Drei-Kaiser-Bau (Frankfurt am Main)

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The "Drei Kaiserbau" in Frankfurt am Main
Floor plan Drei Kaiserbau by Eugen Greiss
Today's building

The Drei-Kaiser-Bau (also partially referred to as Drei Kaiser Haus ) in Kaiserstraße 3–5a in Frankfurt am Main was built in 1894 as a representative office building based on designs by Eugen Greiß (1856–1925). Today it exists in a different form and is a listed building.

description

From 1870 to 1873, today's Kaiserstraße was redesigned and built. The city acquired the land in question and had the existing houses demolished to make way for the 80-foot (22.80 meters) wide boulevard. Only two landowners refused to sell the necessary land. One of them was the Cronstett'sche Stift , a residential foundation for aristocratic women. The city expropriated the property. On January 31, 1873, the royal Prussian city court in Frankfurt am Main confirmed the expropriation and the purchase price of 104.90 gold marks per square meter.

The former garden area behind the expropriated street area remained in the possession of the foundation and was initially undeveloped, while the neighboring properties were built with representative Wilhelminian-style houses.

In 1893 the foundation sold this property in order to finance the foundation building at Lindenstrasse 27 with the purchase price . The construction company Jacob Carl Junior was commissioned to build the Drei-Kaiser-Bau on the property after the actual monastery building, which was located on the corner of Kaiserstrasse and Rossmarkt , had been converted into a commercial building. The garden had a 37 m long front line to Kaiserstrasse. At the time of construction, the location had developed into Frankfurt's first business location, so the building over the site should make full use of the valuable space. For this reason, the building depth was set to exactly 35 m, since the building authorities only required an entrance to be built if the building was deeper than this. The building complex consisted of three buildings that were separated by fire walls , but shared a common facade facing the street . Two of the buildings had the same floor plan , each with a facade width of around 13.50 m and a space depth of 47 to 50 m. The middle building originally had a dome with a lantern that is no longer in existence . All three attic floors were planned as studios, the one on the left was intended for a photographer, while a painter's studio was located in the dome, 8.5 to 10 meters long and 6.5 meters high. The third house had a facade width of 10.00 m with an average width of 28.5 m and a square depth of 46 m.

The original facade made of light yellow Bavarian sandstone was given a representative and richly decorated design in the neo-baroque style , on which the name of the building, Drei-Kaiser-Bau, could also be read. It was created in collaboration between Greiß and the Frankfurt architect Gustav Klemm . The balconies were intended to be used as commercial buildings for business boards, as were the large boards on the roofs. Four 6.50 m high three-quarter columns made of Swedish syenite divide the front into three parts corresponding to the three houses. The four columns were supported by pillars made of black syenite using bronze caryatids and, in turn, carried 2.40 m high bronze statues above the main cornice. The larger-than-life, bronze figures represented trade, shipping, art and trade. The dome structure consisted of an iron framework that was covered with copper. The pitched roofs were covered with slate from Kaub . The sculptural work, both figurative and ornamental, was designed by the Frankfurt sculptor Franz Jakob Born (1845–1902). The door frames were also made of galvanized bronze, while the shop windows on the ground floor and the first floor had frames made of planed steel.

During the Second World War , the roof burned out in 1944 after bombing. In 1952 the building was restored. Another floor was added and the roof and facade were simplified.

The facade now has simplified decorative elements and continues to have four sculptured front pillars in front of the third and fourth floors. The pillars and metal facade parts of the shop window front were replaced by stone facings in the material of the rest of the facade. The dome with the lantern is also missing today. Instead, the fifth floor was given a continuous window front facing Kaiserstraße and a flat roof. The building is still used commercially, there are medical practices and various companies.

literature

  • Heinz Schomann: The Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel and Kaiserstraße: a contribution to urban planning and the architecture of historicism. 1988, ISBN 3-421-02876-1 , p. 35 (to Kaiserstraße), p. 40 (on the sale of the Cronstätt property), p. 48–49 (extensive representation of the Dreikaiserhaus)
  • Wilhelm Kick (Ed.): Modern new buildings. 2nd year, Stuttgart architecture publishing house Kick, Stuttgart 1898.
  • Carl Zaar , August L. Zaar: Business and department stores, department stores and mess palaces, passages and galleries. In: Eduard Schmitt (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Architektur. Fourth part: designing, laying out and equipping the buildings. 2nd half volume, volume 2, Arnold Bergsträsser Verlag Buchhandlung A. Kröner, Stuttgart 1902, pp. 87–88 (text) and pp. 93–94 (fig. 150–152).
  • The three emperor building in Frankfurt a. M. In: Baugewerks-Zeitung. Organ of the building trade foremen, building contractors, architects and civil engineers. Journal of practical construction. Publishing house of the expedition of the building trade newspaper, Berlin. Volume 26, 1894, pp. 1157–1159.

Web links

Commons : Drei-Kaiser-Bau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Schomann , Volker Rödel, Heike Kaiser: Monument topography city of Frankfurt am Main. Revised 2nd edition, limited special edition on the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of the city of Frankfurt am Main. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7973-0576-1 , p. 47, keyword "Kaiserstraße 3/5 / 5a, hall 22, parcel 24,25,26," Dreikaiserhaus "
  2. ^ Heinz Schomann: Bahnhofsviertel, p. 40.
  3. ↑ Baugewerks-Zeitung . Volume 26, 1894, p. 1157.
  4. ↑ Baugewerks-Zeitung. Volume 26, 1894, p. 1157.
  5. ↑ Zaar (1902), p. 88.
  6. ^ Heinz Schomann: Bahnhofsviertel, p. 49.

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 40.7 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 36 ″  E