. The Emperor set a total sum of three million marks as the Crown's contribution. The Emperor also agreed to a closer competition between Ernst von Ihne, Heinrich Seeling, and (in contrast to the ministries' proposal) Max Littmann.
Second architects competition In preparation for this follow-up competition, the government architect Hans Grube drew up a preliminary design at the Ministry of Public Works as a basis for further planning. This included floor plans and a facade view of the planned building. The designs were very well received and Grube was subsequently admitted as the fourth participant in the competition; his plans formed the template for the official program outline and thus the binding prerequisite on which the participants had to base their new designs. On October 3, the architects were asked to submit their new designs, and the results were available in February 1912. The results of both rounds of the competition were publicly exhibited in the House of Deputies in March 1912, with the plans from the short competition forming the basis for the final building. Wilhelm II preferred the results of the building official Grube. On March 6, the confidential building council Richard Saran from the Ministry of Public Works presented the current status of the discussions in a speech to the House of Representatives:
The construction was scheduled to begin in April 1913.
The decision was heavily criticized in the press and by the public. In particular, the ministries' handling of the limited competition and the fact that the winning design was submitted by an unknown civil servant were highly criticized. The press again called for an open competition, and on March 14, 1912, the Association of Berlin Architects passed a resolution with the same demand. On April 20 of the same year, the Association of German Architects decided that an open competition should be held for the construction of the opera house after the building program had been redefined and a vote taken in the House of Representatives. This criticism, in which all parliamentary groups spoke out against the planned continuation of the project, reached the House of Representatives. On May 2, the House of Representatives passed a bill calling for a new design "with the participation of other circles of the German artistic community. The resolution called for an open competition in which participants would be allowed to deviate from the program sketch, with the Prussian Academy of Architecture making the final assessment. The deputies thus clearly decided against the intentions of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The SDP delegate Karl Liebknecht made it very clear:
Third architects competition