IG Farben Building
Encyclopedia
The IG Farben Building or the Poelzig Building was built from 1928 to 1930 as the corporate headquarters of the IG Farben
conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main
, Germany
. It is also known as the Poelzig Ensemble or Poelzig Complex, and previously as the IG Farben Complex, and the General Creighton W. Abrams Building. The building's original design was the subject of a competition which was eventually won by the architect Hans Poelzig
.
On its completion, the complex was the largest office building in Europe and remained so until the 1950s. The IG Farben Building's six square wings retain a modern, spare elegance, despite its mammoth size. It is also notable for its paternoster
elevators.
The building was the headquarters for research projects relating to the development of Nazi
wartime
synthetic oil
and rubber
, and the production administration of magnesium
, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol
, and Zyklon B
, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. After WWII, the IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Command
and from 1949-1952 the High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG). It became the principal location for implementing the Marshall Plan
, which largely financed the post-war reconstruction of Europe. The state apparatus of the Federal German Government
was devised there. The IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the US Army's V Corps and the Northern Area Command (NACOM) until 1995. The US Army renamed the building the General Creighton W. Abrams Building in 1975.
The US Army returned control of the IG Farben Building to the German government in 1995. It was purchased on behalf of the University of Frankfurt
by the state of Hesse
, which committed €25 million
to the restoration. In recognition of the original architect, the University renamed the main building the Poelzig Building (Poelzig-Bau) and its ancillary buildings and surroundings the Poelzig Complex (Poelzig Ensemble). The restoration work started in March 1998, and the formal reopening as the Poelzig-Bau was celebrated on October 26, 2001. During the ceremony a plaque was unveiled at the building's entrance to commemorate the slave labour victims of the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz III
and all those murdered by Zyklon B gas.
. In 1837, the property belonged to the Rothschild family. In 1864, the city's psychiatric hospital
known as "Affenfelsen" or "Affenstein"', was erected on the site. The name Affenstein derives from an ancient Christian memorial that once stood here on the road outside Frankfurt. It was known as the "Avestein" as in Ave Maria but in the local Frankfurt dialect it was called the "Affe Stein". Here, Dr Heinrich Hoffman
hired Alois Alzheimer
to work in the hospital, where they both explored progressive methods of treating the mentally ill. The Grüneburgpark
was established in 1880 on the larger western part of the site.
acquired the property in 1927 to establish its headquarters there. In the 1920s, IG Farben (full German name Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft) was the world's largest drug, chemical and dye conglomerate. Frankfurt was chosen because of its centrality and its accessibility by air and land.
In August 1928, Professor Hans Poelzig
won a limited competition to design the building, among five selected architects, notably beating Ernst May
, the then Head of Urban Design for Frankfurt.
Work on the foundations began in late 1928, and the summer of 1929 saw construction start on the steel frame. The building was completed in 1930 after only 24 months, by employing rapid-setting concrete, new construction materials and a round-the-clock workforce. Later in 1930, the Frankfurt director of horticulture Max Bromme
and the artists' group Bornimer Kreis developed designs for the 14 hectares of parkland that surrounded the building. The grounds, and the complex as a whole, were completed in 1931 at a total cost of 24 million Reichsmark ( DEM, EUR in ).
IG Farben subsequently became an indispensable part of the Nazi industrial base. The building was the headquarters for research projects for the development of wartime synthetic oil
and rubber
, as well as the production administration of magnesium, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol, and Zyklon B
, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. The building was used by IG Farben for 15 years.
During World War II, the surrounding neighbourhood was devastated, but the building itself was left largely intact (and inhabited by the homeless citizens of a bomb-ravaged Frankfurt). In March 1945, Allied troops occupied the area and the IG Farben Building became the American headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
. Eisenhower's office was where he received many important guests; including General de Gaulle
, Field Marshal Montgomery
and Marshal Zhukov
. It was there that he signed the “Proclamation No. 2”, which determined which parts of the country would be within the American zone
. Eisenhower vacated the building in December 1945 but his office was still used for special occasions: the constitution of the state of Hesse was signed there, the West German Ministerpräsident received his commission to compile the Grundgesetz (German constitution
) and the administration of the Wirtschaftsrat der Bizone (Economic Council of the Bizone
) was also located there.
