The Turnhalle was built in 1909 as a training hall for the Windhoek Gymnastic Club, though in 1975 it was modernised and turned into a conference hall. On 1 September of that year, it served as the venue for the first Constitutional Conference on Independence for South West Africa, which subsequently – and more conveniently – came to be called the Turnhalle Conference. During the 1980s, the building hosted several political summits and debates that paved the way to Namibian independence.
It now houses a tribunal for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).