History of Höchst am Main
The city of Höchst am Main , now Frankfurt 's Höchst district , has a history of over twelve hundred years. For a long time Höchst was an independent town and outpost of the Kurmainzer area at the gates of Frankfurt. It was not incorporated into Frankfurt until 1928.
Geographical classification
Höchst was created at the crossroads of prehistoric traffic routes . Immediately after the confluence of the Nidda into the Main , two rivers that were navigable at the time, a slope edge pushes itself almost to the river bank. The plateau is flood-proof and easy to defend. At the foot of the slope a ford led through the Main, at the top ran a pre-Roman old road , the Antsanvia or Hohe Straße , a forerunner of the later Elisabethenstraße , which led from the mouth of the Main at Kastel via Höchst to the Vogelsberg . Starting at the mouth of the Niddam, the Lindenweg (also known as the Linienweg ), a pre-Roman, straight-line connection across the Taunus crossing near today's Saalburg and into the Lahn area, sought. To the north of Sossenheim, the old trade route, the Hessian Wine Route (Wagenstrasse) branched off into the Wetterau .
Prehistory and early history
Individual finds of tools and processed antlers from the end of the Upper Paleolithic in the area of the Höchst old town allow the conclusion that the Höchst area was already occasionally inhabited by people at this time. However, there is no evidence of permanent settlement.
It was not until the beginning of the Neolithic Age that there was a permanent human settlement in the area of the old town, the Höchst new town and the upper field. During construction work and excavations, settlement remains and shards of vessels from the band pottery period and the bell beaker culture were found.
Barrows and urn fields from the Bronze Age provide information about the continued human settlement of the highest space. Iron Age graves from the Hallstatt and La Tène periods , which indicate Celtic inhabitants, were also found during construction work . However , there is no evidence of an oppidum , and no fixed local structure in the sense of a village can be assumed.
Roman and pre-Frankish times
Shortly after the turn of the century, the Romans built a fort on the high bank above the Main . Not exactly proven, but it is possible that at the level of the Wörthspitze near the mouth of the Nidda, a bridge spanned the flat Main and connected the Roman settlement with the southern Main areas around today's Kelsterbach and Groß-Gerau .
The Romans expanded existing Celtic old roads and created numerous new connections: to Saalburg or the Taunus crossing there, the Linden - or Linienweg , over this after the Elisabethenstrasse crossing to Wetterau the Weinstrasse , on the watershed Main / Nidda the Hohe Strasse to Vogelsberg and Thuringia. The Königsteiner Straße still runs in a north-westerly direction to the Feldberg , and the route along the Main can be found after the Niddabrücke as a connection via Griesheim and Gutleuthof to Frankfurt. Today these are Nieder Kirchweg and Stroofstraße .
A river port was set up in the protected Nidda estuary, and a military brick building was built on the northern Niddaufer in the area of today's Nieder district. The Legio XXII Primigenia made bricks here between the years 85 and 120. With the extension of the Limes in the middle of the 2nd century, brick production, which had been temporarily suspended, was resumed. More than 200 different brick stamps have been preserved, most of them from the XXII. Legion.
With the construction of Elisabethenstrasse via Hofheim and the establishment of the Limes, the settlement lost its economic and military importance. It developed into a civilian settlement. When the Alamanni conquered the Limes from 260 and invaded Roman territory, the Romans withdrew to their areas on the left bank of the Rhine and gave up their possessions on the right bank of the Rhine. The settlement at the mouth of the Niddam became deserted , there are no traditions or reports of a repopulation of the Höchst Area after the retreat of the Romans. Only a few indications point to an Alemannic homestead in the 4th century and a Merovingian royal court on the edge of today's old town in the 5th century.
Under the crook: The Mainz period - 790 to 1803
The village of Höchst in the early and high Middle Ages
It was not until the 8th century that there was evidence of a settlement of the high plateau above the Nidda with homesteads. However, there can be no question of a village in the present-day sense, it was rather a loose collection of individual farmsteads. The first documentary mention of this settlement took place on August 5, 790 in the Lorsch Codex , when the Franconian landlord Thiotmann gave the Lorsch monastery an estate "in villa hostat in Nitahgowe" , in the "village on the high place in Niddagau" . At later times, the Renaissance poet wrote Georg Calaminus the Hostato -Sage in verse on, after the squire Hostato the only battle of Roncesvalles survived and because of the Great Karl beaten as thanks for his bravery knighted and Vogt of the high places was appointed .
By the early 9th century at the latest, the Archdiocese of Mainz , which was striving to expand its territorial rule, had so many individual privileges under Franconian law in the areas along the Main from Mainz to Frankfurt that Höchst was part of the Mainz property and no longer part of it Niddagau belonged. Annals of the Fulda monastery from the year 849 report on the "Hofgut Höchst in the Mainz area". The rule of Mainz lasted almost a thousand years until 1803, and the Mainz wheel in the Höchst coat of arms still reminds of this today .
