IG Farben Building
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The Poelzig-Building or the IG-Farben-Building (also know as the Poelzig-Ensemble or Poelzig-Complex, and previously as the IG-Farben-Complex, and the General Creighton W. Abrams Building) was designed by Hans Poelzig and built from 1928–1930 / 31 as the corporate headquarters of the IG Farben conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
When it was completed the complex was the largest office building in Europe and remained so well into the 1950's. Its six square wings retain a modern, spare elegance despite the mammoth size of the building. 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, as well as the regular production of magnesium, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol, and Zyklon B, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. After WWII, the Farben Building served as headquarters for the 'Supreme Allied Command' and became the main location for implementation of the Marshall Plan which enabled the reconstruction of Europe. The present Federal German Government and state apparatus were also formulated here. The IG Farben building served as the Headquarters for the U.S. Army's V Corps and the Northern Area Command (NACOM) until 1995. In 1975, the U. S. renamed the building the "General Creighton W. Abrams Building".
The U. S. forces returned control of the I.G. Farben building back to the German government in 1995. It was purchased on behalf of the University of Frankfurt by the state of Hesse who committed €25 million to the restoration of the Building. The University renamed the building the "Poelzig-Building" (Poelzig-Bau) and its minor ancillary buildings and surroundings the "Poelzig Complex" (Poelzig-Ensemble), after its architect. The restoration work commenced in late March, 1998, and the formal reopening as the "Poelzig-Bau" was celebrated on 26 October 2001.
History
The building was developed on land known as the Grüneburggelände in the "Westend District" of Frankfurt; in 1837 the property belonged to the Rothschild family and after 1864, the site accommodated the city's Psychiatric hospital, also known as "Affenfelsen" or "Affenstein" (ape rock). Dr. Heinrich Hoffman hired Alois Alzheimer and they both explored progressive methods of treating the mentally ill. The Grüneburgpark was established in 1880 on the larger western part of the site.
In the 1920s, IG-Farben (full German name Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft) was the biggest drug, chemical and dye conglomerate in the world. IG-Farben acquired the property in 1927 in order to establish its headquarters there. The city of Frankfurt was chosen as the site because of the central location of Frankfurt as well as the unique options for air and land transportation that Frankfurt offered in the 1920’s.
In August 1928 Professor Hans Poelzig, who had studied at the Bauhaus, won a limited competition among five selected architects - 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 begin on the steel frame. Construction was completed in 1930 taking only 24 months. 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.
IG Farben later became an indispensable part of the National Socialist (Nazi) industrial base.See wikipedia article on IG Farben and the IG Farben Trial The building was the headquarters for research projects for the development of wartime synthetic oil and rubber, as well as regular production of magnesium, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol, and Zyklon B, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. The building served its intended purpose for 15 years.
During World War II, the area in the vicinity of the Farben Building had been devastated, but the Building itself was left largely intact (and inhabited by homeless citizens of bomb-ravaged Frankfurt). In March 1945 allied troops occupied the area and the building became the American headquarters under general Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhowers former office ,which is still used today on special occasions, was the scene of many important historical events: The Hesse constitution was signed there, the West German Ministerpräsident received his commission to compile the Grundgesetz (Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany) and the administration of the Wirtschaftsrat der Bizone (Economic Council of the Bizone) was also located there. Eisenhower signed the “Proclamation Nr. 2” in the building, which declared which parts of the country would be part of the American zone, he also received many important guests including; General de Gaulle, Field Marshal Montgomery and Marshal Schukow. Eisenhower vacated the building in December 1945.
From 1945 to 1947, the I.G. Farben Building was the location of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied European Forces as well as the headquarters for the US occupation forces and the Military Governor. On May 10 1947, permanent orders prohibited further reference to the building as the "I.G. Farben Building" and designated it as the "Headquarters Building, European Command".
After 1952 the building served as the European centre of the American armed forces and headquarters of the 5th US-Corps and later as the headquarters for the Northern Area Command (NACOM) until 1994. The IG Farben building was also the headquarters of the CIA in Germany (from which use it received the sobriquet 'The Pentagon of Europe'). On April 16, 1975 the US-Army renamed the building as 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 state and so were not the rightful owners.
On May 11, 1972 the terrace area at the rear of the builidng, in front of the 'Casino' was the scene of a bombing by the Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction a.k.a The Baader-Meinhof Group. In 1976 and 1982 they committed further attacks. The building, whose park was publicly accessible until then, became a military restricted area. These restrictions also applied to the military living quarters and work areas located behind the building.
