Henninger Tower

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Henninger Tower
Henninger Tower in 2005

Henninger Tower in 2005

Data
place Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen
architect Karl Emil Lieser
Builder Henninger-Bräu AG
Construction year 1959–1961
Reconstruction of the tower cage: 1969/1970
demolition 2013
height 119.5 m
Floor space 625 m²
Coordinates 50 ° 5 '50.3 "  N , 8 ° 41' 36.7"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 5 '50.3 "  N , 8 ° 41' 36.7"  E
particularities
Grain silo, observation tower, revolving restaurant

The Henninger Tower was a grain silo and observation tower of Henninger-Bräu AG at the address Hainer Weg 60-64 in the Sachsenhausen-Süd district of Frankfurt am Main . The building planned by the architect Karl Emil Lieser was erected between 1959 and 1961 with a total height of 119.5 m. It consisted of a cuboid silo with its distinctive lookout tower on top and its barrel- like tower cage . The inauguration took place on May 18, 1961.

The tower originally contained two viewing platforms, a small one at a height of 109.2 m and a large one at a height of 106.4 m. Below this was a revolving restaurant in the tower cage at a height of 100.3 m and below that a kitchen and access level. In 1969/1970 the lookout tower was given a changed appearance with a higher tower cage when the large observation platform was built into a second revolving restaurant. The Henninger Tower remained the tallest structure in the city of Frankfurt until 1974 . The observation tower has been closed to visitors since 2002 because it had no second escape route for visitors.

The demolition work began in January 2013 and lasted until the end of the year and cost almost EUR 1.5 million. From 2014 to 2017, a 140-meter-high residential high-rise was built on the property as the New Henninger Tower , which is roughly based on the appearance of the old tower.

Building description

Shape and construction

Original placemat from the Henninger Tower Restaurant (after the renovation in 1969/1970, with which the originally two-story tower cage was turned into a rotating café by building up the large viewing platform).
In the foreground the Henninger Tower with its rear side of the silo looking north towards the Frankfurt skyline (2007).
View of the Henninger Tower from the city center with its front of the silo, the glazed main staircase and with the attached observation tower looking south from the Zeilgalerie in the city center (2007).

The Henninger Tower consisted of a silo and the cylindrical observation tower including the tower cage with originally a revolving restaurant , later with an additional revolving café (see below). It should give the impression that the structure is a round tower rising dynamically from the ground and a cuboid structure that almost completely encloses the former. The entire structure was founded on a 25 x 25 m large and 1.25 m thick foundation plate made of reinforced concrete , which distributed the forces to the rock below. The building stood on 36 concrete columns that went through all floors and tapered towards the top. The six outer supports were connected directly to the outer walls. The remaining 16 formed the corners of the silo cells and were free-standing above and below the silo and also connected to each other by reinforced concrete beams.

The concrete work up to the storage cells was carried out using standard wooden formwork . From then on, the tower was erected using sliding formwork . The distribution floors above the silo cells were shuttered conventionally. The outer wall of the cylindrical tower tower was between 21 and 24 cm thick, from which twenty cantilevered support brackets led a ceiling of the tower cage. These four elements - continuous elevator and stairwells, massive outer and partition walls of the silo and columns on a square grid as well as the tower cylinder - provided the necessary stability. The structure had a dead weight of 17,335 t and a maximum total weight of 31,611 t.

Development

The main access, on the side facing the Frankfurt skyline , was used for general passenger traffic. The main access staircase (on which the counting of the upper floors was based) and an elevator group with two high-speed elevators were located here from the ground floor. The continuous elevator shaft of the two passenger elevators was made of reinforced concrete and enclosed by a semicircle with a diameter of 7.3 m. It led up to the tower cage of the observation tower. The elevator shaft was designed entirely with sliding formwork .

