Hans Kampffmeyer the Younger

This article deals with the Frankfurt city planner Hans Kampffmeyer (1912–1996). For Hans Kampffmeyer (1876–1932), activist of the garden city movement and founder of the garden city Karlsruhe-Rüppurr, see Hans Kampffmeyer . For more urban planners and architects with the same surname, see Kampffmeyer (family name) .

Hans Martin Kampffmeyer the Younger (* 1912 in Karlsruhe ; † 1996 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German city ​​planner and local politician .

Life

His father Hans Kampffmeyer (1876–1932) influenced him early on in the spirit of the garden city movement and decided to become a city planner.

Kampffmeyer grew up in Karlsruhe and Vienna before the family moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1928. He studied law and economics in Heidelberg and Berlin and received his doctorate . In 1930 Kampffmeyer joined the SPD . From 1932 to 1933 he was engaged in scientific research into housing at the Research Center for Housing in Frankfurt. In 1934 he worked as a scientist at the International Association for Housing in Frankfurt. From 1936 to 1945 he was an employee at Deutsche Centralboden- und Kreditbank AG in Berlin. He did military service from 1940 to 1945.

After the Second World War, Kampffmeyer worked until 1950 at the Sociographical Institute of Frankfurt University with the sociologist Ludwig Neundörfer (among others in the working group Reconstruction of the cities ). Since 1946 he was again a member of the SPD. From 1950 to 1956 he worked as the commercial director of the Gemeinnützige Wohnungs- und Siedlungsbaugesellschaft mbH (Gewobag) in Frankfurt, where he was responsible for the planning and construction of housing developments, including the construction of the Am Dornbusch housing estate . He developed the proposal for a district integrated into the entire city on the Niederurseler Hang (later Nordweststadt).

From 1956 to 1972, Hans Kampffmeyer was the Frankfurt planning department . Instead of the elevated train required by some, he advocated the Frankfurt U-Bahn as a new form of public transport. He also became known for the plans for the Römerberg , the Westend , the Nordweststadt and numerous other settlements such as Atzelberg, Mainfeld and Frankfurter Berg . Since the mid-1960s, Kampffmeyer has been pursuing the new urban planning model of urbanity through densification. "In this way, he unintentionally encouraged land speculation and the ruthless pursuit of profit of individual private investors in Frankfurt's Westend". In 1967 he developed the so-called “five-finger plan” with five streets as the main axes on which high-rise buildings were to be built. This planning still determines the Frankfurt skyline today . His plans for Frankfurt's Westend resulted in the establishment of the Aktiongemeinschaft Westend (AGW), which wanted to prevent the reorganization of the urban area (one of the first German citizens' initiatives ), and in the Frankfurt house-to-house war . As a local politician, Kampffmeyer, who was referred to by some as the “father of the banking town” , was controversial because of the plans for the Westend from around 1970 until the end of his term in 1972.

From 1972 to 1978 Kampffmeyer was Secretary General of the German Association for Housing in Cologne.

As a member of the SPD, he was a member of the municipal authorities of Frankfurt for almost 24 years:

• Honorary city councilor in the 1948 and 1952 terms of office
• Full-time city councilor for the terms of office 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968 (until January 26, 1972)
• Construction Department, Planning Department (1956–1972)

Awards

• 1962 plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main
• 1970 Heinrich-Plett-Preis der Neue Heimat for services to housing and urban development
• 1971 Roman plaque of the city of Frankfurt am Main
• 1972 Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1985 City Elder of the City of Frankfurt am Main
• 1991 Johanna Kirchner Medal from the City of Frankfurt am Main

Fonts (selection)

• Help live properly. Hammonia-Verlag, 1953. (together with Reinhold Tarnow)
• Furnishing. Hammonia-Verlag, 1955. (together with Reinhold Tarnow)
• The non-profit housing companies in Germany. General Association of Non-Profit Housing Companies, 1956.
• Dom-Römerberg area. European publishing company, 1964. (together with Erhard Weiss)
• The northwest city in Frankfurt am Main. European publishing house, 1968. (together with Siegfried Boldt)

literature

• Martin Wentz: Hans Kampffmeyer. Head of Planning in Frankfurt am Main 1956–1972. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-593-36469-7 .
• Hans-Reiner Müller-Raemisch: Frankfurt am Main. Urban development and planning history since 1945. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Reiner Müller-Raemisch, p. 165