Main post office in Frankfurt am Main
The main post office of Frankfurt am Main - also: Post Office 1 - was opened in 1891 at Zeil 110 with a magnificent new building in the style of historicism . After the Second World War , a modern replacement building was built on the same site, but this was given up when the Deutsche Bundespost was privatized and traditional postal services declined. In 2008 the Palais Quartier (Frankfurt HochVier) was built here.
Building from 1891
Location and description
The property is located inside a large building block, which is enclosed by the three important shopping streets Zeil, Stiftstraße and Große Eschenheimer Straße . The Rothe Haus on the Zeil, the residence of the Prussian Oberpostdirektion since 1867 , was re-clad in 1879 and from 1887 to 1892 merged with the neighboring houses Weinhaus Drexel and Russischer Hof into a single post office. The courtyard of the Rothen Haus was the center of Frankfurt travel in the Biedermeider period: from here, the stagecoaches drove out in all directions in the first half of the 19th century. The Red House and Russischer Hof hotels were demolished for the construction of the new post office . It was based on drafts by the Secret Postal Councilor Julius Karl Skalweit (* June 20, 1841, Spannegeln , Labiau district , East Prussia ; † May 6, 1891, Berlin ) in the Reich Post Office , who was in charge of the overhead line. This was followed by the detailed designs for the courtyard and the main building.
Main building
Government architect Franz Ahrens planned the main building. However, the design for the main building had to be revised several times, so that Heinrich von Stephan , State Secretary of the Reich Post Office, did not approve the design of the post office inspector Prinzhausen until May 30, 1893 as the final basis for the design of the main building.
Hofbau
While the main building was planned by government builder Ahrens, the design by government builder Priess was decisive for the courtyard building . In 1894, the Reichstag decided to acquire the Palais Thurn und Taxis , because from 1876 telegraphy and from 1881 telephony had been added, so that a different basis was now given for the further execution of the courtyard building of the post office. The original Priess plan was abandoned and, under the direction of the Secret Postal Councilor Hake , Prinzhausen now also worked out the draft for the courtyard building. The Palais Thurn und Taxis turned out to be unsuitable for postal purposes and was therefore sold on to the city of Frankfurt in 1905, which housed a museum for ethnology there.
business
The main post office had its own connection to the Frankfurt am Main tram . The postal tram was operated from here . The access track to the main post office branched off on the Zeil and led through the portal of the post office building into the inner courtyard. There was a turning loop with a passing track. Also in the inner courtyard was a separate double-track wagon hall for six railcars with its own workshop. A total of 460 meters of track ran there .
Reconstruction and uses: 1947 to 2007
After war destruction
The main post office building from 1891 was badly damaged by the air raid in March 1944 . At the end of the Second World War it was no longer usable and a replacement had to be created. Due to the favorable location of the property and the still intact telecommunication lines, a - considered - change of location was waived. The main administration for post and telecommunications therefore decided in August 1947 to rebuild the post and telecommunications building on the old post office site.
In order to accommodate the necessary new buildings, the 12,399 m² site was enlarged to 21,431 m² through purchase. The newly acquired properties again included the property of the Palais Thurn und Taxis on Grosse Eschenheimer Strasse - now in ruins . Land was acquired on Stiftstrasse and a new access road was created there so that the Zeil no longer had to be used by postal vehicles.
Due to the irregular shape of the area, the location of the property and the buildings and remains of buildings to be preserved, in which ongoing operations had to be maintained during construction, the planning architect had little design freedom. In order to accommodate the functions of the rapidly expanding telecommunications operations , a high-rise building with a height of around 55 m was planned. Although the interests of neighbors were not impaired, because sufficient marginal distance was maintained on all sides , the city administration refused to give its consent out of consideration for the historic cityscape with the cathedral . The height of the building therefore had to be reduced to eight upper floors with a main cornice height of around 40 m. This is how the telecommunications high-rise , which is considered the first Frankfurt high-rise , was created.
All buildings - both those of the letter post and those of the telecommunications office - were arranged around an approximately 5000 m² courtyard. The buildings of the two branches of the company were carefully separated from each other, the post office buildings were oriented towards the Zeil. The historic portal and the inner courtyard of the Palais Thurn und Taxis on Grosse Eschersheimer Strasse gave public access to the telecommunications hall on the ground floor.
Use by the National Security Agency (NSA)
For years, the US American NSA had a listening center directly above the Frankfurt Main Post Office. After the main post office moved to a nearby building, it was also directly connected to the NSA there. For this purpose, a connection was established via armored telephone lines with the telecommunications node of the Bundespost in Frankfurt. Officially, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) called itself the tenant of the rooms.
Realization of the property
This facility, created in the early 1950s, was abandoned 50 years later. The telecommunications tower was a monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Nevertheless, it was demolished along with the entire area so that the Palais Quartier (Frankfurt HochVier) development measure could be built here from 2008 , which houses shops, hotels and offices.
literature
- Post and telegraphy in Frankfurt am Main. Memorandum for the inauguration of the new Reich Post and Telegraph Building on the Zeil and the monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I donated by the Frankfurt trade for the same on October 18, 1895 . Publishing house August Osterrieth, Frankfurt am Main 1895.
- Wilhelm Kick (Ed.): Modern new buildings , 2nd year, Stuttgart architecture publishing house Kick, Stuttgart 1898.
- Dipl.-Ing. Ebert: Technical documentation: Telecommunication center on the Zeil . 1956.
Web links
- "The old post office"
- Frankfurt am Main main post office
- The Main Post Office on the "Zeil" around 1900
- List of listed buildings of the postal and telecommunications system
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Gerteis: The unknown Frankfurt. Fifth edition July 1971. Verlag Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt, p. 33 .
- ^ Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti : eavesdropping jungle, secret services read unabashedly - basic rights are being dismantled. Heise Zeitschriften Verlag (c't Magazin), May 1, 1998, accessed on September 17, 2013 .
- ↑ http://www.deutsches-architektur-forum.de/forum/showthread.php?p=175728
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 51.6 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 53.5 ″ E