The main staircase of the silo, which led to the third level of the tower cage of the cylindrical observation tower, was designed from the 3rd floor with the same diameter of 7.3 m as the tower neck with outwardly curved glazing around the cylinder stuck in the cuboid to make them visible to the viewer. There was a continuous tower shaft made of solid construction , except for the stairwell and the window front . Up to the 15th floor, the main staircase was designed as a U-staircase with half-platforms. From the 16th floor as a single-flight circular arc staircase with the stairwell on the window side. The staircase merged into the cylindrical tower extension, so that the former large viewing platform was reached via 596 steps.

The first elevator stop was on the ground floor, a second intermediate stop to the silo levels at a height of 40.3 m. The 3rd and 4th stop opened up the two switching and distribution floors and the 5th stop the restaurant level of the silo cuboid. With the 6th stop, the kitchen level in the tower cage was accessed, which also contained toilets.

The 7th stop took you to the revolving restaurant and the 8th and last stop to the large open viewing platform, which was converted into a revolving café in the later higher tower head and which was later also used as the brewery's company museum.

About three meters above was the small viewing platform, which could only be reached by stairs. Even further up in the tower head were two operating floors that could be reached via ladders. The engine room of the high-speed elevators was housed in the top of these floors, with a lower edge of the ceiling of 118.50 m and illuminated all around with small windows.

On the opposite side of the building, facing away from the city center with the Frankfurt skyline and facing Aschaffenburger Straße, there was a smaller rectangular staircase in the silo block, to which only the brewery staff had access. A shaft connected to the inside, which in the original planning should have been an elevator shaft.

The initial fare for the high-speed elevators was one mark ; in August 1961, 250,000 people had already been carried up.

Cuboid

silo

The silo was in the form of a cuboid with a square footprint of 20.68 × 20.68 m and a roof height of 87.0 m. The required silo storage volume was 14,000 t.

In the 3.5 m deep basement of the tower there was the bulk goods reception as well as machine and storage rooms. The bulk material removal facility was located on the first floor at a height of 4.10 m. This led over a pipeline bridge to the opposite side of Hainer Weg to the brewery. Above it were several massive storage cells for barley and malt , the total capacity of which was 14,276 t. The maximum side pressure on the 18 cm thick reinforced concrete partition walls was 4.5 t / m².

On the level 72.8 m high (17th floor) with the third elevator stop, a 5.00 m high distribution floor for the bulk goods was housed, the lower switching floor. This could be seen on the facade through the lower of the three rows of windows with elongated, standing window formats. The two rows of windows above exposed the 19th and 20th floors, where electrical systems and lounges were located. The 20th floor as the upper switching floor with the 4th elevator stop was half a mezzanine floor.

Public area

On the ground floor there was a tavern called a tower tavern and kitchen, as well as the main entrance, the ticket office for the tower and the parking lot in an extension. Functionally assigned to the observation tower with its visitor traffic, there was a restaurant level of around 4 m on the 21st floor of the silo cuboid at a height of 83.3 m, which could be seen from the outside through a circumferential ribbon of windows. In the middle there were originally flower beds, a dance floor and water features. According to a contribution by ARD - Tagesschau on the opening day on May 18, 1961, this roof garden, which could be reached from the tower through a smaller closed porch, was initially largely without a roof. The tables were grouped around the edge zone and were protected from the weather by a 2 m wide roof.

Attached observation tower

Viewing platforms

The top of the tower was 31.5 m high, resulting in a total height of 119.5 m. The shaft had a diameter of 7.3 m at the level of the tower superstructure, according to Ciesielski (see literature) it had a diameter of 6.70 m below the first platform.

The large viewing platform at a height of 106.43 m with the 8th and last lift stop was made accessible to the public by two 15-person high-speed elevators with a journey time of just over two minutes from the ground floor. This originally open viewing terrace was designed with a diameter of 17.00 m above the revolving restaurant and at the same time its roof.

Only accessible via another staircase within the tower shaft, there was a small, open viewing platform around it as the 31st floor at a height of 109.23 m, on which coin-operated telescopes were also set up.

