Century Hall (Frankfurt am Main)

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The Centennial Hall on Pfaffenwiese

The Jahrhunderthalle is a concert and congress hall in Frankfurt am Main .

Construction and name

In the mid-1950s, the architects Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer and Ernst Sieverts were commissioned to plan a hall to mark the centenary of the Farbwerke Hoechst AG . After 17 months of construction, it was opened on January 11, 1963. The static advice was provided by Hubert Beck's office in Frankfurt am Main.

Despite its low height, the free-standing hall can be seen from afar. The reason for this is the unusual design for the 1960s . The hall consists of a rectangular base in which the foyer and the smaller halls as well as the restaurant are housed. A dome with a diameter of 100 meters spans over it. It offers visitors to the domed hall unique acoustics made possible by the lamellar ceiling of the dome. The domed hall covers an area of ​​4,800 m² and, depending on the type of seating, offers space for up to 4,800 people.

The hall was initially owned by the Hoechst Group and was sold to Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) in Berlin in 1999 for a symbolic D-Mark .

The official name of the Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst hall is formed after the company and not, as is often wrongly assumed - because it is obvious and therefore also obvious - to the Frankfurt-Höchst district , because the hall is located in the Unterliederbach district in the Sindlingen district .

The vernacular gave the building some nicknames :

  • Winnacker's economic miracle wart after Karl Winnacker , the long-time CEO of Hoechst AG
  • Pyramidom (with m) as an alliterative pastiche of the pain reliever Pyramidon manufactured by Hoechst AG
  • Igloo in the shape of an igloo
  • Calimero's egg based on the eggshell headgear of Calimero , an anime chick

use

The Jahrhunderthalle is used for concerts and general meetings, for example by Deutsche Post AG . The first concert was given by Yehudi Menuhin . In 1969 Janis Joplin's only concert in Germany followed , organized by the local promoter Fritz Rau . On February 21, 1970 Rau had Jethro Tull perform there. At their sold-out concert, rampaging rock fans threw in the glass front of the Jahrhunderthalle to gain entry. There was a loss of 40,000 German marks . There were no security services back then. Due to the riots, the homeowners briefly considered not allowing any more rock events in the hall.

See also

literature

• Adrian Seib: Centennial Hall. P. 56–63 in: Friends of Frankfurt, Wilhelm E. Opatz (Ed.): Frankfurt 1960–1969. Architecture guide . Niggli Verlag, Zurich 2016. ISBN 978-3-7212-0943-3

Web links

Commons : Jahrhunderthalle (Frankfurt am Main)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A UFO in the west of Frankfurt - Jahrhunderthalle: Exactly 50 years ago today, on January 11, 1963, the dome was opened ; in: Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main , Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz: Department of Culture, page 27, on Friday, January 11, 2013
  2. ^ Website of the Jahrhunderthalle Frankfurt , accessed on July 8, 2018
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Not only Louis Armstrong was there Frankfurter Neue Presse on January 6, 2013
  5. ↑ Jörg Ortmann: Half a Century Century Hall (bild.de, January 11, 2013)
  6. ^ Fritz Rau: 50 Years Backstage - Memories of a Concert Organizer . Palmyra, Heidelberg 2005. Pages 98-101

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 57 ″  N , 8 ° 31 ′ 8 ″  E