From around 830 onwards, the Archbishop of Mainz, Otgar von Mainz , had the Justinuskirche built on the high bank above the Main , which is largely preserved to this day. It is one of the oldest churches in Germany and the oldest building in Frankfurt. The church, which was much too large for the settlement, was a symbol of power for the Archbishop of Mainz in relation to the Frankfurt royal court . At the same time, as part of church settlement policy, it served to promote the emergence of a village settlement and the concentration of the population around the church, who had previously lived in scattered individual farms. Otgar's successor Rabanus Maurus consecrated the building after its completion in 850. The Justinuskirche served as the village church. In the period that followed, the village of Höchst developed along the main road between a Mainz Fronhof in the west, which was located in the Wed area, and the Justinuskirche in the east. The western border of Höchst forms an estuary of the Liederbach , which flowed over the area of today's Schloßplatz to the Main. At the beginning of the 11th century one could speak of a village Höchst.
The emergence of another archbishop's court west of the Justinuskirche has been handed down from the 11th century. Together with the Justinuskirche, it was given to the St. Alban's monastery in Mainz. The church was deliberately described in writings of the monastery as being in danger of collapse; In this way, St. Alban received additional lands and privileges in Höchst as a bonus. However, renovation work on the allegedly dilapidated church did not take place. The highest settlement of the Abbey of St. Alban remained in Höchst until 1419.
In the 12th century the diocese of Mainz installed a burgrave in Höchst; documentary mention a count Gotfried of the Wartburg , a relative of Archbishop Henry I . Such a governor usually had his seat in a town or a castle. Höchst was not yet a town at that time, so from the proven existence of a bailiff it can be concluded that a castle existed as the predecessor of today's Höchst Castle as early as the middle of the 12th century . During excavation work on the palace terrace in 1981, trenches were found which, due to their different orientation, could not belong to the - proven - later Gothic customs castle .
The Mainzoll levied in Höchst and other places in the Lower Main was abolished and banned by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1157. Only in three places, Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg and Neustadt , was the river tariff still allowed to be levied. With the decline of imperial power in the 13th century, Kurmainz had the opportunity to raise customs again in Höchst. A new and larger castle was built, which on the land side had a high and almost five meter thick shield wall . The result of the castle construction was a modest expansion of Höchst to the west. When the moat was excavated, the deeply cut estuary of the Liederbach was filled in, the palace square was largely raised to its current level and the water was led directly into the moat.
In the north and east of Burgplatz , new buildings were built between the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century. The Allmeygang , which had previously led directly to the Main, was diverted to the new square. To the west of the castle stood the Ochsenturm as a free-standing watch tower , it was later included in the city fortifications that were built in the 15th century.
City elevation and urban development in the late Middle Ages
The town elevation of Höchst was a point of contention between Mainz and Frankfurt for a long time. It was primarily about the collection of the Mainzolls by the Archbishops of Mainz, for whom the customs were an important source of income. Frankfurt, on the other hand, regarded the Höchst Mainzoll as an obstacle to trade and obtained its imperial ban several times. Nevertheless, the Mainz people often continued to raise the Mainzoll without paying attention to the prohibitions. During the interregnum, with its weakened royal power, this usually had no consequences. In 1336, Emperor Ludwig IV granted Bayer Frankfurt a privilege that forbade any construction of fortified structures within seven miles of Frankfurt. This was to prevent an attachment to the maximum.
On February 11, 1355, Emperor Charles IV granted the village of Hoisten (Höchst) city rights against the will of Frankfurt in a document issued in Pisa . The certificate, written in Latin, is addressed to Gerlach von Nassau , the sovereign and archbishop of Mainz. For a long time there were doubts about the legality of this document, as it was supposedly neither sealed nor signed. But the document stored in the Bavarian State Archives in Munich bears both the royal and the imperial seal and is accordingly valid.
In another document issued in Nuremberg in German from January 12, 1356, which is also kept in the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich, Charles IV reaffirmed the town elevation:
- We grant and allow him, by our special imperial grace, his descendants, [...] that they should set up, expose, build and make a city out of their village of Hoesten and like it and fortify and fortify it with ditches, gates, towers and with all other things and with all ways ...
In addition, Karl extended Höchsts' city rights significantly and gave the young city market rights . As in the first document, the city was granted freedom privileges based on the example of the neighboring city of Frankfurt:
- Also in the above city they are to celebrate and hold a weekly market every Tuesday, and the above city is to have all the rights and freedoms, grace and good habits and use them fully on the same market day and in all other ways and things, as ours and des The above-mentioned rich city of Franckenfurt has and has used it and has also come from ancient times.
As a Mainz daughter city at the gates of Frankfurt, Höchst became an important instrument for the Mainz residents in the competition between the two major cities. At the same time, the Archbishops of Mainz were appointed as Chancellors of Germany as part of the Golden Bull , who had the privilege of assembling the electors for the election of a king.