Tower pulpit

The 6th elevator stop opened up the restaurant kitchen and toilets on the first level of the tower pulpit (26th floor) at a height of 95.73 m. Initially, a so-called "Frankfurter Stube" with space for 40 people was planned here. On the level above at a height of 100.33 m and at elevator stop number 7 (28th floor) was the revolving restaurant , which was designed for 160 guests and, according to an article by the ARD - Tagesschau from the opening day on May 18, 1961 " turns around its own axis once an hour [e] ”. According to an article in the Frankfurter Rundschau (FR.de) in January 2013, the restaurant rotated with "two motors [...] twice an hour on its own axis", that is, once in 30 minutes, and was "from day one as' Frankfurt local sensation 'admired. ”According to a column in the local section of the FR , in which the columnist Bastian criticized the tie requirement in the revolving restaurant under“ I'm also for style ” , the then director Dangel is said to have instructed the staff not to treat visitors differently treat, but “there are limits: 'When a guest appears in shorts and with a shirt completely open on the chest'. Then 'the rotation of the restaurant is slowed down', with the city panorama, in the 1960s still bar any high-rise tower, from then on it only goes around once an hour. "

In the months around the turn of 1969/70, the original open viewing terrace was converted into a full floor (30th floor) of the now higher "barrel" with a second rotating level and floor height of 106.7 m, making the originally two-story tower pulpit higher and higher became three-story. However, this revolving café was only in operation for a few years as a restaurant, as the management of two revolving restaurants had turned out to be unprofitable and was later used as the brewery's company museum.

Both revolving restaurants and their floors were connected to the kitchen on the lowest level of the tower cage (the "barrel") by means of two dining elevators with a load capacity of 50 kg each. There was a passenger elevator for the kitchen staff that directly connected both kitchens and the publicly accessible rooms.

Twist mechanism

The revolving restaurant and the revolving café that was added later rotated on floor rings around the tower shaft with a fixed wall of the tower cage. The floors were mounted on steel frames, each with an inner and an outer ring. Such rings were also found on the substructures of the platforms. Several running wheels rolled inside and outside between these. The rotating structures were set in motion by means of an electric motor via a chain-like toothing on a centrally attached ring.

There were several inspection openings in the two revolving floors through which fitters could access the bogie. Fixed lighting was also installed for this purpose.

Demolition and re-use

The site belongs to the Dietmar Hopp family through Actris GmbH (formerly: Actris AG ) .

In November 2012 it was announced that the tower would be demolished in order to make space for an approximately 140 m high residential high-rise, which is to be leaned on the outside of the Henninger tower and to accommodate several luxury apartments (meanwhile opened as a new building, see main article New Henninger Tower ). Restaurants and a retail center with an area of ​​12,000 square meters were also planned on the Henninger site . The Henninger Villa from 1875, located on Wendelsweg (No. 64) and in which the management of the former brewery resided, had to remain in place for monument protection reasons and was included in the project.

The demolition work began at the beginning of January 2013, initially by disposing of components contaminated with asbestos . The actual demolition of the tower (silo with the observation tower on top) began in February 2013. At the end of the year, the demolition work, which cost almost EUR 1.5 million, was completed.

gallery

  • Former entrance area of ​​the visitor car park with entrance hall and tower, before the demolition in 2013.

  • View from below of the Henninger Tower from the southeast side with the main glass staircase up the silo to the tower.

  • Details of the rotating mechanism of the rotating café and the brewery's company museum as the 30th floor with the last elevator stop. (Was originally the large viewing platform.)

  • Former Henninger site in 2013 before the Henninger Tower was demolished.

  • Former Henninger site in 2014 after the tower was demolished.

Others

In order to advertise the tower, the Henninger Brewery and the Society for the Promotion of Cycling organized the cycle race around the Henninger Tower every year from 1962 to 2008 . In 1964 and from 1968 to the end of 2008, May 1st was the day of the race. The start and finish of the cycle race was always near the tower, but was sometimes postponed from year to year. In 1962, the start / finish line was still at the same height as the current Ferrero building, but in the 80s and 90s it was always placed near the tower's silo bridge.