From 1945 to 1947, the IG Farben Building was the location of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied European Forces, and was the headquarters for the US occupation forces and Military Governor. On May 10, 1947, permanent orders to military personnel prohibited further reference to the building as the "IG Farben Building", and instead called for it to be referred to as "The Headquarters Building, European Command".
The United States High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG) and his staff occupied the building from 1949 to 1952.
After 1952, the building served as the European centre of the American armed forces and the headquarters of the 5th US-Corps. It later became the headquarters for the Northern Area Command until 1994. The IG Farben Building was also the headquarters of the CIA
in Germany, which led to its sobriquet 'the Pentagon of Europe'. On April 16, 1975, the US army renamed the building the General Creighton W. Abrams Building. The renaming did not have full authority in law, because the US was technically leasing the building from the German government and thus was not the rightful owner.
On May 11, 1972, the terrace area in front of the 'Casino', was the scene of a bombing by the Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction, i.e., the Baader-Meinhof Group). The building was attacked again by the same group in 1976 and 1982. Consequently, the publicly accessible adjoining park, became part of a restricted military zone which also included the military living quarters and work areas at the rear of the building.
Following German reunification
, the US government announced plans to fully withdraw its troops from Frankfurt, Germany by 1995, at which time control of the entire site would be restored to the German Federal Government. It was suggested that the building could become the location for the European Central Bank
. The British, however, competing to secure the location of the Bank in London, successfully defeated the proposal by arguing that the building had been tainted by its Nazi associations. In 1996, the state of Hesse bought the building and associated land for the University of Frankfurt
. The buildings were refurbished at a cost of 50 Million German Mark (about US $26M or 25M €), by the Copenhagen
-based architecture practice Dissing+Weitling and were handed over to the university. The complex now houses the Westend Campus of the university, which includes the departments of Philosophy, History, Theology, Classical Philosophy, Art and Music, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Cultural and Civilization Studies, the Center for North American Studies and the Fritz-Bauer-Institute.
. Students and, in increasing numbers, members of the faculty insisted on confronting the building's history by retaining its original name, the "IG Farben Building".
Meissner's successor, Rudolf Steinberg
, upheld the university's decision to retain the name; however, he did not enforce a uniform nomenclature within the university's administration. After the grand opening of the building in 2001, AStA
chairman Wulfila Wido Walter objected to the "misuse of Hans Poelzig" [sic] and proposed leaving the name of the main building unchanged, and calling the smaller casino building the "Poelzig Casino"; this proposal won little support. By 2004, the “Poelzig-Ensemble” proposal had become a moot point—the debate was overtaken by strong political lobbying for an appropriate commemoration and memorial of remembrance: Vice President Brita Rank set up a permanent exhibition inside the building, and a memorial plaque—for the slave labourers of IG Farben and those who had perished by Zyklon B gas—was installed on the front of the building. The Senate of the University agreed on a joint initiative by the student senator of the German Green Party, David Profit, and Angelika Marx the senator of the United Services Union
, to name a place on the new campus's western end after the former slave labourer Norbert Wollheim
.
Despite the renamings by the University and the American military administration, the building is still usually called the IG Farben Building by the general public. The association of the building with Nazism has been hard to shake off, partly because of the close involvement of IG Farben with the Nazi regime and partly because of the building's imposing and monumental appearance. Der Spiegel
wrote of its “Smell of Guilt”. Only with the departure of the Americans, the subsequent renovations, and the use of the building by the university has the building's association with the third Reich in the popular consciousness receded. As of 2010, the building is referred to as IG Farben Hochhaus on the campus map.
in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1928, IG Farben was the world's fourth largest company and its largest chemical company. Consequently, the space requirements for the building were for one of the largest office buildings ever constructed. It was designed in the New Objectivity
style.
