During the bombing on the evening of 27 November 1944, Freiburg lost its largest public assembly room at the time, a public hall near the municipal garden, the "Stadtgarten". The previous building was completed in 1854 by local architect Friedrich Eisenlohr and provided enough room for up to 5,000 people. Even the city hall, which was built in 1954, was no sufficient compensation as its one-room concept and remote location at the eastern edge of the city centre proved inadequate for many events. Due to numerous areas of new housing and the incorporation of surrounding villages into the urban area of Freiburg, up until the mid-1970s. the centre of town had been moving west into the Upper Rhine Plain.