Cultural use in high-rise project "Neue Mainzer Straße"
(ffm) The city of Frankfurt is getting a branch of its Weltkulturen Museum. This was announced by the department heads for planning and culture, Mike Josef and Ina Hartwig, together with Christian Schmid, member of the board of directors of Helaba, at a press conference on Wednesday, May 13. The museum branch is to be built in the historic old building of the "Neue Mainzer Straße" high-rise project on the fourth floor in an area of around 900 square metres. This will give the Weltkulturen Museum the opportunity to present its collection on a larger scale than before. In total, the collection comprises some 65,000 ethnographic objects from Oceania, Africa, Southeast Asia and North, Central and South America. Due to spatial and technical restrictions, only a fraction of these objects could be exhibited in the three main buildings on Schaumainkai. The museum use of Neue Mainzer Strasse 57-59 runs rent-free for 15 years and is secured by an easement in favour of the city and recorded in the land register. A positive preliminary building application has already been submitted for Helaba's high-rise project.
Christian Schmid, member of Helaba's Board of Managing Directors, commented on the "Neue Mainzer Strasse" high-rise project: "The positive preliminary building application is a very pleasing, significant milestone for us in this project. We are also delighted that, as with the Main Tower, we will be able to invite the public into our buildings - for more than 20 years now onto the Main Tower's viewing platform and in future into the branch of the Weltkulturen Museum. In addition, with this building project we are opening up the axis to the ramparts of the Taunusanlage and setting the keystone on Neue Mainzer Straße."
"With this, we are continuing to pursue our goal of getting a stronger mix of uses in the banking district; away from monostructural office use, towards more public audience-intensive uses," explains Planning Director Josef. "The Weltkulturen Museum is an excellent addition to the necessary diversity of uses and will revitalise the quarter even further. At the same time, the connection to the Wallanlagen will be improved. The stronger link between Wallanlagen and the public access of the base areas will become an essential point in the future high-rise development. With a great high-rise design and the museum, today's result is a cultural as well as urban gain for all of Frankfurt."
Cultural Affairs Director Hartwig added: "The future dependence of the Weltkulturen Museum in the Helaba high-rise project goes hand in hand with an urgently needed development opportunity already called for by Hilmar Hoffmann: at last, larger parts of the unique collection can be presented in a way that appeals to the public and is relevant to society. What better place than the centre of one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities? My idea of a cultural mile in the Wallanlagen in correspondence with Frankfurt's unique high-rise architecture is gaining contour."
Eva Raabe, director of the Weltkulturen Museum, says: "The Weltkulturen Museum stands for pioneering work in opening up new topics and ways of presentation. In a well-equipped annex, and even more so in such an attractive location in the city, we can develop the World Cultures Laboratory there into a mainstay of our exhibition work in the future."
The future branch of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt's banking district will be another important building block for the emerging cultural mile along the historic Wallanlagen: Starting from the Jewish Museum, via the Städtische Bühnen, the English Theatre and TowerMMK to the Alte Oper, there is already an inner-city cultural offer that is to be continuously developed further.