IG Farben did not want a specifically 'Bauhaus
' styled building—it wanted:
The 250-metre long and 35-metre tall building has nine floors, but the height of the ground floor varies (4.6–4.2 m). This variation is reflected in the roof line which looks taller at the wings than the spine. The volume of the building is 280,000 m³, constructed from 4,600 tonnes of steel frame
with brick infill and floors constructed of hollow blocks to provide over 55740 m² of usable office space". The façade is clad with 33,000 m² Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt
Travertine
marble, which the windows punctuate in bands. Only at the corners are the glazed strips interrupted for emphasis. The top storey is lit from skylights rather than banded glazing and has a very low ceiling height. It forms a clear building conclusion. Until the 1950s, the building was the largest and most modern office building in Europe.
The IG Farben Building consists of six wings, connected by a gently curved, central corridor. This arrangement provides all of the offices with sufficient natural light and ventilation. This design approach for large complexes offers an alternative to the "hollow rectangle" schemes of the time, with their typical inner courtyards. The prototype of this form is the General Motors Building
in Detroit
(1917–21) by Albert Kahn. The building presents a very large and weighty façade to the front; however, this effect is reduced by the concave form.
The main entrance is at the axial centre of the building, comprising a temple-like portico
standing in front of the doors—a relatively common motif of administration buildings of the time. The entrance arrangement is regarded by some people as slightly pompous: the entrance and lift doors are of bronze, and the ceiling and walls of the porch are clad in bronze plate and copper frieze
s. The inner lobby has two curved staircases with a sheet aluminum treatment, and marble walls with a zigzag pattern. The axial centre at the rear of the building has a round glazed façade; here, the view of the buildings at the rear of the site (the "casino") is maximised by the curved walls that afford vistas to the subsidiary buildings 100 m distant, separated from the main building by parkland and a pool. During the American occupation of the building, this rotunda housed a small kiosk; later, it was used as a conference room. Nowadays, it is called the Dwight D. Eisenhower
room and accommodates a café.
The paternoster lifts that serve the nine floors are famous, and are popular with the university students. After the recent restoration, the university has pledged to preserve them in perpetuity.
Behind the rotunda is an oblong pool with a Nymphenskulptur (German:Nymph sculpture) at the water's edge created by Fritz Klimsch
entitled "Am Wasser". Behind it stands a flat building on a hill with a terrace—the casino of IG Farben, which now houses a refectory and lecture-rooms.
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is also known as the Poelzig Ensemble or Poelzig Complex, and previously as the IG Farben Complex, and the General Creighton W. Abrams Building. The building's original design was the subject of a competition which was eventually won by the architect Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
.
On its completion, the complex was the largest office building in Europe and remained so until the 1950s. The IG Farben Building's six square wings retain a modern, spare elegance, despite its mammoth size. It is also notable for its paternoster
Paternoster
A paternoster or paternoster lift is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can step on or off at any floor they like...
elevators.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
wartime
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
synthetic oil
Synthetic oil
Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially made . Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials...
and rubber
Synthetic rubber
Synthetic rubber is is any type of artificial elastomer, invariably a polymer. An elastomer is a material with the mechanical property that it can undergo much more elastic deformation under stress than most materials and still return to its previous size without permanent deformation...
, and the production administration of magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol
Methanol
Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha or wood spirits, is a chemical with the formula CH3OH . It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile, colorless, flammable liquid with a distinctive odor very similar to, but slightly sweeter than, ethanol...
, and Zyklon B
Zyklon B
Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust. The "B" designation indicates one of two types of Zyklon...
, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. After WWII, the IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Command
Supreme Allied Commander
Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by the Western Allies during World War II, and is currently used only within NATO. Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary...
and from 1949-1952 the High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG). It became the principal location for implementing the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
, which largely financed the post-war reconstruction of Europe. The state apparatus of the Federal German Government
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
was devised there. The IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the US Army's V Corps and the Northern Area Command (NACOM) until 1995. The US Army renamed the building the General Creighton W. Abrams Building in 1975.