With the granting of city rights, the Mainz rights on the Lower Main were strengthened in relation to the up-and-coming imperial city of Frankfurt, and the fortification rights allowed Mainz to gain a more military presence in Höchst. The previously unprotected settlement and the mainzische Fronhof were now better protected from raids. The Frankfurt-Mainz trade route ran through the protected city area through the city walls, which meant that a land toll could also be levied. The income from the customs duties in Höchst, Ehrenfels and Niederlahnstein were a welcome instrument for the financially weak Mainz state to share in the growing wealth of its neighbors.
Strengthening the bourgeoisie was not in the interests of the archbishop with the town elevation of Höchsts, who had already had to grant the citizens of Mainz considerable freedom . The highest citizens received the urban freedoms through the city elevation , but no self-administration . Mainz did not set up a council , and the mayor was also appointed by the archbishops. The city of Höchst was supposed to generate customs revenue and militarily secure the eastern border of the Mainz state. The rural labor was replaced by other duties such as guard duty on the city walls.
Shortly after the town was raised, the construction of a town fortification began in Höchst. The city wall , which has been partially preserved until today, was probably built in several steps. In the report on the Frankfurt attack of 1396, the Limburg Chronicle does not mention a stone wall, but palisades with ditches and towers :
- One should also know that Höchst, as mentioned above, only became a town and a freedom forty years ago, with ditch, planks and mountain peace , as it should be.
The expansion of the city initially reached from the Rosengasse in the west to the later Kronberger Haus in the east. In the east and west, it did not reach the extent of the preserved city walls until the end of the 15th century, after being expanded twice.
The customs levied by the Mainzers in Höchst from all ships sailing the Main remained a point of contention between the Mainz and Frankfurters, as the trading city of Frankfurt saw its most important lifeline threatened by the Mainzoll. In 1368 the duty was raised again, in 1379 banned again and the Main to Frankfurt declared duty-free. In 1380, King Wenceslas finally allowed Archbishop Adolf I of Nassau and his successors to levy a duty on wine and other merchant goods. In 1396 the Frankfurters therefore used the vacancy of the Mainz bishop's seat; On behalf of the Frankfurt Council, the Kronberg knights destroyed the city and Höchst castle in a stroke of a hand. Between 1396 and 1432, the castle and the city fortifications were gradually rebuilt, against which Frankfurt sued in vain. The interplay of the highest tariff between permission and prohibition, levying and renunciation continued.
The settlement of some noble families in Höchst, who alternately occupied the post of Mainz bailiff , led to spatial and economic growth. After the destruction in 1396, the city was expanded in both directions along the main road until 1432. In the west, the older Ochsenturm was incorporated into the new fortification as a south-western corner. City gates were built on the main street .
The monastery of St. Alban, which had previously taken over pastoral care in the Justinuskirche, was dissolved in 1419. The monastery property was therefore transferred to the Antoniter Order in 1441 , who moved its monastery in Roßdorf near Hanau to Höchst . The Antonite monks expanded the Justinuskirche with a Gothic choir , which still shapes the appearance of the building today. The last Antonites left Höchst in 1803 after the secularization .
In 1463 Diether von Isenburg , who was defeated in the Mainz collegiate feud and deposed as archbishop, was granted the office of Höchst as his own rule in the Peace of Zeilsheim . Until Diether became archbishop again in 1475, he had the castle and town of Höchst expanded. In a further construction phase from 1460 to 1475, the city was again expanded to the east, the widening of the street in front of the Frankfurter Tor , known as the Storch , served as a new space for the Höchst weekly market . In this expansion, the fortified Mainmühle was included in the fortification as a new southeast corner.
At most in the early modern period until the end of Kurmainz
In the Renaissance period, Höchst slowly developed into a small town sub-center west of Frankfurt. Since the middle of the 16th century, some of the aristocratic courts that still exist today such as the Kronberger Haus , the Dalberger Haus and the Greiffenclausche Haus were built . Wolfgang von Dalberg, as archbishop and sovereign, had the castle expanded from 1586.
In 1582 Höchst was struck by the plague . The number of deaths from the plague is not known, only the Antonite diary reports of four victims among the brothers. On the night of December 10th to 11th, half of the city was destroyed in the great city fire . The Antonites' diary tells us:
- 1586 Högst branded in Vigilia Damasi; the Main was frozen for 5 weeks.
The Thirty Years War also meant a turning point for Höchst. The city was badly affected by the war. On June 20, 1622 the battle of Höchst was fought , in which the imperial under Tilly defeated the Brunswick. The city was occupied and looted. From November 1631 to March 1632 the Swedes under Gustav II Adolf occupied the city, a small Swedish garrison remained until the end of 1634. On his train from Frankfurt to Mainz, Bernhard von Weimar had Höchst captured in January 1635 and half of the city and that at that time Burn down gothic castle. The Elector Anselm Casimir Wambolt von Umstadt complained in a letter from March of that year to the Emperor:
- Out of bad intent and poisonous envy, without some of their use and advantage, they completely buried the residential palace built by our predecessor Wolfgang with great costumes, especially down to the still standing walls.
The city was repeatedly ravaged by enemy troops. Fires, hunger and plague decimated the population. Of the 126 families in 1618, only 75 remained at the end of the war. However, the number of households rose again to 102 due to the influx of people. The town recovered only slowly from the consequences of the war, and the destroyed castle was not rebuilt. Only the gate and the keep were repaired between 1636 and 1768. The tower received its baroque dome in 1681.
