Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft

In 1817, Louis Spohr took over the direction of the orchestra, and in the same year the pastor and historian Anton Kirchner [de] became chairman of the museum society.

When he died in July of the revolutionary year 1848, the Museum Society decided to appoint its own director of the music class.

This was the first time the municipal orchestra had two conductors: Kapellmeister of the theatre became Louis Schindelmeisser, while Franz Messer, who had been director of the Cäcilienchor Frankfurt [de] since 1837, now also conducted the museum concerts.

After 1848 the Museums-Gesellschaft focused more and more on music, although it continued to organise lectures with speakers such as Felix Dahn, Alfred Brehm and Richard von Helmholtz until 1886.

In 1861, the concerts of the society were moved to the newly built hall building in Junghofstraße and thus made accessible to the general public.

In addition to the orchestral concerts, the chamber music series was launched in 1870, in which Johannes Brahms appeared several times as a pianist and premiered some of his works.

Kogel modernised the programme of the museum concerts, which now included works by contemporary and foreign composers such as Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, and Dvořák.

The museum then entrusted his concerts to the young conductor Hermann Scherchen, a brilliant musician, who, however, with his commitment to the new music that was still unusual at the time, was not able to make a name for himself.

The Museums-Gesellschaft, however, refused to accept Steinberg's appointment as permanent conductor and instead negotiated with Issay Dobrowen, who conducted the majority of the museum concerts between 1929 and 1932, and with Otto Klemperer.

During the Great Depression of 1931/32, the Museums-Gesellschaft also got into financial difficulties, especially since the Frankfurter Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester, which had been under the direction of Hans Rosbaud since 1929, had become a competitor which had poached numerous subscribers from the museum.

It was not until the 1937/38 season that Frankfurt was given a new general music director in the person of Franz Konwitschny, who remained in office until the destruction of the Opernhaus and the Saalbau on 22 March 1944.

The chamber concerts were first held in the "Sendesaal" of the old broadcasting centre, later in the "Cantatesaal" and finally in the "Saal der Deutschen Bank" in Junghofstraße, where the hall had been located until the war.