The US Army returned control of the IG Farben Building to the German government in 1995. It was purchased on behalf of the University of Frankfurt
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
The Goethe University Frankfurt was founded in 1914 as a Citizens' University, which means that, while it was a State university of Prussia, it had been founded and financed by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt am Main, a unique feature in German university history...
by the state of Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, which committed €25 million
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
to the restoration. In recognition of the original architect, the University renamed the main building the Poelzig Building (Poelzig-Bau) and its ancillary buildings and surroundings the Poelzig Complex (Poelzig Ensemble). The restoration work started in March 1998, and the formal reopening as the Poelzig-Bau was celebrated on October 26, 2001. During the ceremony a plaque was unveiled at the building's entrance to commemorate the slave labour victims of the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz III
Monowice
Monowitz , initially established as a subcamp of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp, was one of the three main camps in the Auschwitz concentration camp system, with an additional 45 subcamps in the surrounding area...
and all those murdered by Zyklon B gas.
The site
The IG Farben Building was developed on land known as the Grüneburggelände in Frankfurt's Westend DistrictWestend (Frankfurt am Main)
The Westend area of Frankfurt contains the two districts of Westend-Nord and Westend-Süd. The Westend with its Wilhelminian style buildings is a beloved residential quarter...
. In 1837, the property belonged to the Rothschild family. In 1864, the city's psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
known as "Affenfelsen" or "Affenstein"', was erected on the site. The name Affenstein derives from an ancient Christian memorial that once stood here on the road outside Frankfurt. It was known as the "Avestein" as in Ave Maria but in the local Frankfurt dialect it was called the "Affe Stein". Here, Dr Heinrich Hoffman
Heinrich Hoffmann (author)
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
hired Alois Alzheimer
Alois Alzheimer
Aloysius "Alois" Alzheimer, was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as Alzheimer's disease....
to work in the hospital, where they both explored progressive methods of treating the mentally ill. The Grüneburgpark
Grüneburgpark
The Grüneburgpark is a park in the Westend district of Frankfurt, whose name derives from the "Green castle", which used to stand on the site from the 14 century. In 1789 the banker Peter Heinrich von Bethmann Metzler acquired the property and designed the park...
was established in 1880 on the larger western part of the site.
Early history
IG FarbenIG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
acquired the property in 1927 to establish its headquarters there. In the 1920s, IG Farben (full German name Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft) was the world's largest drug, chemical and dye conglomerate. Frankfurt was chosen because of its centrality and its accessibility by air and land.
In August 1928, Professor Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
won a limited competition to design the building, among five selected architects, notably beating Ernst May
Ernst May
Ernst May was a German architect and city planner.May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during Germany's Weimar period, and in 1930 less successfully exported those ideas to Soviet Union cities, newly created under Stalinist rule...
, the then Head of Urban Design for Frankfurt.
Work on the foundations began in late 1928, and the summer of 1929 saw construction start on the steel frame. The building was completed in 1930 after only 24 months, by employing rapid-setting concrete, new construction materials and a round-the-clock workforce. Later in 1930, the Frankfurt director of horticulture Max Bromme
Max Bromme
Max Bromme was a German architect and horticulturist. He was the director of horticulture , and also director of the Palm House from 1932 to 1945 in Frankfurt....
and the artists' group Bornimer Kreis developed designs for the 14 hectares of parkland that surrounded the building. The grounds, and the complex as a whole, were completed in 1931 at a total cost of 24 million Reichsmark ( DEM, EUR in ).
Second World War
IG Farben subsequently became an indispensable part of the Nazi industrial base. The building was the headquarters for research projects for the development of wartime synthetic oil
Synthetic oil
Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially made . Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials...
and rubber
Synthetic rubber
Synthetic rubber is is any type of artificial elastomer, invariably a polymer. An elastomer is a material with the mechanical property that it can undergo much more elastic deformation under stress than most materials and still return to its previous size without permanent deformation...
