The Philharmonie, Hans Scharoun's concert hall at the Kulturforum, faces its first full renovation since it opened in 1963. A feasibility study commissioned by the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker prices the Berlin Philharmonie renovation at about €800 million, and a temporary home for the orchestra at roughly another €350 million. Work is to start in 2032, shortly after the orchestra's 150th anniversary on 1 May that year, and the halls could stay closed until about 2040. The orchestra's preferred interim venue: hangars 1 to 3 of the former Tempelhof airport.
Why the Philharmonie needs a renovation now
The study was first presented to the foundation's board, which includes the federal culture minister and Berlin's culture senator, on 9 June 2026, and its figures reached the public in VAN magazine and later through dpa at the end of September. The problems are not the famous acoustics but everything behind them. According to dpa and the Tagesspiegel, fire protection, climate control, wiring and sanitary pipes are outdated; clogged pipes have already overflowed, and water gets into the foyers. Spare parts for the old systems are hard to find. The gold façade panels and the glass blocks have their own moisture and fire-safety problems, and as a listed building every fix has to respect Scharoun's design. The orchestra says regular operation cannot be guaranteed beyond 2032 or 2033.
The €800 million covers both buildings: dpa breaks it down as €436 million for the main hall and €307 million for the Chamber Music Hall, Edgar Wisniewski's 1987 addition. The two sums don't quite reach the total, and the study has not been published in full, so treat all figures as estimates.
Berlin has watched this before on the same square. The Neue Nationalgalerie next door closed from 2015 to 2021 while David Chipperfield Architects took Mies van der Rohe's building apart and rebuilt it almost invisibly (its history). The difference: a museum can store its collection, while an orchestra with around 900,000 visitors a season, as Intendant Andrea Zietzschmann told the Berliner Zeitung, needs a second hall of the same quality for eight years.
Tempelhof, the ICC, and the funding gap
Two options have been in play. The study favours building two new halls inside Tempelhof's hangars 1 to 3, and Zietzschmann backs that. In spring, according to the Berliner Zeitung and reports in B.Z. and Berliner Morgenpost, parts of Berlin politics, among them economy senator Franziska Giffey, leaned towards the ICC on Messedamm; orchestra staff toured its large hall and came away with doubts about the acoustics. Tempelhof has its own catch: refugees live in Hangar 1 under a lease that runs until 2028.
Money is the bigger question. The federal government has committed up to €225 million through the capital-city funding agreement, and Berlin has €350 million in its investment plan. That covers about half of the €1.15 billion. Zietzschmann has asked the incoming Berlin government to decide within about six months, because every delay pushes the schedule back. She will not see it through herself: in June the Senate announced she will leave in summer 2028, and she named the renovation as the reason, saying the project needs a director who will stay with it for the long haul.
What it means for concertgoers
Nothing changes yet. The Philharmonie and the Chamber Music Hall run their normal programme until the planned closure in 2032, including guest concerts such as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Lang Lang on 17 November 2026. Anyone who has never heard the Philharmoniker in Scharoun's vineyard hall has until about 2032.
Good to know
- Status: a study, not a decision. No building contract, no fixed budget, no confirmed interim venue.
- Who decides: the Berlin Senate and the federal government as funders, through the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker.
- Also affected: the Chamber Music Hall hosts around 300 events a year by other ensembles, according to the Berliner Zeitung, and they will need somewhere to go too.
Sources
- VAN Magazin: Berliner Philharmoniker sollen ab 2032 für acht Jahre nach Tempelhof ziehen (18 June 2026)
- VAN Magazin: Andrea Zietzschmann verlässt die Berliner Philharmoniker 2028 (29 June 2026)
- Tagesspiegel: Marode hinter goldener Fassade (30 September 2026)
- dpa via ad-hoc-news: Sanierung kostet bis zu 1,15 Milliarden Euro (29 September 2026)
- Berliner Zeitung: Tempelhof oder ICC? (4 May 2026)
- Entwicklungsstadt: Berlin prüft Ersatzspielstätten für die Philharmoniker (11 March 2026)
