10 May 2025 – 11 January 2026
In 2025, The New Frankfurt celebrated its 100th birthday. The Museum Angewandte Kunst marked the occasion by hosting numerous exhibitions dedicated to the modernist design movement of the 1920s. The core exhibition What was the New Frankfurt? was planned as an initial launch pad for the city wide campaign and raised the following questions: What exactly was The New Frankfurt? Who were the protagonists? What ideas and influences formed the basis of this modernist design movement? What were its key themes, and how did these effectively transform society?
In the years after the First World War, Frankfurt was characterized by a strongly socially and culturally oriented municipal administration as well as a broad civic engagement and both had an impact on the entire living space. In particular, the achievements of the Lord Mayor Ludwig Landmann and the City Planning Officer Ernst May as well as the employees of the Building Department such as Martin Elsaesser, Adolf Meyer, Ferdinand Kramer or Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky are often at the center of attention.
Numerous housing and industrial construction projects were successfully implemented: the housing estates Römerstadt (1927-28), Praunheim (1926-30), Bornheimer Hang (1926-30) and Westhausen (1929-32) are just a few examples of the housing developments that created around 12,000 apartments for the Frankfurt population within the space of just 5 years. Numerous municipal school buildings and a retirement home run by the Henry und Emma-Budge-Stiftung as well as industrial facilities such as the power station and the Großmarkthalle are also among the buildings that were to establish Frankfurt’s reputation as a modern metropolis. In addition, the design of public green spaces and sports facilities was also a priority and realized from the beginning.
Most of the residential buildings and estates as well as numerous public buildings of The New Frankfurt are still functional and visible, used, inhabited and utilized today. On the other hand, public knowledge about the achievements of this building program is still little known outside the specialist fields of architectural and design history. The exhibition aimed to change this: The aim was, on the one hand, to establish a broader awareness of the historical planning and, on the other, to carry questions of city life and housing from a present-day viewpoint into the future.
The exhibition consisted of a multimedia room in which the key questions regarding the building program were posed and answered. It also took a closer look at where its’ initiatives, people and fields of action were presented in the context of the 100th anniversary. The multimedia room assembled significant objects from the time of The New Frankfurt, texts and original quotes, images, films, infographics and photographs that came together to tell the story of what The New Frankfurt was and will continue to be.
The questions formulated in this initial room paved the way for more in-depth exhibitions in other parts of the museum, with partner institutions and in the Rhine-Main region; and ultimately extended into the program of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026, thus providing an updated perspective on The New Frankfurt and other national and international design movements that have always led to changes in societal models.
Curator: Grit Weber