, as well as the production administration of magnesium, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol, and Zyklon B
Zyklon B
Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust. The "B" designation indicates one of two types of Zyklon...
, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. The building was used by IG Farben for 15 years.
During World War II, the surrounding neighbourhood was devastated, but the building itself was left largely intact (and inhabited by the homeless citizens of a bomb-ravaged Frankfurt). In March 1945, Allied troops occupied the area and the IG Farben Building became the American headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
. Eisenhower's office was where he received many important guests; including General de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, Field Marshal Montgomery
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from...
and Marshal Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
. It was there that he signed the “Proclamation No. 2”, which determined which parts of the country would be within the American zone
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
. Eisenhower vacated the building in December 1945 but his office was still used for special occasions: the constitution of the state of Hesse was signed there, the West German Ministerpräsident received his commission to compile the Grundgesetz (German constitution
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies of World War II on 12 May, came into effect on 23 May, as the constitution of those states of West Germany that were initially included...
) and the administration of the Wirtschaftsrat der Bizone (Economic Council of the Bizone
Bizone
The Bizone, or Bizonia was the combination of the American and the British occupation zones in 1947 during the occupation of Germany after World War II. With the addition of the French occupation zone in March 1948, the entity became the Trizone...
) was also located there.
Cold War
The United States High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG) and his staff occupied the building from 1949 to 1952.
After 1952, the building served as the European centre of the American armed forces and the headquarters of the 5th US-Corps. It later became the headquarters for the Northern Area Command until 1994. The IG Farben Building was also the headquarters of the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
in Germany, which led to its sobriquet 'the Pentagon of Europe'. On April 16, 1975, the US army renamed the building the General Creighton W. Abrams Building. The renaming did not have full authority in law, because the US was technically leasing the building from the German government and thus was not the rightful owner.
On May 11, 1972, the terrace area in front of the 'Casino', was the scene of a bombing by the Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction, i.e., the Baader-Meinhof Group). The building was attacked again by the same group in 1976 and 1982. Consequently, the publicly accessible adjoining park, became part of a restricted military zone which also included the military living quarters and work areas at the rear of the building.
Recent years
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, the US government announced plans to fully withdraw its troops from Frankfurt, Germany by 1995, at which time control of the entire site would be restored to the German Federal Government. It was suggested that the building could become the location for the European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
. The British, however, competing to secure the location of the Bank in London, successfully defeated the proposal by arguing that the building had been tainted by its Nazi associations. In 1996, the state of Hesse bought the building and associated land for the University of Frankfurt
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
The Goethe University Frankfurt was founded in 1914 as a Citizens' University, which means that, while it was a State university of Prussia, it had been founded and financed by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt am Main, a unique feature in German university history...
. The buildings were refurbished at a cost of 50 Million German Mark (about US $26M or 25M €), by the Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
-based architecture practice Dissing+Weitling and were handed over to the university. The complex now houses the Westend Campus of the university, which includes the departments of Philosophy, History, Theology, Classical Philosophy, Art and Music, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Cultural and Civilization Studies, the Center for North American Studies and the Fritz-Bauer-Institute.
Renaming controversy
The university's tenancy of the building sparked a debate regarding the name of the building. Former University President Werner Meissner had started the controversy by renaming it the "Poelzig-Ensemble" (Poelzig-Complex); to him, renaming the building would free it from associations with NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. Students and, in increasing numbers, members of the faculty insisted on confronting the building's history by retaining its original name, the "IG Farben Building".
Meissner's successor, Rudolf Steinberg
Rudolf Steinberg
Rudolf Steinberg is professor emeritus for public law and from 2000 to 2008 was president of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt...
