The Großmarkthalle (''Wholesale Market Hall''), in

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

(East End),

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, was the city's main wholesale market, especially for fruit and vegetables. It closed on 4 June 2004 and the building now forms part of the

Seat of the European Central Bank The seat of the European Central Bank is situated in Frankfurt, Germany. Its premises comprise a twin-tower skyscraper and the city's former Wholesale Market Hall (''Großmarkthalle''), with a low-rise building connecting the two. It was compl ...

. It is considered a major example of

expressionist architecture Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionism, expressionist visual and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany. Bri ...

History

The massive structure on the right bank of the Main, immediately adjacent to Frankfurt's east port (''Osthafen''), was designed by Martin Elsaesser as part of the New Frankfurt-project. It was inaugurated on 25 October 1928. With a length of 220 m, a width of 50 m and a height of 17 to 23 m (722 by 164 by 55 to 75 ft), it was the city's largest architectural unit at the time. It provided 13,000 square metres (140,000 ft²) of space for a total of 130 stalls, most of which served large-scale customers, such as hospitality businesses or retailers. The building, and its surroundings, also hosted offices and storage space for wholesalers, shipping companies and agencies. From October 1941 onwards, the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s used the Großmarkthalle as a collecting point for the deportation of Jewish men, women and children from Frankfurt and its region. Since 1997, this locally important role within the

holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

is recognised by a commemorative plaque. The Großmarkthalle, locally known as "''Gemieskersch''" (Frankfurt Hessian for "''Gemüsekirche''", literally "vegetable church"), has been a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

since 1984. In 2004, its function was transferred to the "Frischezentrum Frankfurt" in the suburban district of Kalbach-Riedberg, with a total of 128,000 square metres (1,380,000 ft²) of space, including 23,000 square metres (250,000 ft²) for retail purposes.

New use by the European Central Bank

On 1 January 2005, the City of Frankfurt transferred the Großmarkthalle and its area to the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

(the sale contract had been signed in 2002), which will erect its

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

there. The main part of the hall was preserved and mainly houses the public functions of the ECB, such as a visitors' area, the staff restaurant, as well as press and conference spaces. The space between the hall and the Main river is taken up by the Skytower, a complex of two intertwined 180 m (590 ft) skyscrapers, designed by the

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

-based

Coop Himmelb(l)au Coop Himmelb(l)au (a pun meaning '' Coop Sky Building'' and ''Coop Sky Blue'') is an architecture, urban planning, design and art firm founded in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria. History Coop Hi ...

. A memorial for the deported Jews was also created, in close cooperation with the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. In November 2006, the planning committee of Frankfurt accepted a proposal to de-list the so-called ''annexbauten'', two transversal buildings added to the narrow ends of the hall, originally serving clerical and social functions. The local heritage authorities permitted the demolition of these structures. Furthermore, the western third of the hall's roof, destroyed in World War II and restored thereafter was cut by a diagonal structure placed partially inside and partially outside the hall so as to "let the building's new function spread beyond its confines". According to the heirs of the building's architect, Martin Elsaesser (died in 1957), the external appearance of the Großmarkthalle may not be changed according to

moral rights Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions. The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work p ...

, so that the planned alterations would require their agreement until such rights expire 70 years after the death of Elsaesser. This view may be inaccurate, since it is now known that there is 1932 contract between Elsaesser and the city of Frankfurt that permits alterations to the structure of the hall.Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 December 2006

Description of the hall

The Großmarkthalle Frankfurt am Main is a massively built hall with a roof freely spanning 50 m (164 ft). At the time of its construction it was the world's widest

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

construction. The entirety of the area is roofed by 15

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

s with a support span of 36.9 m (121 ft) and a vault span of 14.1 m (46 ft). The concrete "barrels" (Zeiss-Dywidag barrels) are made of concrete and are only 7 cm (2³/₄ in) thick. Their basic form is a half ellipse of 6 m (20 ft) height. It was realised between 1926 and 1928 by Franz Dischinger and Ulrich Finsterwalder. The hall itself was built in only 24 weeks by the companies Dyckerhoff & Widmann (Dywidag) and Wayss & Freytag AG. The total cost of constructions was ℛℳ 15,372,000.

References

Bibliography

* Günter Günschel: ''Große Konstrukteure 1 Freyssinet, Maillart, Dischinger, Finsterwalder. '' Verlag Ullstein GmbH Berlin 1966 *Walter Bachmann: ''Frankfurter Großmarkthalle.'' JW-Verlag, Frankfurt 2001, *Wolf-Christian Setzepfandt: ''Architekturführer Frankfurt am Main''. 3rd ed. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin August 2002, , p. 44.

External links