The tower was built in honour of the German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In 1931, the Goethe Tower was rebuilt with money donated by the Jewish businessman Gustav Gerst.
The opening ceremony took place in November 1931, shortly before the 1932 commemorations of Goethe's death one hundred years before.
The city of Frankfurt provided the wood for the tower – altogether more than 170 cubic metres (6,000 cu ft) of pine, beech, and oak timber.
The new tower was completely assembled from chestnut and oak wood on 28 July 2020, followed by a topping-out ceremony two days later.