Adorno traffic light

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Adorno-Ampel at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main

The Adorno traffic light is a traffic light system named after Theodor W. Adorno in Frankfurt am Main . Since 1987 it has been securing the pedestrian crossing over the Senckenberganlage between the Bockenheim campus of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and the associated institute for social research . Adorno had called for it several times from 1958 onwards in order to avoid accidents involving university members with motor vehicles .

history

In 1951 the Institute for Social Research moved into a new building on the Senckenberganlage on the opposite side of the street from the university campus. On March 12, 1958, Adorno first pointed out the dangers of crossing the street in a letter to the rector of the university. Police chief Gerhard Littmann intervened and had the pedestrian crossing marked with a zebra crossing . That was not enough for Adorno, however. In another letter to the university management on November 29, 1961, he demanded "a bridge for pedestrians over the Senckenberganlage or a diversion of all traffic". After a person was killed in traffic accidents in the area of ​​the Senckenberganlage in 1962 and Adorno's secretary was hit shortly afterwards, Adorno wrote to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and demanded "traffic lights in the entire university area":

“When crossing the Senckenberganlage, near the corner of Dantestrasse, one of our secretaries was run over and seriously injured after a passer-by had had a fatal accident at the same place a few days earlier. On the way to university you have to run across the street in an unworthy manner as if you were running for your life. If a student, or a professor, should find himself in the state that is actually appropriate for him, namely in his thoughts, then there is an immediate threat of death. "

- Theodor W. Adorno

Adorno's demand was only fulfilled 18 years after his death. After the director of the institute, Jürgen Habermas, campaigned for the traffic lights in 1985, his successor Ludwig von Friedeburg achieved his goal: in 1987, a pedestrian traffic light was actually set up at the Senckenberg plant. Although its construction was neither temporally nor causally related to Adorno's letter to the editor, it was immediately given the name "Adorno traffic light" in public. The Frankfurter Rundschau referred to it as the Adorno Memorial long before the official Adorno Memorial was inaugurated in 2003.

"The 'Adorno-Ampel', famous in Frankfurt, has its very own, highly original story."

- Frank Berger, Christian Setzepfandt : in: 101 Unorte in Frankfurt ; Ffm 2011.

In the play Je t'adorno by René Pollesch , which premiered in 2014 at the Schauspiel Frankfurt , the traffic light plays a leitmotif by quoting Adorno's call to create a pedestrian traffic light several times. Pollesch adds the question, "... whether there is any right to remain alive, lost in thought?"

Touristic place

Adorno traffic lights with Japanese visitors

The Adorno traffic light has developed into a sight for Frankfurt whose anecdotal story is not only preoccupied by “Adorno aficionados”.

literature

  • Michael Maaser : A bridge over the Senckenberganlage. Adorno and the University of Frankfurt . In: Research Frankfurt . No. 3-4 / 2003 , ISSN  0175-0992 , p. 48–51 ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF; 1.4 MB ; accessed on February 21, 2019]).
  • Wolfram Schütte (Ed.): Adorno in Frankfurt. A kaleidoscope with texts and pictures . 1st edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-58379-4 , pp. 236-240: The Adorno traffic light ; P. 241: Frankfurter Rundschau, June 6, 1987: […] traffic light as Adorno memorial .
  • Richard Deiss: Adorno traffic light and suspension railway elephant. 222 little traffic anecdotes on everything that moves us . BoD, Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-8334-9584-7 .
  • Frank Berger, Christian Setzepfandt : 101 non-locations in Frankfurt . New edition. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-7973-1248-8 .
  • Stuart Walton: Neglected or Misunderstood. Introducing Theodor Adorno . Zero Books, Winchester (United Kingdom) 2017, ISBN 978-1-78535-382-6 , pp. 31–32 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Commons : Adorno traffic light  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ University archive Frankfurt, 630-50 old, sheet 66. Quoted from Michael Maaser : A bridge over the Senckenberganlage. Adorno and the University of Frankfurt . In: Research Frankfurt . No. 3-4 / 2003 , ISSN  0175-0992 , p. 50 ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF; 1.4 MB ; accessed on February 12, 2019]).
  2. ↑ a b Theodor W. Adorno >>  3rd station: Adorno Ampel Frankfurt am Main. In: Kulturreise-ideen.de. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Martin Lüdke: A tender declaration of love. In: Deutschlandfunk.de . November 27, 2016, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Peter-Philipp Schmitt: riot box and ox grill. In: FAZ.NET . April 18, 2011, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Alexander Jürgs: Let's talk about Brecht and Bushido >>  Adorno's traffic light. In: Welt.de . March 11, 2014, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Stuart Walton: Neglected or Misunderstood. Introducing Theodor Adorno . Zero Books, Winchester (United Kingdom) 2017, ISBN 978-1-78535-382-6 , pp. 31–32 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ↑ a b Jan Hillgärtner: 101 non-locations in Frankfurt. In: rezensions.ch. May 7, 2011, Retrieved February 21, 2019 (review).
  8. ↑ Tom Wolf , Rike Wolf: 111 places in Frankfurt that you have to see (=  111 places that you have to see ). Emons, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-95451-342-0 , pp. 10–11: The Adorno traffic light .

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 5.9 ″  N , 8 ° 39 ′ 10.8 ″  E