New Frankfurt (German: ''Neues Frankfurt'') was an affordable public housing program 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 ...

started in 1925 and completed in 1930. It was also the name of the accompanying magazine that was published from 1926 to 1931 dedicated to international trends in architecture, art, housing and education.

History

The project was initiated in 1925, when Frankfurt’s mayor

Ludwig Landmann Ludwig Landmann (18 May 1868 – 5 March 1945) was a liberal German Jewish politician of the Weimar Republic. Landmann belonged first to the National Social party, then the Progressive People's Party, and finally, after the German revolution of ...

appointed architect Ernst May as the city building councillor. May subsequently led all planning activities and assembled a team of young architects, engineers, artists, and designers –including

Max Cetto Max Ludwig Cetto (February 20, 1903 – April 5, 1980) was a German-Mexican architect, historian of architecture, and professor. Life Born in Koblenz, Germany, Max Cetto studied at the Technische Hochschulen in Darmstadt, Munich and Berli ...

Martin Elsaesser Martin Elsaesser (28 May 1884 – 5 August 1957) was a German architect and professor of architecture. He is especially well known for the many churches he built. Life From 1901 to 1906, Elsaesser studied architecture at the Technical University ...

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

Ferdinand Kramer Ferdinand Kramer (22 January 1898, Frankfurt, Germany – 4 November 1985, Frankfurt) was a German architect and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designer. Biography Kramer's father was owner of the most well-known of Frankfurt hat ...

, Adolf Meyer,

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author. He was active during the Weimar period and is known for his theoretical works as well as his building designs. Early l ...

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Margarete "Grete" Schütte-Lihotzky ( Lihotzky; 23 January 1897 – 18 January 2000) was an Austrian architect and a communist activist in the Austrian resistance to Nazism. She is mostly remembered today for designing what is known as the Fran ...

and

Mart Stam Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century Euro ...

– to ensure the project was firmly embedded in the city’s wider urban development. This holistic design philosophy distinguished the New Frankfurt from many other contemporary projects. Under May's leadership, 12,000 apartments were built, 2,000 more than planned. The buildings not only met the basic needs of housing but also set standards for urban development and design, and broke with house building tradition. All apartments and mansions were equipped with a

Frankfurt kitchen The Frankfurt kitchen is considered an important point in domestic architecture. It is also thought to be the forerunner of modern fitted kitchens because it was the first kitchen in history built after a unified concept: low-cost design that w ...

Catherine Bauer Wurster Catherine Krouse Bauer Wurster (May 11, 1905 – November 21, 1964) was an American public housing advocate and educator of city planners and urban planners. A leading member of the "housers," a group of planners who advocated affordable hou ...

visited the buildings in 1930 and was inspired by May's work. The project was denigrated by the far right and labelled as ''undeutsch'' ("un-German"), with

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

calling it "Mr May's small Soviet industry" and describing Ernst May as the "Lenin of German architecture". When the

Nazis 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 ...

seized power in 1933, all construction activities were halted, although the estates were apparently later showcased to foreign visitors as examples of National Socialist architecture. Most employees of the project left Germany after 1933; some followed Ernst May to the Soviet Union, which had invited prominent architects – including Le Corbusier and members of the Bauhaus – to work there. Following the demolition of several houses designed by

and ensuing public protests, the estates were designated as protected landmarks in the late 1970s. One two-storey terraced house was renovated and restored to its original 1928 condition by the Ernst May Society. Now known as the "Ernst May House", it serves as a museum. The reconstruction was guided by research conducted by architectural historians.

Selected projects

*Villa May, Frankfurt am Main, 1925 *Villa Elsaesser, Frankfurt am Main, 1925–1926 *Estate Höhenblick, Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1927 *Estate Bruchfeldstraße (Zickzackhausen), Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1927 *Estate Riederwald, Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1927 *Estate Praunheim, Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1928 *Estate Römerstadt, Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1928 *Estate Bornheimer Hang, Frankfurt am Main, 1926–1930 *Estate Heimatsiedlung, Frankfurt am Main, 1927–1934 *Estate Hellerhof, Frankfurt am Main, 1929–1932 *Röderberg school, Frankfurt am Main, 1929–1930 *Estate Westhausen, Frankfurt am Main, 1929–1931 *House in Dornbusch, Frankfurt am Main, 1927–1931

Literature

* * *

References

External links

Exhibition "Modernism in Frankfurt, 1919–1933"

May's housing project

Website of the Ernst-May-Society
{{coord missing, Hesse Buildings and structures in Frankfurt Housing in Germany Public housing Architecture in Germany 1920s architecture Modernist architecture in Germany Heritage sites in Hesse

History

Selected projects

Literature

See also

References

External links