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The Berlin concert hall Clou:
The building housing Berlin's famous Clou concert hall was built between 1884 and 1886 as a food market (Markthalle III). At the beginning of the 20th century, the Friedrichstadt district was transformed into a business district. Due to the decline in the resident population, the market hall III was closed in 1910 and the Clou concert hall was opened there.
The architect Johannes Kraaz completely transformed the market hall: the former fish and meat stalls were transformed into round-arched niches, the round cast-iron columns disappeared behind a rectangular enclosure, and a false ceiling in the side aisles concealed the roof. The former main nave was transformed into a wide central promenade, which ended in a large vaulted hall with an illuminated fountain in its centre. With its 140 square metres, the stage provided space even for the largest orchestras. With 4,000 square metres of space and seating for 3,000 people, Clou became Berlin's largest entertainment venue at the time.
The painter Albert Maennchen (1873-1935), a Berlin specialist in decorative and monumental painting, played a decisive role in the conversion to a concert hall. Maennchen designed a figurative pictorial programme for the Hall of the Dome, consisting of a triptych with Cupid as the ruler of the world and six image with individual standing figures. The surfaces of the walls, pillars and ceilings of the nave and niches were painted in a finely defined colour scheme with ornamental fields, coloured areas and linear ornaments.
During the opening phase of the Konzerthaus, Maennchen also designed the advertising graphics for the Konzerthaus, including the Clou logo with the muse riding a bear, which was used on cards, advertising stamps and posters. The Konzerthaus Clou was the largest uniformly designed interior of late Art Nouveau Style.
As early as 1927 mass events of the National Socialists took place at the Clou. Parts of the propaganda apparatus were located in the main building and the annex buildings with the publishing and printing house.
The concert hall was destroyed during the Second World War.
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