On March 18, 1995, the Henninger Tower was the venue for Wetten dass ..? -Outer bet (episode 94): The candidate Dieter Ranftl bet to run up the stairs from the ground floor to the top platform (small viewing terrace) faster than is possible with the elevator occupied by eleven people, with one person from the last exit point in the Drehcafé also had to take a flight of stairs to the viewing terrace. The candidate lost the bet.

Since October 31, 2002, the Henninger Tower has been closed to visitors because fire protection was not guaranteed due to the lack of a second escape route .

In 2005, the Schapfenmühle grain silo in Ulm-Jungingen replaced the Henninger Tower as the world's highest silo tower still in use.

literature

  • H. Schaefer: "Henninger Tower" in Frankfurt / Main. In: Concrete and reinforced concrete construction , ISSN  0005-9900 , 1961, no.11 .
  • Wolf-Christian Setzepfandt : Architecture Guide Frankfurt am Main / Architectural Guide . 3. Edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-496-01236-6 , p. 51 (German, English).
  • Roman Ciesielski: containers, bunkers, silos, chimneys and television towers. Translated from Polish by Władysław Chlebica. 2nd, revised edition. Ernst, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-433-00911-2 , pp. 535-537.
  • Sabine Hock (pia): Henninger Tower: Rotating place in the sun. Admired throughout the city, surrounded by the best of the world: The Henninger Tower turns fifty. The Sachsenhausen landmark went into operation on May 18, 1961. In: Journal Frankfurt , May 13, 2011 ( online article , accessed July 31, 2019).
  • Claudia Michels: Demolition of the Henninger Tower: Farewell to the "Frankfurt Eiffel Tower". In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 4, 2013.
  • Vinz de Rouet: I love Sachsenhausen! 33 reasons to love Sachsenhausen. epubli, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86931-738-0 .
  • Philipp Sturm, Peter Cachola Schmal: Hochhausstadt Frankfurt , Prestel Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-7913-6531-2 , pp. 256-258 (German, English).
  • Sebastian Walter: New Henninger Tower in Frankfurt. The history of the old Henninger Tower from the subtitle: Once the tallest building in the Main metropolis. In: Echo-Online , June 10, 2017 ( article online , accessed July 31, 2019).
  • There were even objections to the building: The Henninger Tower: a landmark that only slowly became a cult. The new Henninger Tower now sits enthroned on the Sachsenhausen mountain. But its predecessor was not always as popular as it was after many years of cycling and the decision to tear it down. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , November 11, 2017 ( article online , accessed July 31, 2019).
  • Claudia Meixner / Florian Schlüter: Henninger Tower. Pp. 188-189 in: Friends of Frankfurt, Wilhelm E. Opatz (Ed.): Frankfurt 1960-1969. Architecture guide . Niggli Verlag, Zurich 2016. ISBN 978-3-7212-0943-3

