It was a long awaited spectacle: after a 10-year construction period and €789 million invested, an impressive concert hall opened in January 2017 on the bank of Hamburg’s Elbe River. Performers play at the centre of the hall, one of three in the building, while their audience circles around them. But amid feuds over construction contracts, missed deadlines and soaring costs, the Elbphilharmonie turned into the laughing stock of the city - and, well, the world. Yet following a restructuring in Hamburg’s government after Schulz became mayor, work was sped up. And on October 31st, 2016, illuminated rooms at the concert hall spelled out FERTIG - the German word for finished.

Source: The Local January 30, 2019 16:18 UTC