White Deer (Frankfurt am Main)
(drawing by Carl Theodor Reiffenstein )
The White Stag was one of the largest and most architecturally significant properties in the historic old town of Frankfurt am Main . The main building was located at Großer Hirschgraben No. 3 north of the Weißfrauenkloster . The spacious garden extended over the entire area between the Great Hirschgraben in the east, the city wall in the west, the Weißfrauenkloster in the south and the Great Gallusstrasse in the north.
In the Middle Ages, the moat in front of the Staufen wall was located on the site of the White Deer . After the city was expanded in 1333, the former moat was fenced in and used as a deer enclosure. The name of the street and the property came from this time.
Around 1585 the old Staufen wall was razed at this point and the moat was filled in. As a result, a number of town houses were built here. The White Deer was first mentioned as an inn in 1592 . In the 18th century, the Große Hirschgraben became a preferred residential area for Frankfurt's upper class. The Andreae , Bethmann-Hollweg , Böhmer , Goethe , Gwinner , Ochs von Ochsenstein and Passavant families lived here .
1753 White Stag came into the possession of from Grenoble had moved Huguenot family Gontard . Around 1790 it was rebuilt in the classical style. From 1795 to 1798, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin lived here for a time as tutor of the Gontard family. He developed a deep affection for Susette Gontard , whom he adored as Diotima in his poems - especially in the epistolary novel Hyperion . He last met her in 1800.
After Susette Gontard's death in 1802, Jakob Friedrich Gontard rented the property to the banker Hauck . Around 1834 the White Stag became the seat of a boarding school for girls run by the pedagogue Caroline Bercht, b. Hergenhahn.
After a few more changes of ownership, the city acquired the run-down building complex in 1870. In 1872, the White Deer was demolished and the garden was built over to enable a road breakthrough to Frankfurt's western train stations on the Taunusanlage . The Hotel Frankfurter Hof , Kaiserplatz and Kirchnerstrasse were built on the site from 1872 to 1876 . The Commerzbank Tower is located here today .
Web links
- Exhibition brochure of the Institute for Urban History (PDF, approx. 1.3 MB)
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 37 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 35 ″ E