AEG high-rise

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The 45 meter high AEG high -rise (originally Hochhaus Süd ) in Frankfurt am Main was located on Theodor-Stern-Kai directly on the banks of the Main . It was completed in 1951 and was the tallest skyscraper in Frankfurt for around three years until the 69 meter high west tower of the telecommunications center (demolished in 2004) took over this position.

The central administration West of AEG in Frankfurt / Main, after the Second World War alongside Berlin company fitting the electric group's , where there was building complex of high-rise and one in the late 1920s housed built wing. Both buildings were demolished in 1999 for the construction of the “Allianz-Kai” office center.

(Almost) Federal Ministry of Labor

After the Berlin blockade , the division of Germany became clear. Frankfurt saw itself as the favorite in the competition for the seat of the federal government of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany . In addition to its history as the coronation city of the Roman-German emperors and its central location in West Germany, Frankfurt advertised its infrastructure. One of Frankfurt's main arguments was that 90% of the buildings required for a seat of government already existed. Real estate was built for 135 million DM. A plenary hall and 64,000 square meters of office space were built for the ministries.

In this context, the state labor administration had started the high-rise south at Theodor-Stern-Kai 1 as the future seat of the Federal Labor Ministry. With its 12  storeys, it towered over the trade union building on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Strasse on the other side of the Main and the IG-Farben building (Poelzig building) next to Grüneburgpark in the Westend.

With the decision of the Bundestag on the question of the capital for Bonn on November 3, 1949, the intended use ceased to exist.

AEG Central Administration West

The later AEG high-rise was built from 1949 to 1951 according to plans by the architects Adolf Heinrich Assmann and Hans Bartolmes from Wayss & Freytag . The entire building ensemble consisted of the eponymous twelve-story tower - at 45 meters the tallest office building in Frankfurt at the time - and the side wing, initially planned by Ernst Balser between the Theodor-Stern-Kai and Gartenstrasse, with three upper floors initially . Originally, the arts and crafts school designed by Martin Elsaesser was to be built on the site in the 1920s, but this was discarded due to the economic situation.

In terms of urban planning, the tower, inaugurated on April 27, 1951, formed the southern bridgehead of the new Friedensbrücke, which was completed in the same year . The buildings were erected in concrete skeleton fashion. The uncovered, dark gray painted framework contrasted with light-colored panels and, with the resulting grid, took up a popular architectural design element of the 1950s. The upper floors of the tower were initially taken over by the electrical company AEG for rent, while the adjacent side wing to the west and the base floors became the seat of the employment office and the general local health insurance fund ( AOK ) in Frankfurt. In 1957, AEG bought the entire building ensemble and had it converted to meet their requirements by the architects Hans Bartolmes and Ernst Balser, who added two storeys to the side wing. As a sole user, AEG now had 4,400 square meters of office space. AEG also kept its old headquarters in Berlin pro forma , but the Frankfurt Central Administration West was in fact the group headquarters. 450 AEG employees worked in the high-rise, which was accessed by a paternoster , and another 450 in the neighboring wing.

In 1988 the AEG group became the sole property of Daimler-Benz AG . The building and the adjoining complex were sold to Allianz insurance and then rented ( sale-lease-back ). With the dissolution of the electrical company in 1996 after its merger with Daimler-Benz, the former company headquarters stood empty and the alliance decided to build a new building for its own use. After the demolition in 1999, Hentrich , Petschnigg and Partner created a new office and service center there with the “Allianz-Kai”.

literature

  • Detlev Janik: High-rise buildings in Frankfurt. Race to the clouds. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-7973-0595-8 , pages 21-22
  • Dissertation by Sigrid Meyer zu Knolle (PDF; 1.6 MB): The tamed vertical. Materials on early high-rise construction in Frankfurt , Philipps University Marburg, 1998, p. 266 ff

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Mohr, Michael Müller : Functionality and Modernity - The New Frankfurt and its Buildings 1925–1933. Edition Fricke, 1984, ISBN 3-481-50171-4 , p. 284 ff.

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 58.6 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 4 ″  E