The Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne traces its origins to a Musikalische Gesellschaft (Musical Company) of the middle 18th century, which mounted one of continental Europe's first independent concert series. This organization re-formed after the Napoleonic Wars and, in 1827, established a Concert-Gesellschaft that organized a new orchestra and concert series. In 1840, the group hired composer and conductor Ferdinand Hiller as city kapellmeister (music director); he regularized the orchestra, built its reputation, and in 1857, moved it into a space in Cologne's medieval city hall, known as the Gürzenich; it took that building's name for its own. Hiller remained the orchestra's conductor until 1884. His successors, Franz Wüllner (1884-1902) and Fritz Steinbach (1903–1914), gave the premieres of major works such as the Brahms Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 (1887), Richard Strauss' tone poem Don Quixote (1898), and the Symphony No. 3 (1896) and Symphony No. 5 (1904) of Mahler. Later music directors have included Hermann Abendroth (1915-1934), Günter Wand (1946-1975), Yuri Ahronovitch (1975-1986, the orchestra's first non-German conductor), James Conlon (1990-2002), Markus Stenz (2003-2014), and since 2015, Franz-Xavier Roth. The Gürzenich building was destroyed during World War II but was rebuilt; it still exists as a conference center, but in 1986, the orchestra moved into Cologne's new concert hall, the Philharmonie. Since World War II, the orchestra has sometimes used the name Kölner Philharmoniker or Cologne Philharmonic, especially on recordings. The group has continued to champion new music, giving the premiere in 1964 of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Sinfonia Prosodica.