The building was designed in 1910 by Max Berg cooperating with Richard Konwiarz and Günther Trauer. The inception of centennial Hall was inception was linked to the organization of the Centennial Exhibition in 1913 which was to commemorate the proclamation issued by Friedrich Wilhelm II To My People being a call to arms against Napoleon. Construction works which were commenced in 1911 and completed in 1913 were conducted by Dyckerhoff & Widmann from Dresden and Lolat Eisenbeton Breslau A.G. from Wrocław. The opening of the Centennial Exhibition took place on the 20th of June 1913.

Centennial Hall has a symmetrical four shell design (tetraconch), which is based around an internal wheel from which four apses spring in the shape of a semi-circle. The internal wheel forms the basis of a ribbed dome. Tetraconch is surrounded with a repetitive four leaf clover design. The Hall was divided in two structurally independent sections, the base consisting of four sail-like supports and a dome made of reinforced concrete, the span of which is sixty five meters, finished with openwork, originally glazed lantern.

In architectural concepts of Centennial Hall the structures which combined the best achievements from various eras can be noticed. In his work Max Berg referred to the ancient times, seeking the prototype in the Pantheon. A domed structure of the Hall is similar to central buildings of the Byzantine art, mostly Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, with which it competes regarding the span of the dome. Analogies can be also seen regarding the St. Peter’s Church in Rome. The Halls mass and size arouse connotations with Egyptian art, Babylonian Ziggurat and utopian architectural designs by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Berg planned – similarly to the Gothic temple – to decorate the inside of the hall with stained glass windows and polychrome covering some elements of the structure and therefore creating a so_called work of all arts (Gesamtkunstwerk). A direct model for Centennial Hall was a hall made of steel built in 1907–1908 in Frankfurt am Main designed by Friedrich von Thiersch. Max Berg transposed the construction idea of the Frankfurt hall to a new material. Describing his design, he mostly highlighted its functionalism lying at the bottom of his idea of its structure. . The architect’s intent was to create a structure fully made of reinforced concrete with walls – as much as possible – made of glass. The Hall was a structure intended for exhibitions, gatherings, concerts and monumental dramatic performances.

Centennial Hall was a fully mature work of expressionism, intended for a mass recipient – it combined huge architectural space with dramatic and musical art. After World War II it was renamed to People’s Hall, and in 1948 the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace was organized there. In 2006 its original name was reinstated and it was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the milestones in the history of architecture.