Festsaal

Municipal construction projects were closely linked to the 1936 Olympic Winter Games. Alongside the sports venues, a new town hall and a festive hall were built and officially inaugurated on February 2, 1936.

The town hall became the administrative seat of the newly created municipality of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which had been formed on January 1, 1935 through the forced merger of the previously independent communities of Garmisch and Partenkirchen. This enforced unification took place under severe political pressure: members of the municipal councils were threatened with arrest and imprisonment in the Dachau concentration camp should they resist. The new mayors and municipal council members were not elected but appointed by the district office in coordination with the Nazi district leadership.

During the Olympic Winter Games, the festive hall at the Kurpark in Garmisch hosted lavish receptions and banquets, including a reception for the domestic and international press on February 4, 1936. These events served to present the National Socialist regime in the most favorable light. Two years after the Winter Games, on February 18, 1938, Nazi district leader Johann Hausböck organized a large-scale antisemitic rally in the festive hall under the title “Tourist Season Without Jews?”, calling for a “Jew-free” Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

USE AFTER 1945

The site on which a festival hall had been built for the 1936 Winter Olympic Games was gradually redesigned and expanded after the Second World War. In 1964, the “Richard Strauss Concert Hall” and the “Upper Foyer” were constructed. On the occasion of the Alpine World Ski Championships, the “Werdenfels Festival Hall” with its foyer was added in 1977. To this day, the complex continues to host congresses, conferences, and cultural events. The extension completed in 1998 houses the “Small Theatre” and the “U1 Stage”.