The seat of the European Central Bank is situated in

Frankfurt 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 ...

, 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 completed in 2014 and was officially opened on 18 March 2015. 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 ...

(ECB) is required by the

Treaties of the European Union The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedure ...

to have its seat within the city limits of Frankfurt, the largest

financial centre A financial centre (financial center in American English) or financial hub is a location with a significant concentration of commerce in financial services. The commercial activity that takes place in a financial centre may include banking, ...

in the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...

. The ECB previously resided in the Eurotower and, as its duties increased due to countries joining the eurozone, in three further high-rise buildings nearby – the Eurotheum and Japan Center.

Architecture

The main office building, constructed for the ECB, consists of two towers that are joined by an atrium with four interchange platforms. The North tower has 45 storeys and a roof height of , whereas the South tower has 43 storeys and a roof height of . With the antenna, the North tower reaches a height of . The ECB premises also includes the Grossmarkthalle, a former wholesale market hall built from 1926 to 1928 as part of the New Frankfurt project and 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 at the time, fully renovated for its new purpose.

History

Development

In 1999, an international architectural competition was launched by the bank to design a new building. It was won by a

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 architectural office called

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 ...

. The building was to be 185 meters tall (201 meters with antenna), accompanied by other secondary buildings on a landscaped site on the site of the former wholesale market (Großmarkthalle) in the eastern part of Frankfurt. The main construction work was planned to commence in October 2008, with completion scheduled for before the end of 2011. Construction was put on hold in June 2008 as the ECB was unable to find a contractor that would build the Skytower for the allocated budget of €500 million due to the bidding taking place at the peak of the pre-

late-2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

bubble. A year later with prices having fallen significantly the ECB launched a new tendering process broken up into segments. File:Grossmarkthalle002.jpg, Großmarkthalle site (2006) File:European Central Bank Headquarters (model 01).jpg, Model seen in 2011 File:European Central Bank - new building under construction - Frankfurt - Germany - 23.jpg, Construction in 2012 File:Seat of the European Central Bank and Frankfurt Skyline at dawn 20150422 1.jpg, Building at dawn (2015) File:Europäische Zentralbank Frankfurt.jpg, Seat of the ECB seen from northwest (2019) It is expected that the building will become an architectural symbol for Europe and is designed to cope with double the number of staff who operate in the Eurotower. The total cost of the project was between 1.3 and 1.4 billion euros. For the total surface of 185,000 square meters, this gives a building cost in excess of 7,000 euros per square meter.

Opening

Staff began moving into the new building in November 2014, and the building was officially opened on 18 March 2015. The opening was marked by a three-day protest organised by the Blockupy movement. Ulrich Wilken, an organizer and member of the Hesse state assembly for the

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

party, said: "Our protest is against the ECB, as a member of the troika, that, despite the fact that it is not democratically elected, hinders the work of the Greek government. We want the austerity politics to end." Police used

water cannon A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining. ...

s and

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the Mace (spray), early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the ey ...

against protestors, while demonstrators threw stones at police, firefighters and Frankfurt's trams, and set fire to cars and barricades.

Legal basis

The seat of the European Central Bank enjoys special legal protections granted by an agreement with the German government. It is illegal to enter the ECB's premises to enforce a court order or execute a search warrant. It is also illegal to confiscate materials on the ECB's premises. The German government has a duty to protect the Central Bank against intruders, including foreign agents and protestors.

References

External links

DocumentaryArchitect's website with page on the project
{{Portal bar, Germany, Architecture Buildings and structures of the European Union Coop Himmelblau European Central Bank Buildings and structures completed in 2014 Skyscraper office buildings in Frankfurt 2014 establishments in Germany