Technical Administration Building of Hoechst AG
The building had worldwide fame in a stylised form as part as the Hoechst company's tower and bridge (Turm und Brücke)[1] logo from 1947 to 1997.
In June 1920, the Executive Board of Hoechst under its Director-General Adolf Haeuser, decided to merge its technical departments, which had been widely scattered, in a prestigious new building on the old Mainzer Landstrasse (now Brüningstraße) in the eastern part of the then independent city of Höchst am Main.
On 21 August, a request was made to the Berlin-based architect Peter Behrens, who immediately prepared the first drafts, so that on 14 September, a contract was signed for the new technical offices of the dye works.
In particular, the lack of building materials during the years of hyperinflation and the occupation of the Höchst works by French troops on 5 May 1923 brought construction to a standstill at times until the introduction of the German Rentenmark in April 1924.
The new building soon lost importance as, on 12 November 1925, the Hoechst dye works was merged with other chemical companies to form IG Farben.
In 1930, the administration of the then fourth-largest company in the world was transferred to the new IG Farben Building in Frankfurt's West End, designed by Hans Poelzig.
Thus, the aisles of the big exhibition hall on the ground floor were converted into a telephone exchange for the factory and warehouses.
The site was only hit by bombs on 29 June 1940 during an air raid, which devastated the lecture hall in the northern building.
In 2005, the auditorium was modernised and the Marble Hall on the second floor was renovated, with the building's original wooden panelling, which had been covered, now largely exposed.
The building's association with brick expressionism is reflected in both the external and internal architecture and can be recognised from the details.
Central themes are the colours that refer to the client and the crystal motifs that can be seen as ornaments in the light sources, such as windows and lamps.
The upper floors are set back and are built with parabolic-shaped windows, reminiscent of Gothic arches, as a defining element.
Originally it was intended to signal the change of shift to the workers in the dye works with the sounds of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin.
The tower was connected to the central office building built in 1892 with a masonry arch bridge over Brüningstraße that reflects the theme of the parabolic windows of the upper floor.
The only ornament in this hall is the bare masonry of the pillars that form a frame to the octagonal ceiling windows above and taper down.
An alternate colour scheme counteracts the massiveness of the upper very broad masonry: the lowest clinker bricks are green, followed by blue, red, purple, orange and finally yellow.
It was designed as a three-aisled hall, with the seven-metre high ceiling supported by six pillars, and is illuminated through large, coloured glass windows on three sides.
A statue of a worker with roll up sleeves, created by Richard Scheibe, was the only original feature that remained in the exhibition hall.
They are situated around a courtyard, which has walls that are veneered with white bricks so that incidental light is reflected up the surrounding corridors.
