Headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank

Headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank
	View from the Main Tower to the south side of the main building of the Bundesbank
Basic data
Place:	Wilhelm-Epstein-Strasse 14 ( Bockenheim )
Construction time :	1967-1972
Architectural style :	brutalism
Architects :	ABB ( Otto Apel , Hannsgeorg Beckert and engineer Gilbert Becker )
Use / legal
Usage :	Office building, official headquarters
Jobs :	approx. 2,000
Main tenant:	German Bundesbank
Technical specifications
Height :	54.0 m
Height to the top:	+54.0 m
Floors :	14 upper floors (? M³ ), 3 basement floors (? M³)
Building material :	Steel , reinforced concrete
Building-costs:	?
Height comparison
Frankfurt am Main :	94. ( list )
address
City:	Frankfurt am Main
Country:	Germany

Main entrance to the Bundesbank site

The headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank is in Frankfurt am Main .

location

The site of the Deutsche Bundesbank is located on the former course of the Diebsgrundweg in the Bockenheim district . The part of Bockenheim that lies between Wilhelm-Epstein-Straße and Bundesautobahn 66 is often mistakenly counted as part of the neighboring Ginnheim district .

main building

The main building at Wilhelm-Epstein-Straße 14 is surrounded by several smaller buildings, the contemporary main cash desk and the guest house as well as the money museum that was later built and some newer office buildings.

The striking high-rise was designed by the architectural office ABB ( Otto Apel , Hannsgeorg Beckert and engineer Gilbert Becker ). The foundation stone was laid in 1967 and the company moved into in 1972. The building, which was extremely elongated in brutalism at 217 meters, is less than 17 meters wide and, with 13 floors, is 54 meters high.

“It is very clearly structured and defined. The building is divided into three parts by two massive fixed points in which the elevators are located, resulting in tense proportions. The main contrast, however, results from the vertical-horizontal tension between the soaring elevator towers, which find their counterpart in the extremely narrow side borders, and the horizontally oriented grid of the longitudinal facades. The construction made of gray exposed concrete is clearly legible, the window bands with their dark metal frames step back behind this grid. The separation between the construction and the glazing creates a high degree of plasticity, which creates strong light-shadow effects. Depending on the time of day and light conditions, the building develops a very specific spatial effect. The main cash desk and the guest house take up the design language of the high-rise building in variations and complement the narrow, upright pane with horizontally aligned structures. "

- Architecture and art : the headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank; P. 2

In January 2017, the Bundesbank announced that the main building would be comprehensively renovated between 2020 and 2027 and that one or more additional office buildings would be built on its property. In March 2018, the Bundesbank announced a Europe-wide negotiation process with an integrated design concept, from which the Frankfurt architect Ferdinand Heide emerged as the winner. The designs were presented in an exhibition in the main building in January 2019. "The design concept by Ferdinand Heide Architects impresses with its compact, striking development and generous open spaces," said Johannes Beermann , the Bundesbank board member responsible for construction, during the opening. The jury was won over by Heide's idea, which defines the main building as primus inter pares with three newly built panes that are just as high but at right angles to them, thus strengthening the structural idea of the area.

Storage of gold reserves

Part of the German gold reserves are also stored on the site . The Federal Police (Bundespolizeiinspektion Deutsche Bundesbank) has been protecting the property since July 1, 2015 ( Section 5 BPolG ).

Others

Headquarters Hessen

Headquarters Hessen in the Taunusanlage

In Frankfurt's financial district is located in the Taunusanlage the former headquarters of the German Bundesbank 5 from 1957 to 1972. Originally there was in the 1929-1934 built building a Reichsbank -Hauptstelle. On March 1, 1948, the Bank deutscher Länder was founded here, from which the Deutsche Bundesbank emerged in 1957. After that it was used by the Landeszentralbank Hessen until 2002 . Today the main administration in Hessen is located in the building , one of the nine main administrations of the Bundesbank.

Miquel plant

Miquel plant with Bundesbank building and Europaturm in the background

The Miquel plant was built in the early 1970s together with the new building of the Deutsche Bundesbank. The park, open to the public, was named after the mayor of Frankfurt am Main from 1880 to 1890 and later Prussian finance minister Johannes von Miquel . In 1978 the facility was awarded the title “Exemplary Building in Hesse”. In the center of the park is the approximately 5000 square meter pond , which after a thorough renovation in 2002 has a water fountain and a small bridge. To the south and west, the park is bordered by the busy Miquelallee and Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse highways, and to the north it is bounded by the security fence of the Deutsche Bundesbank. Dense trees and a skilful terrain modeling protect the area from the traffic noise. It is connected with the Grüneburgpark , the Europaturm and the Niddapark in Frankfurt's green belt via pedestrian bridges.

Open-door day

For the first time in the history of the Bundesbank, an open day took place on July 12 and 13, 2014 . On the occasion of 60 years of the Deutsche Bundesbank, there was also an open day three years later, on July 1 and 2, 2017.

literature

Thomas Franke: Treasury with a view - the Deutsche Bundesbank ; in: high-rise buildings in Frankfurt; Societäts-Verlag Frankfurt am Main; 1995; Pp. 48-49.
Iris Cramer / Sabine Muschler Text, Wolfgang Günzel / Walter Vorjohann : Architecture and Art - The headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank . Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt am Main 2013.