Stadtbad Mitte (Frankfurt am Main)

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Wave, the former Stadtbad Mitte

The Stadtbad Mitte was an indoor swimming pool opened in 1960 in Frankfurt am Main . The building is a listed building . The pool was sold in the 1990s and is now the partially public swimming pool of the newly built Hilton Hotel under the name Wave .

Prehistory: The old Stadtbad Mitte

During the Weimar Republic , the city of Frankfurt had already built a municipal swimming pool in the middle on Dominikanerplatz (today: Börneplatz). After the seizure of power by the National Socialists the use of this bath has restricted Jewish citizens. The mayor's decree of January 22, 1938 stipulated that Jews were only allowed to enter the small swimming pool on Saturdays from 8:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Mondays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (women) and 3:00 p.m. to 21:00 (men) were allowed to swim in the Russian-Roman bath.

During the Second World War , the Stadtbad Mitte was badly damaged in the air raids on Frankfurt am Main and only poorly restored after the war. From March 1957 it was demolished and the administration building of the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK) was built in its place by 1958 . The last day it was open was February 28, 1957. Even if the old Stadtbad Mitte “was not able to offer much comfort”, “due to the lack of better opportunities, however, an increasing number of constantly returning visitors” visited it.

Construction of the new Stadtbad Mitte

In 1953 the city of Frankfurt announced a planning competition on how to rebuild the Stadtbad Mitte on the old square. However, these plans were not pushed forward due to the limited space and lack of funding. Instead, the magistrate decided in 1956 to have a central indoor swimming pool on Hochstrasse on the edge of the ramparts . The plan was to build two normal pools in which all kinds of sporting competitions can be held. In addition, a smaller teaching pool was to be built for teaching purposes, which could also be used as a non-swimmer pool. The costs were estimated by the Frankfurter Aufbau AG at 8 million DM. The building authority received the order to carry out preliminary planning, whereby the wall service should be observed.

When the city ​​council approved the plans on September 5, 1957, the costs had already risen to DM 12 million. This was mainly due to the improved offer. The new Stadtbad Mitte was divided into four structures: the cleaning baths, the swimming pools, the grandstand and the gymnastics rooms. Furthermore, two competition-compatible 25-meter pools with a width of 15 meters were planned, which were separated from each other by a glass wall. One of the pools had a 10-meter diving platform and a corresponding depth. The grandstand by the sports pool offered space for a thousand visitors. The grandstand had its own entrances from Hochstraße and separated the audience from the actual swimming pool.

A large refreshment room with a balcony was planned towards the ramparts. The Wallservitut was injured by the new building, as the building extended into the facilities. In return, the green area to the side of the pool was extended to the elevated road.

The construction should be done by 1959, because the old bath was already closed. However, as a construction company, Frankfurter Aufbau-AG did not manage to complete the building on time and pointed to the very busy construction industry as a result of the economic miracle . Due to the delay, the opposite multi-storey car park on Taubenstrasse was opened at the same time as Stadtbad Mitte and the feared parking problem was prevented.

When it opened in 1960 the cost had risen to 13.4 million marks.

Monument protection

The planning by Schneider & Bohnenberg convinced the city in particular with the design of the undulating, curved roofs. In 1986 the magistrate decided to draw up a list of 19 buildings from the 1950s that should be listed as typical or outstanding examples of post-war architecture . Among them was the Stadtbad Mitte.

Closing discussion and hotel construction

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Stadtbad Mitte had severe structural defects. The cost of a complete renovation was estimated at almost 40 million marks . After the operational safety was no longer guaranteed, the city closed the bath to the public in 1993. Instead of doing the renovation on its own, the magistrate under Andreas von Schoeler (SPD) decided to privatize the pool.

Many citizens and sports clubs protested against these plans. A citizens' initiative “Save the Stadtbad Mitte” was founded, which wanted to collect an amount of three million euros through a donation campaign in order to keep the bath under municipal management. However, the initiative only collected 68,000 DM. One reason for the low level of interest may also have been that a number of indoor pools, above all the Rebstock pool , had been built in previous years .

In 1995 the Stadtbad Mitte was sold to the Hilton chain for 36 million marks. This tore down the administration building of the bath and built the thirteen-story Hilton Hotel on the almost 5700 square meter property. Part of the sales contract were agreements to ensure the protection of monuments and further public use, which were concluded for a period of 30 years.

So the actual swimming pool building with its distinctive roof remained as an extension of the new hotel and remained a listed building. The swimming pool was significantly reduced in size (two pools and the ten-meter diving platform were removed), but remained as a swimming pool. The pool must be open to everyone for at least five days and a total of 45 hours a week. Admission may also be only 25 percent above the average prices of other Frankfurt baths. The guests of the Hilton hotel have free entry at all times. A fitness center was added to make it even more attractive.

The hotel has 342 rooms, 14 conference rooms, a ballroom that can accommodate 700 guests and the swimming pool, which is now known on the market under the name "Wave".

literature

  • Heinz Schomann, Volker Rödel, Heike Kaiser: Monument topography city of Frankfurt am Main. Revised 2nd edition, limited special edition on the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of the city of Frankfurt am Main. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7973-0576-1 .
  • Martin Wentz (Ed.): The compact city - Volume 11 of the future of the urban, 2000, ISBN 3-593-36495-6 , page 101, online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, Volume 16, No. 6, March 1938, page 13  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 6.1 MB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de  
  2. ^ Farewell to Stadtbad Mitte - On March 1st, the hall is demolished; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 20, 1957, p. 12
  3. ↑ The Zentralbad on Hochstrasse is approved; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 8, 1956, p. 8
  4. ↑ Swimming pool with diving platform and grandstand - Construction on the Hochstraße will begin in October; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 5, 1957, p. 10
  5. ↑ Stadtbad Mitte not finished on schedule - ready for operation in April next year at the earliest / construction work delayed; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 6, 1959, p. 15
  6. ↑ The city baths finished in April; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 30, 1959, p. 11
  7. ↑ Younger monuments are also protected - the magistrate wants to keep nineteen buildings from the 1950s; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 19, 1986, p. 39
  8. ↑ Heinz Schomann et al: Denkmaltopographie, p. 46
  9. ↑ “The swimming cap is not torn off anyone's head here” - From Stadtbad Mitte to “Wave” / Only hotel guests and club members are allowed to swim in the Hilton at any time; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 7, 1999, No. 128, p. 61

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 0.3 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 35.8"  E