In the 18th century, a slow boom in trade began in Höchst. With the economic upswing, the population slowly rose, doubling to 850 by 1780, compared to 450 in 1668. The establishment of the famous Höchst Porcelain Manufactory in 1746 - it produced until 1796 and was re-established in 1947 - and the settlement of the Italian Bolongaro family were two important reasons for this boom. The Bolongaros had acquired a tobacco shop in Frankfurt in 1743 and developed it into the largest snuff manufacturer in Europe. In 1771 they acquired citizenship in Höchst, which the Lutheran imperial city of Frankfurt had denied them. Elector Emmerich Joseph allowed them to build the Bolongaro Palace as part of his Neustadt project for urban development in Höchsts, which he began in 1768 . However, the project made slow progress. Although the new settlers were granted many privileges, the construction costs on the difficult site were high and there was enough inexpensive building space in the old town. Therefore, the Neustadt remained undeveloped except for a few streets.
On September 24, 1778, the old town was hit again by a fire that destroyed the northeastern quarter. As a result, the development there was rearranged to reduce the risk of fire. At the same time, the elector allowed the buildings to be extended up to the city wall. This meant the end of the city wall as a defensive system for the city. The Bolongaros, who had been granted Frankfurt citizenship after all, left Höchst again and commissioned their authorized signatory Bertina to manage the tobacco factory.
In the following years from 1792 Höchst was occupied several times by French troops during the coalition wars. In September 1795 a French army under Marshal Jourdan crossed the Rhine near Mainz-Kastel , but was defeated on October 10, 1795 by the Austrians under Karl von Clerfayt in the battle of Höchst and thrown back across the Rhine. On October 11, 1802, one hundred men in the Nassau military under the leadership of the government councilor Huth took possession of Höchst in anticipation of the territorial reorganization .
From Nassau and Prussia to Frankfurt - 1803 to 1928
The Biedermeier district town in Nassau
With the end of the Holy Roman Empire through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the spiritual principalities were dissolved - the territory of the Archdiocese of Mainz was also secularized . The town and office of Höchst were added to the Principality of Nassau-Usingen , which became part of the Duchy of Nassau as early as 1806 . The royal seat responsible for Höchst was now Wiesbaden . A few years later the canonical solution of Höchst was made by the Archdiocese of Mainz. As part of the reorganization of the dioceses in 1821, Höchst belonged to the newly created Diocese of Limburg from 1827 with the Duchy of Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt .
From November 1 to November 2, 1813, Napoléon Bonaparte , who had been beaten near Leipzig , spent his last night on the right bank of the Rhine. He stayed at the Bolongaro Palace. His opponent, Marshal Blücher , reached Höchst a few days later, on November 17th. He used the Bolongaro Palace as his headquarters until December 27th of that year.
After the end of the wars of liberation , the Nassau government began to improve the infrastructure and administrative reform in the duchy in 1813. Höchst became the administrative seat of the Höchst office in 1816 . As part of the expansion of Mainzer Landstrasse , the obstructive and useless city walls and both city gates were demolished in 1816 and the main road was expanded. Only the main front of the old city fortifications remained, as there was no possibility of expansion for the city. It shapes the image of the mains in Höchst to this day. The Königsteiner Straße , which was laid out as part of the Neustadt project , was expanded as a road towards Königstein between 1814 and 1820 . Höchst experienced further economic and population growth. In 1822 the entry in a geography book read:
- Highest, due to the influence of the Nidda in the Main, with 1516 inhabitants, tobacco and other factories, strong trade. The Bolongarosche building adorns this lively town.
On September 26, 1839, the first stage of the Taunus Railway from Frankfurt to Höchst was opened. It was one of the first German railways. The first Höchst train station was at the level crossing on today's Königsteiner Strasse. At the beginning of 1840 the line to the Wiesbaden residence in Nassau was completed. In 1847 the branch line opened to the Soden spa , which was very popular at the time .
After the March Revolution of 1848 , which also did not pass Höchst, the Nassau government decided to reform the administration. With a law of December 1848 to reorganize the municipal administration, a four-year honorary council was introduced. The municipal council was elected by the municipal assembly and consisted of a mayor, a council clerk and a number of councilors that changed according to the size of the municipality. From 1860 to 1887 Höchst had four honorary mayors.
The industrial revolution in Germany had its first climax in the middle of the 19th century . The Duchy of Nassau promoted industrial settlements as much as possible, while the Free City of Frankfurt did not want to tolerate any larger factories within its borders. As early as 1856 a first factory for chemical products Simeons, Ruth and Co. was opened in Höchst. In 1863 the two Frankfurt entrepreneurs Eugen Lucius and his brother-in-law Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meister founded the company Theerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co. The initially very small company grew rapidly. Under the name of Farbwerke Höchst vorm. Meister Lucius & Brüning AG and later as Hoechst AG , it became the largest chemical and pharmaceutical company in the world. In the highest vernacular, the plant always kept the name Rotfabrik , after one of the young company's first products, the red dye fuchsin .
