WDR-Funkhaus
WDR-Funkhaus stands in Cologne as the oldest building of Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Its five-storey postwar architecture combines a travertine façade with glass arcades at ground level. Curved interior lines, glass stairwells and murals create a deliberate break with the National Socialist architectural style. Swiss pearwood wall panels help diffuse sound beneath the nearby Cologne Cathedral bells.
The building rose after the Second World War on the former Hotel Monopol site. About a quarter of the hotel’s structure survives within the work designed by Peter Friedrich Schneider. Eight soundproof broadcasting halls and numerous studios support radio production, archives and technical facilities. The Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal accommodates concerts with seating for 650 visitors and 150 musicians.
WDR ensembles perform here, including the symphony orchestra, radio choir, Funkhaus orchestra and big band. The halls have hosted works by Igor Stravinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen. A continuously moving paternoster lift still carries staff through the building for short interviews.
- City
- Cologne
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The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Cologne. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.