The seat of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary 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 most important central b ...

(ECB) is an office building complex in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

, Germany. It comprises a twin-tower skyscraper and the 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 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, procedures ...

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

financial centre A financial centre ( BE), financial center ( AE), or financial hub, is a location with a concentration of participants in banking, asset management, insurance or financial markets with venues and supporting services for these activities to ...

in the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polici ...

. 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 The Eurotheum is a 31-storey, skyscraper in the city center of Frankfurt, Germany. The building was constructed in 1999 to coincide with the adjacent Main Tower, and is one of a few such in Frankfurt that offers office and residential space. Eac ...

, Japan Center and Neue Mainzer Straße 32–36, the former head office of the

Commerzbank Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambu ...

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, 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 en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

-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 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria in 1968. History Coop Him ...

. 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 marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

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:Europäische Zentralbank - European Central Bank (19190136328).jpg, Building at night (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 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 lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...

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

Headquarters Agreement

The seat of the European Central Bank enjoys special legal protections granted by an agreement with the

German government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief Executive (government), executive body of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Chancellor of Germany, Federal Chancellor and m ...

. 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
{{Euro topics Buildings and structures of the European Union Coop Himmelblau European Central Bank Buildings and structures completed in 2014 Skyscrapers in Frankfurt 2014 establishments in Germany Skyscraper office buildings in Germany