Movie

Web links

Commons : Henninger Tower  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. in entry about Henninger tower at Emporis ; as well as in the web links in: The Henninger Tower - a landmark of Frankfurt, section From the construction of the Henninger Tower to the end of its economic use. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k The storage silo "Henninger Turm" (119.5 m) ( Memento from June 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Series on the post-war period: Frankfurt around 1960. In the web project aufbau-ffm.de - Frankfurt - documentation on the post-war period. (With contemporary images from the construction and opening times.)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Roman Ciesielski: TV tower in Frankfurt am Main (p. 535); TV tower with silo in Frankfurt / Main (p. 537); Ernst, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-433-00911-2 .
  4. ↑ Transformation of the stock. Start of construction for the Henninger Tower in Frankfurt. In: baunetz.de, June 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b c Rainer Schulze: End for Frankfurt landmarks: Henninger tower is being torn down. ("Now the Frankfurt landmark is at the collar. The Henninger Tower is being torn down. For a long time it was a destination for the whole region. An internationally important cycling race bore his name. Now a residential tower is to be built there.") In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 7, 2013, accessed July 31, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b c Simone Jung : Farewell to the Henninger Tower. Broadcast by hr television on December 29, 2013 in the hessenreporter series .
  7. ↑ a b Cf. in the web links in: The Henninger Tower - a landmark of Frankfurt, accessed on August 2, 2019: "The first four stops all led into the silo, the fifth stop at the roof garden, while the sixth for the kitchen and the toilets is intended. The seventh stop was the entrance to the rotating restaurant 100 meters above the ground. "
  8. ↑ a b Cf. in the web links in: The Henninger Tower - a Frankfurt landmark, accessed on August 2, 2019: “The eighth stop then led at a height of 106 meters to the large, circular and open platform around the tower shaft led. Their diameter was almost 17 meters. Although the elevator ended here, there was still a smaller, also open platform that was three meters higher than [the large platform] and could only be reached via a ladder. "
  9. ↑ Cf. in: The Henninger Tower - a landmark of Frankfurt (see web links ); in the section Pictures of the Henninger Tower shortly before the start of the demolition, in particular the pictures " Elevator machine room , picture 15 of 53" (direct link: henninger-turm-aufzug-1.jpg ) and " Elevator machine room , picture 16 of 53" (direct link: henninger- turm-elevator-2.jpg ), accessed on August 2, 2019.
  10. ^ A b c d e Claudia Michels: Demolition of the Henninger Tower: Farewell to the “Frankfurt Eiffel Tower”. In: FR.de, January 4, 2013, accessed on August 2, 2019.
  11. ↑ Cf. in the web links in: The Henninger Tower - a landmark of Frankfurt, accessed on August 2, 2019: “On the roof of the grain silo was a winter garden, which used to be a restaurant, flower beds, a dance floor and water features. A towering glass roof and large window fronts not only protected against bad weather, but also offered a magnificent view of the city of Frankfurt, the Taunus and the Main valley. "
  12. ↑ a b c Cf. for example in: Article of the ARD Tagesschau from May 18, 1961 on the day the tower was inaugurated. Included in the show hessenreporter by Simone Jung (see section film ): Farewell to the Henninger Tower. Frankfurt's landmark disappears. Documentary film 2013 or 2018. Tagesschau beginning in the broadcast video from 04:38 minutes. Here from 05:00 onwards you can see the roof garden, which was initially still open in the middle, which could be reached from the tower through a smaller closed porch and whose edge zone was covered and accessible; and by panning the camera upwards to see that the upper viewing platform also formed the roof of the revolving restaurant.
  13. ↑ a b residential tower instead of a landmark. Demolition of the Henninger Tower in Frankfurt starts. In: op-online.de, Frankfurt region (source: dpa ), January 7, 2013, accessed on August 2, 2019.
  14. ↑ Development of the Henninger site: the man behind it. Billionaire son Daniel Hopp, investor on the Henninger site, does not like to see himself as a public figure. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 14, 2012, accessed on August 2, 2019.
  15. ↑ Robin Goeckes: housing market in Frankfurt: Sachsenhausen: Henninger Tower is sold in half. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , January 26, 2015, accessed on August 2, 2019.
  16. ↑ Henninger Turm: The beginning is the story. Brochure project Henninger Turm. Actris Henninger Turm GmbH & Co. KG (Ed.), January 2014, here: Learn more, p. 28 ( full text online (PDF; 29 p.) On the website of Nathalie Heinke (copywriter), 07/2015, accessed on August 5, 2019).
  17. ↑ Claus-Jürgen Göpfert: The Henninger Tower is back. In: Frankfurter Rundschau (FR.de), December 8, 2015, accessed on August 7, 2019, here in the subtitle No plans for the villa yet: “... Only the old Henninger villa from the 19th century, in which at times The traditional brewery board member resided has not yet been over-planned. Actris would like to decide on their fate at the very end of the project, around 2018. ... "
  18. ↑ Sebastian Buch: Tradition on May 1st: "Around the Henninger Tower". In: Frankfurt current. ADFC Frankfurt magazine. ADFC Frankfurt am Main eV (Ed.), Issue No. 2, March / April 2013, p. 12, therein with a photo of GFR at the bottom right , subtitled with: “Finish line in front of the Henningerturm in the 60s” ( full text online (PDF ); Direct link to picture: jpg ; both: accessed on July 31, 2019).