Groß-Höchst - The Prussian district and industrial city
The Duchy of Nassau was on the side of the German Confederation in the German War and was thus one of the losers. The duchy was annexed by Prussia together with the Free City of Frankfurt and the Electorate of Hesse . The city of Höchst belonged to the new district of Wiesbaden in the province of Hessen-Nassau from 1867 to 1885 . In 1886 Höchst became the district town of the newly founded district of Höchst .
On December 31, 1866, the Prussian administration finally abolished the Mainzoll. The last two Höchst Customs officers finished their duties on February 15, 1867, the office's equipment was auctioned and the building rented out as private apartments. The customs tower was converted into a school in 1870.
The new Main-Lahn-Bahn to Limburg was put into operation in 1877. With the construction of the Limburg line in 1880, a new station building was erected at the current location. As an island train station, it was located between the tracks and was accessible from Königsteiner Straße via a cul-de-sac. In 1902 the Königsteiner Bahn to Königstein im Taunus was opened. In 1914, the last public building project in Höchst before the First World War was a new train station , the third after 1839 and 1880. With its twelve tracks and the representative reception building in Art Nouveau style , it was a symbol of the rapid growth that the city experienced as a chemical location experienced.
The population rose by leaps and bounds from 6517 in 1885 to 14,000 in 1905. Other industrial and craft businesses settled here. In 1908, the Höchst port on the banks of the Main was expanded to accommodate the growing transport of goods on the river. The previously flat bank was raised by two meters for this purpose. New districts were created, the Westend with Wilhelminian style and Art Nouveau buildings emerged. While the city map from 1864 still shows a city plan, which in the area of the old town hardly differs from the late medieval expansion and the new city has hardly grown beyond Emmerich-Joseph's plan, the city map from 1898 illustrates Höchst's rapid growth within thirty years .
Religious life in the city also became more diverse. Hoechst was traditionally Catholic as a Mainz property, but now Protestants and citizens of the Jewish faith moved in. With financial support from the industrialist Adolf von Brüning , the Protestant town church was built in 1882 . The Jewish community inaugurated its new synagogue on today's market square in 1905. In 1909 the new Catholic parish church of St. Josef was consecrated, the construction of which was financed by the Prussian state as a result of the expropriation of church property during the secularization of 1803. This was decided in 1906 in a court case between the Catholic parish and the Prussian tax authorities called the Höchst Church Building Process.
Ultimately, the voluntary administration could no longer cope with the problems of the growing industrial city. Without the massive influence of Farbwerke Hoechst and its founding families on social and cultural urban development and their construction of social housing for the workers, the Höchst infrastructure would have long since collapsed. In 1888 Höchst got its first full-time mayor, Eugen Gebeschus . The administrative lawyer quickly advocated a planned urban development that ordered the city's growth and structured the available space. In 1907 Höchst acquired the Bolongaro Palace, which had previously been used as a residential and industrial building, for the growing city administration and had it converted into the town hall.
In the middle of the First World War, on April 1, 1917, the communities Unterliederbach , Sindlingen and Zeilsheim were incorporated into Höchst am Main. The new city was now called Groß-Höchst , it had 32,000 inhabitants in one fell swoop. Its mayor Ernst Janke , incumbent from 1911 to 1923, was appointed Lord Mayor by Wilhelm II .
After World War I - French occupation and inflation
After the end of the war, the areas on the left bank of the Rhine in Germany were occupied by France as a result of the Treaty of Versailles . In addition, there were three bridgeheads on the right bank of the Rhine in a radius of thirty kilometers around Cologne , Koblenz and Mainz. Höchst was located within the Mainz occupation area and was occupied on December 14, 1918 by French, Moroccan and Algerian troops, who took up quarters in the Höchst barracks built especially for them. A border crossing (customs border) was set up at the Niddabrücke to Nied , street name signs in French were put up. Mayor Janke was expelled in 1919 because of resistance against the occupying power, and his successor in office, Bruno Asch , met the same fate in 1923 . Until 1925 he managed the official business by telephone from Frankfurt, before he became city treasurer there and handed over his office to Bruno Müller, the last Supreme Mayor. The French occupation did not end until 1930.
The technical administration building by Peter Behrens , one of the most important expressionist industrial buildings, was built in the Höchst plant from 1920 to 1924 . Between the train station and Königsteiner Strasse, one of the few expressionist parks in Germany was created south of the railway embankment, today's Bruno-Asch-Anlage. The highest city architect Carl Rohleder had radical plans for a "Groß-Höchst", which called for the demolition and rebuilding of almost the entire old town. Due to the financially weak situation Höchst could not be realized. The inflation and the cost of the French occupation from 1918 to 1930 had emptied the city coffers. In addition, trade tax income fell considerably after IG Farben , to which Hoechst AG belonged, had been converted from the interest group in 1925 into a group with its headquarters in Frankfurt . The main part of the tax revenue from Hoechst AG now flowed into the neighboring city. Little was invested in the Höchst plant during these years, as the new group had its focus in central Germany.
