Adorno-Ampel

The traffic light is on Senckenberganlage, a street which divides the Institute for Social Research from Goethe University Frankfurt.

On November 29, 1961, Adorno demanded "a bridge for pedestrians over the Senckenberganlage or a diversion of all traffic".

In 1962 a person was killed in a traffic accident in the Senckenberganlage area, which led to Adorno writing to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung demanding "traffic lights in the whole university area": “When crossing the Senckenberganlage, near the corner of Dantestrasse, one of our secretaries was run over and seriously injured after a passer-by had had a fatal accident at the same place a few days earlier.

Should a student, or a professor, find himself in the state that is actually appropriate for him, namely in thought, then there is an immediate threat of death.

In 1987, Habermas' successor, Ludwig von Friedeburg, placed a pedestrian traffic light at the Senckenberg plant.