Following reunification and Germany's subsequent full sovereignty, the US government announced their plans to fully withdraw its troops from Germany by 1995; control of the entire campus was thereby restored to the German Federal Government. What it would be used for was at first unclear; it was suggested that the building could be the location for the European Central Bank. The British however, who were 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 DM 50 million (approx US $26 million), by the Copenhagen architect's office 'Dissing+Weitling' and handed over to the university. The main building and its ancillary buildings now house 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.
The university's tenancy of the building sparked a debate regarding the building's name. Former University President Werner Meissner had started the controversy by renaming the building the "Poelzig-Ensemble" (Poelzig-Complex); to him, renaming the building was associated with absolution from references to national socialism. Students and, in increasing numbers, members of the faculty insisted upon confronting the building's history by retaining its original name, "IG-Farben-Haus".
Meissner's successor Rudolf Steinberg adhered to the university's decision to keep the building's 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" (precise German translation) and proposed leaving the main building's name unchanged, but instead calling the smaller casino building the "Poelzig Casino". This proposal was met with little support. By 2004, the “Poelzig-Ensemble” proposal had become a moot point; the debate was succeeded by a strong political movement in support of an appropriate commemoration and remembrance: Vice President Brita Rank set up a permanent exhibition inside of the building, and a memorial plaque for slave labourers of IG-Farben was put up on the front of the building. The Senate of the University decided upon a joint initiative by the student senator of the German Green Party, David Profit, and Angelika Marx the senator of the United Services Union, that a place on the new campus' western end was to be named after the former slave labourer Norbert Wollheim.
According to the wishes of the government of Hesse, the area behind the IG-Farben building will be used to build "Europe's most modern campus" for the remaining faculties on the University's old Bockenheim campus: law, business, the social sciences, child development, and the arts. The new buildings will be completed in 2014. The University will then move out of the old campus in Frankfurt-Bockenheim, which was designed by Ferdinand Kramer in the 1950s and 1960s.
IG-Farben did not want a specifically 'Bauhaus' styled building; they wanted to make their own statement. They wanted:
The 250 metre long and 35 metre high building has nine floors, but the storey height of the ground floor varies (from 4.6 to 4.2m). So the building often looks higher to the external viewer . The buildings volume is 280,000 metre³ in total, constructed from 4,600 tonnes of Steel frame with brick infill and floors constructed of hollow blocks to provide over 55740 metre² of usable office space". The facade is clad with 33,000 metre² 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 1950's the building was the largest and most modern of its type in Europe.
The IG-Farben-Building consists of six wings, which are connected by a gently curved, central corridor. This arrangement provides all the offices with sufficient natural light and ventilation. The building presents a very large and weighty facade to the front; however this effect is reduced by the concave form. Internally the building shows a light touch, the comb-like arrangement of the transverse wings provides for good lighting of all areas. This design approach offers an alternative to block land development with inner courtyards commonly found in large complexes of the time. The prototype of this form is the General Motors Building in Detroit (1917 to 1921) by Albert Kahn.
The entrance is located on the axial centre of the building (apart from a few emergency exits), a temple-like portico stands in front of it which creates an imposing entrance - a relatively common motif of administration buildings of the time. The entrance arrangement is a little pompous: The entrance and lift doors are of bronze, the ceiling and walls of the porch are clad in bronze plate and copper friezes. The inner lobby has two curved staircases with a sheet aluminum treatment and marble walls with zigzag pattern. On the axial centre on the back of the building can be found a round glazed facade, here the view of the buildings at the rear of the site (today a casino) are maximised by the curved walls which afford vistas to the subsidiary buildings 100m distant and the parkland and pool between. During the American occupation of the building this rotunda was a small snackbar, later it was used as a conference room. Today it is called the Dwight D. Eisenhower room and houses a Café.
Particularly famous - and popular with the students - are the Paternoster lifts, which serve the nine floors. After the recent restoration the university has pledged to preserve them.
Behind the rotunda is an oblong pool with a Nymphenskulptur (Nymph sculpture) at the waters edge created by Fritz Klimsch . 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.
A number of myths and rumours surround the building.
A number of further rumours concern the complex which have yet to be confirmed:
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
Building
At the time of the buildings construction, IG-Farben was the fourth largest company in the world. Consequently, the space requirements for the building were for one of the largest office buildings to have ever been built. It was designed in the New Objectivity style. "A symbol, in iron and stone, of German commercial and scientific manpower" (Ein eisernes und steinernes Sinnbild deutscher kaufmännischer und wissenschaftlicher Arbeitskraft).
Myths
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 National Socialism has been hard to shake off partly because of the close involvement of IG-Farben with the Nazi regime and also because of the building's imposing and monumental nature. Der Spiegel wrote of the “Smell of Guilt”. Only with the departure of the Americans, the following renovations and the introduction of the university has the residual memory of the Third Reich been diminished. See Also
References
External links
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