The economic interests of the group and the group headquarters in Frankfurt caused the Prussian government to put pressure on the highest administration. If Höchst did not voluntarily allow himself to be incorporated into Frankfurt, the Prussian state parliament would compel this with an act of law. In order not to have the terms of incorporation dictated and to continue to benefit from the existential tax revenue, the Supreme Magistrate decided to voluntarily give up urban independence. On January 5, 1928, the city council passed the incorporation agreement negotiated with Frankfurt with its annex for the further development of Höchsts. The previous Supreme Mayor Bruno Müller (SPD) became a department head in Frankfurt.
A district of Frankfurt - Höchst from 1928
From the late 1920s to the end of World War II
On April 1, 1928 Höchst lost its communal independence after 573 years and became a district of Frankfurt ( Frankfurt-West ). The old town and the Höchst districts incorporated in 1917 became Frankfurt districts. The French military administration initially opposed the incorporation, but then agreed. After the last French troops withdrew in December 1929, the French occupation of Höchst formally ended in June 1930.
However, Höchst remained, this was a curiosity of the incorporation, until 1980 the seat of the district administration of the Main-Taunus district , which was newly formed as part of a regional reform from the old district Höchst and the old district Wiesbaden .
With the takeover of power by the National Socialists , the local political situation in Höchst changed. The incorporation agreement provided for a high degree of autonomy for the district, which also included its own budget. This did not fit in with the new ruler's centralized leadership principle, and Höchst became a dependent administrative district of Frankfurt. Construction projects and urban development measures promised in the appendix to the contract were not carried out, the contract disappeared in the city archives.
The National Socialists quickly began expropriating the Jewish population of Höchsts. The owners of the metropolitan department store Schiff , which opened in 1929 on Königsteiner Strasse, were forced to sell; the department store was sold to the Hertie group via an intermediate owner . The R. & W. Nathan OHG shoe factory opposite the train station, half of which was acquired by Dresdner Bank , was also “ Aryanized ” . The company was renamed ADA-ADA-Schuh AG , and the owners were driven into emigration. During the November pogroms in 1938 , the synagogue built in 1905 on the market square was burned down by SA men, the fire brigade only protected nearby houses from the fire. An air raid shelter was built in place of the synagogue. A memorial plaque on the west facade reminds of what happened today.
In contrast to the core city of Frankfurt and other districts, Höchst was only slightly damaged in the air raids on Frankfurt am Main during World War II . Four houses were destroyed in air raids in 1940, killing 13 people. In particular, the facilities of Hoechst AG were only slightly damaged. Only a production facility, the switchboard and the works library were destroyed. A total of 53 houses were hit in Höchst. According to eyewitness reports, there was not a single heavy air raid in Höchst .
The last bombardment of Höchst by US artillery took place on the evening of March 27, 1945. On March 29, 1945, American troops marched into Höchst and occupied the district and the chemical plant.
The development of Frankfurt-Höchst after 1945
In July 1945 the AFN soldier broadcaster was set up in the Höchst Castle. The studios were in the New Palace, the crew quarters in the Old Palace. The station stayed in the castle until the Hessischer Rundfunk moved into a new building in 1966.
In 1947, at the instigation of the Höchst journalist Rudolf Schäfer, the Höchst Porcelain Manufactory was re-established . After the financial participation of Hoechst AG, the company was able to continue in 1965. Between 1977 and 2002 it was located in the old town in the Dalberger Haus, and since then the company has been in the Höchst Palleskestrasse.
At the beginning of the 1950s, the incorporation agreement and its previously unfulfilled points came back into discussion. The Höchst people were still waiting for the connection to the Frankfurt tram , and the contractually promised market hall, indoor swimming pool and Main Bridge had not been built. In 1953, Höchst Citizens founded a committee that wanted to run the Ausgemeerung from Frankfurt under the motto “Zerbrecht die Ketten Frankfurts”. Since the mayor of Frankfurt, Walter Kolb, lived in a wing of the Bolongaropalast, he was able to get a direct picture of the displeasure of the highest population. On his initiative the market hall and the indoor swimming pool were built and inaugurated in November 1955. The tram was expanded from Nied to Zuckschwerdtstrasse in the east of Höchst. Other parts of the contract have only been fulfilled since the mid-1990s, such as the construction of a bridge over the Main in 1994 and the construction of the train station for Zeilsheim and Sindlingen in 2007.
In 1957 the Höchst Castle Festival took place for the first time . In the following years it developed into one of the region's cultural highlights.
A first approach to monument protection in Höchst took place in 1959 with a building statute issued by the city of Frankfurt, which placed some houses in the Höchst old town under protection. It resulted in a local statute in 1972, with which the Höchst old town was placed under monument protection as a whole . In the years that followed, the streets of the old town were repaved and given new street lamps. Many historic buildings have since been renovated.
