The construction of the Schwarzwaldhalle in Karlsruhe caused a stir throughout Europe: It was the first hall of this size to be realized with a self-supporting suspended roof made of prestressed concrete. Erich Schelling, Karlsruhe's best-known architect of the post-war period, realized the spectacular hall together with Ulrich Finsterwalder, a Munich-based civil engineer. It was inaugurated on August 19, 1953 after just eight months of planning and construction, to great public acclaim.
The most striking feature of the hall is its curved, self-supporting roof, which extends with a counter-curvature in the shape of a saddle. In Ulrich Finsterwalder, architect Erich Schelling found an award-winning expert for concrete shell roof constructions. The shell of the saddle-shaped roof is only six centimetres thick and represented a ground-breaking achievement in statics and mechanics at the time
, which was not only appreciated by experts. The lightweight suspended roof literally floats above Schelling's filigree glass structure.
The hall is used for congresses, concerts, presentations, exhibitions and events.
