Franz Heinrich Ulrich House

The Franz-Heinrich-Ulrich-Haus was the Deutsche Bank training center in Kronberg im Taunus (address: Oberer Aufstieg 22). It was named after the former CEO of Deutsche Bank Franz Heinrich Ulrich . In 1988, supporters of the radical left-wing terrorist organization Action Directe carried out an arson attack on the facility, which caused millions in damage.

Background and construction of the training center

In the 1960s and 1970s, the major Frankfurt banks set up training centers in the Taunus , in order to be able to train and further educate their employees near the banking city of Frankfurt am Main, but in the countryside, undisturbed . The Commerzbank created that "Collegium Glassworks" in Oberems , the Dresdner Bank , a training center in Koenigstein im Taunus and the trade union bank Bank for social economy in Oberursel . Deutsche Bank is building its training center in Kronberg.

The 75,000 m² property that the bank acquired in Kronberg had actually been designated as a sanatorium area since 1930. However, there was neither an investor in this branch nor did the city have the means to acquire the site. This is how Deutsche Bank got the chance and organized a design competition in 1969. The winner of the competition was the planning association Professor Tritthart and R. Lienenkämper. The core of the winning design was integration into nature: no building should exceed the height of the treetop.

Deutsche Bank built the training center for 20 million DM (in today's purchasing power: 28 million euros). The site had to be completely redeveloped. Two elevated tanks for the water supply and a cable connection for the computers had to be created. In 1974 the training center was opened.

Arson attack

On Shrove Tuesday, 1988, shortly before 6 a.m., several masked terrorists carried out an arson attack on the facility. They cut a hole in the chain link fence , smashed the windows of the casino, and set it on fire by throwing two gas bottles in it and throwing a burning gas-cartridge blowtorch after it.

The casino and the central administration building were completely destroyed by the fire. The approximately 80 seminar participants stayed in the separate residential buildings and were not in danger. The doorman of the main building was trapped in the flames but was saved by the fire brigade. He and a police officer who had been looking for him were taken to the hospital with severe smoke inhalation.

After an hour-long fire brigade mission, in which 146 firefighters were on duty, the fire was extinguished. The casino and administration buildings were completely destroyed. There was property damage in the millions. The destroyed buildings were rebuilt and reopened in 1990.

At the same time as the extinguishing work began, the police started a large-scale manhunt using helicopters with searchlights and search dogs. However, no traces could be found on the icy ground.

A letter of confession was received by the Frankfurter Rundschau , the FAZ and the dpa .

The perpetrators were never caught. A few days later, on March 1, 1988, the arson attack in Rosbach was carried out using a completely identical procedure against the Renault agricultural machinery company . Here, too, a hole was cut in the fence, petrol bottles thrown and lit with a gas-cartridge blowtorch. And here too a letter of confession with analogous content was sent. Three perpetrators in Rosbach were arrested and sentenced to five and six years in prison. The public prosecutor's office could not find any evidence that would have proven a connection with the attack in Kronberg, which would have been sufficient for an indictment.

closure

In the 1980s, 3,200 seminar participants were registered each year, spending 14,500 overnight stays in the 150 guest rooms. There were also 40 seminar or group rooms, a casino, swimming pool, solarium and sauna.

From the perspective of Deutsche Bank, the associated costs no longer made economic sense. The training center was therefore closed in 2006 and the training courses are held in other training hotels.

The bank tried in vain to find a buyer, so that the facility was empty for years. Since December 2015 it has been used as a branch of the Hessian initial reception facility for the accommodation of refugees.

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• "Perspectives for Ascent"; in: Taunuszeitung from January 16, 2013, p. 15
• "When the Training Center Burned"; in: Taunuszeitung, February 16, 2013, p. 15
• Masked people set fire in the training center - million dollar damage at Deutsche Bank in Kronberg / large-scale police investigation without result; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 17, 1988, p. 33
• "Deutsche Bank Training Center to Become Initial Reception Center for Refugees"; in: Taunus Nachrichten of November 18, 2015, Link

Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 39.2 "  N , 8 ° 29 ′ 35.3"  E