On July 4, 1979, the Hessian state parliament decided to move the administration of the Main-Taunus-Kreis from Höchst to Hofheim am Taunus. As a result , Höchst lost its status as a district town after almost two centuries. However, it remained the seat of the district administration until 1987. Until 1980, Höchst also had an independent vehicle registration office for the FH license plate (Frankfurt-Höchst).
Since the 1970s, there has been a steady population decline in Höchst. The district had and still has the reputation of an industrial district with poor quality of living. In 2005, 39 percent of the population were migrants, resulting in social tensions and ghettos. With the construction of shopping centers such as the Main-Taunus-Zentrum in front of the gates of Höchst, traditional customers were lured away from the Vordertaunus. After the district administration moved away, the officials and visitors of the authorities stayed away as customers of the Höchst shops. The retail trade in Höchst has therefore been in a crisis since the late 1980s.
Another economic turning point for the district occurred from the mid-1990s with the division and dissolution of the Hoechst paintworks. The number of employees in the Höchst industrial park fell from over 30,000 (around 1980) to temporarily below 20,000, and the previously common shopping spree of the red factories during the lunch break became a victim of the efforts to constantly improve efficiency. In 2007 the industrial park is a prosperous location for over 90 companies, which again employ around 22,000 people, but who generate little turnover for retail and catering in Höchst. The financial support of the former Hoechst AG for social, cultural and monument protection projects in the district was now largely absent.
The 1990 conversion of a section of Königsteiner Strasse between Bolongarostrasse and Hostatostrasse into a pedestrian zone could not stop the downward trend in the Höchst retail trade. Many specialty shops moved away or gave up, vacant business premises and shops with low-priced goods have characterized the image of the Höchst shopping streets since then. The city of Frankfurt therefore decided in 2006 to support Höchsts urban development with twenty million euros over the next ten years in order to make Höchst an attractive residential and business location again.
References and comments
- ^ A b Wolfgang Metternich: That ends well, everything is green. The long history of the ports in Höchst. In: Vereinsring Frankfurt (M) -Höchst eV (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the Höchst Castle Festival 2007. Frankfurt am Main 2007, pp. 24–30. (PDF 1 MB)
- ↑ Minst, Karl Josef [transl.]: Lorscher Codex (Volume 5), Certificate 3399 August 5, 790 - Reg. 2229. In: Heidelberg historical stocks - digital. Heidelberg University Library, p. 172 , accessed on April 13, 2020 .
- ↑ "villa hohstedui quae es territorio mogontiaco" - Annales Fuldenses sive Annales regni Francorum orientalis from Einhardo, Ruodolfo, Meginhardo fuldensibus, Seligenstadi, Fuldae, Mogontiaci conscripti cum continuationibus Ratisbonensi et Althanensibus. Edited by Friedrich Kurz. Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi (SS rer. Germ. U. S.) 7. Hannover 1891, unaltered reprint Hannover 1993, ISBN 3-7752-5303-3 , p. 39, lines 10-11. Online edition: http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00000760/images/index.html?id=00000760&nativeno=39 . - German translation: Yearbooks of Fulda. In: Sources on the Carolingian history of the empire 3. Using the translations by C. Rehdantz, E. Dümmler and W. Wattenbach, revised by R. Rau (Selected sources on the German history of the Middle Ages. Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 7). Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-534-06965-X , pp. 19–177, here p. 39.
- ↑ In 1024 Aribo of Mainz invited Bishop Meginhard of Würzburg to the regional synod in Höchst with the words 'convenire nos in unum in vigilia ascensionis Domini in loco vicino qui dictur Hosteti iuxta Moguntiam'. The term locus describes a village in medieval documentary language, in contrast to villa , which refers to a single farm. Quoted from Lit. Metternich: The urban development of Höchst am Main. and W. v. Giesebrecht: The history of the German imperial era. Vol. 2. Munich 1885, p. 706, no.2a.
- ↑ Codex diplomaticus nassoicus. Edited by W. Sauer and K. Menzel. Wiesbaden 1885. Volume 1, Nos. 202, 203, 220, 229, 230. After Lit. Metternich: The 13th century castle in Höchst am Main.
- ↑ see Lit. Metternich: The castle of the 13th century in Höchst am Main.
- ↑ MGH Const. 1 No. 162, p. 225. According to U. Maier, Cl. Bandur and R. Kubon: The customs tower at Höchst am Main. HGH 34/35. Frankfurt-Höchst 1984: Association for history and antiquity e. V.