, upheld the university's decision to retain the name; however, he did not enforce a uniform nomenclature within the university's administration. After the grand opening of the building in 2001, AStA
AStA
The General Students' Committee or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the student body at universities in most German states. It is therefore considered the student government and student representative organization...
chairman Wulfila Wido Walter objected to the "misuse of Hans Poelzig" [sic] and proposed leaving the name of the main building unchanged, and calling the smaller casino building the "Poelzig Casino"; this proposal won little support. By 2004, the “Poelzig-Ensemble” proposal had become a moot point—the debate was overtaken by strong political lobbying for an appropriate commemoration and memorial of remembrance: Vice President Brita Rank set up a permanent exhibition inside the building, and a memorial plaque—for the slave labourers of IG Farben and those who had perished by Zyklon B gas—was installed on the front of the building. The Senate of the University agreed on a joint initiative by the student senator of the German Green Party, David Profit, and Angelika Marx the senator of the United Services Union
Ver.di
-External links:* * on the ver.di homepage...
, to name a place on the new campus's western end after the former slave labourer Norbert Wollheim
Norbert Wollheim
Norbert Wollheim was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a director of Central Council of the Jews in Germany and a functionary of Jewish organizations....
.
Despite the renamings by the University and the American military administration, the building is still usually called the IG Farben Building by the general public. The association of the building with Nazism has been hard to shake off, partly because of the close involvement of IG Farben with the Nazi regime and partly because of the building's imposing and monumental appearance. Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
wrote of its “Smell of Guilt”. Only with the departure of the Americans, the subsequent renovations, and the use of the building by the university has the building's association with the third Reich in the popular consciousness receded. As of 2010, the building is referred to as IG Farben Hochhaus on the campus map.
Future
Behind the IG Farben Building, the state of Hesse intends to build "Europe's most modern campus" to accommodate the remaining departments of the University's old Bockenheim campus, law, business, social sciences, child development, and the arts. In October 2009 the departments of law, business, economics and finance moved into new buildings on the new campus. In addition several student dormitories were inaugurated. The move will be completed in 2014. The University will then move out of the old campus in Frankfurt-Bockenheim, which was designed by Ferdinand KramerFerdinand Kramer
Ferdinand Kramer was an important German architect and functionalist designer....
in the 1950s and 1960s.
Building
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
style.
IG Farben did not want a specifically 'Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
' styled building—it wanted:
- A symbol, in iron and stone, of German commercial and scientific manpower. Baron von Schnitzler, IG Farben Director, 1930.
The 250-metre long and 35-metre tall building has nine floors, but the height of the ground floor varies (4.6–4.2 m). This variation is reflected in the roof line which looks taller at the wings than the spine. The volume of the building is 280,000 m³, constructed from 4,600 tonnes of steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
with brick infill and floors constructed of hollow blocks to provide over 55740 m² of usable office space". The façade is clad with 33,000 m² Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Travertine
Travertine
Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
marble, which the windows punctuate in bands. Only at the corners are the glazed strips interrupted for emphasis. The top storey is lit from skylights rather than banded glazing and has a very low ceiling height. It forms a clear building conclusion. Until the 1950s, the building was the largest and most modern office building in Europe.
Cadillac Place
Cadillac Place is an ornate high-rise class-A office complex in the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan constructed of steel, limestone, granite, and marble between 1919 and 1923 and was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The building houses several agencies of the State of Michigan...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
(1917–21) by Albert Kahn. The building presents a very large and weighty façade to the front; however, this effect is reduced by the concave form.
The main entrance is at the axial centre of the building, comprising a temple-like portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
standing in front of the doors—a relatively common motif of administration buildings of the time. The entrance arrangement is regarded by some people as slightly pompous: the entrance and lift doors are of bronze, and the ceiling and walls of the porch are clad in bronze plate and copper frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
s. The inner lobby has two curved staircases with a sheet aluminum treatment, and marble walls with a zigzag pattern. The axial centre at the rear of the building has a round glazed façade; here, the view of the buildings at the rear of the site (the "casino") is maximised by the curved walls that afford vistas to the subsidiary buildings 100 m distant, separated from the main building by parkland and a pool. During the American occupation of the building, this rotunda housed a small kiosk; later, it was used as a conference room. Nowadays, it is called the Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
room and accommodates a café.
