Alte Tonhalle

Mendelssohn's Paulus in 1836 and Schumann's Der Rose Pilgerfahrt and Requiem für Mignon from 1849 were among others premieres performed here.

The hall, which was distinguished by good acoustics, was named after Kaiser Wilhelm I, in whose honour the Rhenish Provincial Estates [de] was given a banquet in the Tonhalle on the occasion of his visit on 18 September 1884.

In 1886, a competition was held for a new building, in which the designs of the architects Hermann vom Endt and Bruno Schmitz in the neo-Renaissance style were awarded.

From this building segment comes a column that Helmut Hentrich had erected in the Malkastenpark as a reminder of the traditional place of Düsseldorf music and festival culture.

In addition to the weekly symphony concerts, meetings of business associations, lectures, charity bazaars and carnival balls also took place there.

At a "coal day" held by the coal and steel industry in the Tonhalle in 1871, William Thomas Mulvany founded the Verein zur Wahrung der gemeinsamen wirtschaftlichen Interessen in Rheinland und Westfalen, thus laying a foundation stone for the development of economic interest representation in West Germany and for the development of Düsseldorf into the Schreibtisch des Ruhrgebiets.