- ↑ about 35 kilometers
- ↑ See e.g. B. in Lit. Frischolz, Alt-Hoechst , p. 56: “Strangely enough, this document lacks the seal; it is also not mentioned anywhere else (...). From this it follows that an office-like copy has taken place, but that the document (...) was not executed (...). Thus, the deed is a valuable document about the negotiation itself, which preceded the elevation of Höchst to a city in 1356, but has no further significance. "
- ↑ Bayr. Main State Archive Munich, Mainz Certificate 4219
- ↑ a b City charter from 1356, Bayr. Main State Archive Munich, Mainz Certificate 4238
- ^ Wolfgang Metternich: Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. 650 years of the weekly market in Höchst am Main. In: Vereinsring Frankfurt (M) -Hoechst eV (ed.): Festschrift for the Höchst Castle Festival 2006. Frankfurt am Main 2006, pp. 22-29. (PDF; 1 MB) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Also as you know, that hoste was called the first for virzig years to a time stedechen and was understood to be a freedom with digging, planking and mountain freezing when it was born . The Limburg Chronicle of Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen. Edited by Arthur Wyss. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. German Chronicles 4.1. Berlin 1883, unaltered reprint Munich 1993, p. 92 lines 4-6. Online edition
- ↑ In 1389, only a few years earlier, the Kronbergers were still in dispute with Frankfurt in the Kronberg feud
- ↑ Item in the same quote was Hoste on mine, located at Menze unde Frankenfurt, a neat sting, daz horet in the pen of Menze, irstegen unde won ande too painful. Daz deden di von Cronenberg and won in them Reisiger sadelter pherde me dan seszig. - Limburg Chronicle p. 91 f. Online edition
- ↑ Highest Castle Festival 2008: Old Enemies - New Friends! The castle as a guest in the castle. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
- ^ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (HStA) Wiesbaden, Dia. Ant. 63r
- ↑ House, Court and State Archives Vienna
- ↑ HStA Wiesbaden 228 / I, 744
- ↑ A Nassau office corresponds to a current district
- ^ Brand, Geographisches Handbuch, 4th A., Weißkirchen 1822.
- ↑ Matthias Höhler: The highest church building process. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law 86, 1906, pp. 486–591.
- ↑ This was just a personal title; from a purely administrative point of view, Höchst had no mayor. The successors of Janke no longer carried this official title.
- ^ Josef Marschang: The incorporation to Frankfurt. In: Leo Gelhard (ed.), 600 year celebration of the city of Höchst am Main from July 2 to 11, 1955. Festival and program book. Frankfurt am Main 1955: City of Frankfurt am Main. Pp. 81-87.
- ↑ Incorporation contract between the municipality of Frankfurt am Main and the municipality of Höchst am Main from 1928 (PDF; 88 kB), accessed on Feb. 25, 2020
- ↑ Annex to the incorporation agreement of 1928 (PDF; 89 kB), accessed on Feb. 25, 2020
- ↑ Sausage from Höchst . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1953 ( online - Apr. 1, 1953 ).
- ↑ The construction of the indoor swimming pool was funded by Hoechst AG with 4 million DM, according to Lit .: Schreier / Wex: Chronik der Höchst Aktiengesellschaft. Pp. 224 and 228.
- ↑ Höchst Kreisblatt from November 16, 1955, FAZ from November 17, 1955.
- ↑ Tobias Rösmann: Höchst - The long way down. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 7, 2006. ( Online )
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook 2006 of the City of Frankfurt, Volume 2: Population (PDF; 598 kB), accessed on Feb. 26, 2020
- ↑ Internet presence of the Höchst industrial park
- ↑ City Planning Office Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Framework plan Höchst 2006. Urban planning framework; Revitalization of the inner city. Frankfurt am Main 2006: City of Frankfurt am Main.
literature
- Wilhelm Frischholz: Alt-Höchst. A home book in words and pictures. Hauser, Frankfurt am Main 1926.
- Leo Gelhard (Ed.): 600 year celebration of the city of Höchst am Main from July 2nd to 11th, 1955. Festival and program book. City of Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1955.
- Markus Grossbach: Frankfurt-Höchst. Illustrated book. Sutton, Erfurt 2001, ISBN 3-89702-333-4 .
- Wilhelm Grossbach: Alt-Höchst at second glance. Impressions from an old city. Höchst publishing company, Frankfurt 1980.
- Wilhelm Grossbach: Höchst am Main: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Frankfurter Sparkasse, Frankfurt am Main 2006, DNB 981276903 .
- Wolfgang Metternich: The Justinuskirche in Frankfurt am Main-Höchst. Association for history and archeology , Frankfurt am Main 1986, DNB 810644657 .
- Wolfgang Metternich: The urban development of Höchst am Main. City of Frankfurt and Association for History and Archeology , Frankfurt am Main 1990, DNB 910477647 .
- Wolfgang Metternich: Most astonishing story. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0447-8 .
- Wolfgang Metternich: The 13th century castle in Höchst am Main. Association for History and Archeology, Frankfurt am Main 1995.
- Rudolf Schäfer: Höchst am Main. Frankfurter Sparkasse, Frankfurt am Main 1981.
- Rudolf Schäfer: Chronicle of Höchst am Main. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7829-0293-9 .
- Heinrich Schüßler: Most. City of colors. Frankfurter Sparkasse from 1822, Frankfurt am Main 1953.
- Anna Elisabeth Schreier, Manuela Wex: Chronicle of the Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft. 1863-1988. Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main 1990, DNB 901055344 .
- Magistrate of the City of Höchst am Main (Ed.): Höchst am Main. City administration publishing house, Höchst a. M. 1925.
Web links
- Chronicle of Höchst at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main
- Maximum. altfrankfurt.com