The paternoster lifts that serve the nine floors are famous, and are popular with the university students. After the recent restoration, the university has pledged to preserve them in perpetuity.
Behind the rotunda is an oblong pool with a Nymphenskulptur (German:Nymph sculpture) at the water's edge created by Fritz Klimsch
Fritz Klimsch
Fritz Klimsch was a German sculptor.Klimsch studied at the Royal College for the Academic Fine Arts in Berlin, and was then a student of Fritz Schaper. In 1898 Klimsch was a founding member of the Berlin Secession....
entitled "Am Wasser". Behind it stands a flat building on a hill with a terrace—the casino of IG Farben, which now houses a refectory and lecture-rooms.
Rumours
A number of unconfirmed rumours concern the complex:- Hans PoelzigHans PoelzigHans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
was not favoured by the Nazi regimeNazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and was banned by IG Farben from entering the building after its completion. - General EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
issued orders to preserve the building during the bombardment of Frankfurt, because he intended to use it after the war as his headquarters. However, it may have been that the building was saved by its proximity to Grüneburgpark with its prisoner of war camp holding captured American airmen. - Two or three basements are under the Poelzig building, which are sealed and flooded.
- A tunnel connects the building with Frankfurt's main railway station; however, some sources contend that only the main building and the casino are linked, and that there is no tunnel to the station.
- At the reflecting pool behind the building, the "Am Wasser" sculpture of a naked water nymph was moved during the American occupation. The nymph was moved to the Hoechst Chemical concern in Frankfurt/ Hoechst at the request of Mamie EisenhowerMamie EisenhowerMamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower was the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.-Early life:...
(the general's wife), who deemed it inappropriate for a military installation. The statue has since been returned to its original location.
Text of memorial plaque
Translated inscription from the plaque placed in front of the IG Farben Building main entrance on October 26, 2001:- This building was designed by the architect Hans Poelzig and erected between 1928 to 1931 as the headquarters of IG Farben Industries.
- Between 1933 and 1945, as one of the largest chemical concerns in the world, the company increasingly put its scientific knowledge and production technologies into the service of war preparations and the National Socialist regime of terror. From 1942 to 1945, IG Farben, together with the SS, maintained the concentration camp at Buna-Monowitz adjacent to the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz.
- Of the ten thousand prisoners made to work for the company there, most were murdered.
- In the Nazi extermination camps many hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Jews, were killed by Zyklon B gas, which was sold by an IG Farben company.
- From 1945 the building was the seat of the American military government and the High Commissioner for Germany. On the 19 September 1945 the State of Hesse was proclaimed here. From 1952 to 1995 the building was the headquarters of the 5th Corps of US Army.
- Aware of the history of the building, the State of Hesse acquired it in 1996 for the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. In the future it will be used for teaching and research.
-
- "Nobody can withdraw from the history of one's people.
- One should know that the past must not be based on forgetting
- Else it returns and becomes the present."
-
-
- —Jean AméryJean AméryJean Améry , born Hanns Chaim Mayer, was an Austrian-born essayist whose work was often informed by his experiences during World War II...
, 1975
- —Jean Améry
-
See also
- IG FarbenIG FarbenI.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
- IG Farben TrialIG Farben TrialThe United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al., also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany after the end of World War II....
- Hans PoelzigHans PoelzigHans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
- New ObjectivityNew ObjectivityThe New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
- Allied Occupation Zones in GermanyAllied Occupation Zones in GermanyThe Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
Further reading
- Loewy, Peter & Loewy, Hanno. IG Farben House, Gina Kehayoff Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN
- This article incorporates translated material from the German Wikipedia page :de:I.G.-Farben-Haus which references the following books.
- Meissner, Werner & Rebentisch, Dieter & Wang, Wilfried (Hrsg.). Der Poelzig-Bau. Vom IG-Farben-Haus zur Goethe-Universität., Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN
- Loewy, Peter & Loewy, Hanno. Das IG Farben-Haus, Kehayoff Verlag, München 2001, ISBN