The Fürsteneck House, often simply called Fürsteneck, was a historic building in the old town of Frankfurt. It stood east of the Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew in an obtuse angle at the south-eastern corner of the so-called Garküchenplatz, which opened towards the Fahrgasse; its address was Fahrgasse 17. Primarily because of its largely preserved Renaissance interior, but also due to its high architectural and historical value, the house, built in the mid-14th century, was one of the city's most famous sights.
In March 1944, the Fürsteneck was completely destroyed during the Allied bombing raids on Frankfurt; the interior fittings, which had been evacuated, burned at the same time in the Museum für Kunsthandwerk. After the Second World War, the plot was redeveloped in a modern style, so the building must be counted among the lost monuments of Frankfurt's old town.
History
Prehistory and construction period
Like most of the land east of the cathedral, the plot on which the Fürsteneck was built belonged to the former Jewish quarter of Frankfurt. The site is first mentioned in 1362, only 13 years after the worst pogrom to date, in which the entire Jewish population of the city had been murdered. The claim by the city historian Johann Georg Battonn that the predecessor building had belonged to a Jewish family named Liepmann must be regarded as pure speculation due to the lack of evidence.Oertliche Beschreibung der Stadt Frankfurt am Main – Band II. Association for History and Archaeology in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1861–1875 The houses in the quarter that had not been burned down following the annihilation of the Jewish community were confiscated by the city; the plots were initially rented out and later also sold.
In the 1350s, Johann von Holzhausen and his wife Guda probably acquired the plot.Die Baudenkmäler von Frankfurt am Main – Volume 3, Private Buildings. Self-published/Völcker, Frankfurt am Main 1914, pp. 26–34 The Holzhausen family was one of the most important noble families in medieval Frankfurt: Johann, like many of his descendants, was a councillor, mayor, and member of the still-existing Ganerbschaft of Alten Limpurg.
A detailed contract dated 18 May 1362 between the Holzhausen family and their neighbours provides the first precise information about ownership and building activity. It stipulated the construction of a stone gable wall between the two properties that would support the ridge beam of the neighbouring house. Although the contract does not describe the entire building, the reference to its apparently exceptional height is sufficient to identify it as the Fürsteneck, which remained the dominant building (apart from the cathedral) in the eastern old town until the 20th century. Most 20th-century architectural histories also date the construction of the Fürsteneck to 1362, making it one of the earliest houses of its type; today only the Steinernes Haus on the Römerberg survives. The name Fürsteneck is first documented in 1399; the etymology of the name remains unclear. The suffix -eck (corner) was common in old Frankfurt, which had no house numbers until the mid-18th century, for buildings on corners. The first syllable may simply have been a popular designation for a house occupied by one of the city's most prominent patricians.
Unlike other Gothic stone buildings in Frankfurt's old town, the Fürsteneck displayed several distinctive features from the outset, explainable by both its history and its location. The entire block in which the Fürsteneck appears rather built-in on most 19th- and 20th-century images did not exist in the 14th century. The building originally stood almost alone, together with the associated Tower Zu den drei Sauköpfen (see image) at the eastern end of the former cathedral cemetery. The complex remained intact into the 20th century but was no longer easily recognisable, having been surrounded by new buildings, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries; the tower formed the rear of the house Zum kleinen goldenen Hirsch (Garküchenplatz 3). Sauköpfe (an old German term) referred to the three crenellated corner turrets on its roof walkway, which in identical form also protected the four corners of the Fürsteneck.
The complex was further surrounded by an eight-metre-high wall, creating a kind of castle courtyard between the Fürsteneck and the tower (which served as a bergfried), containing stables. The Matthäus Merian plan of 1628 still hints at this layout, though it is imprecise here; the accurate Ravenstein plan of 1862 reveals the situation but already includes later buildings. On most modern photographs, the view of the tower is obscured by the Badischer Hof (Garküchenplatz 1), probably built in the 18th century over the former castle wall. The fortress-like construction was a response to the dangers of the time: in 1355 the guilds had risen against the ruling families; shortly afterwards, in 1364, Johann von Holzhausen replaced Mayor Jakob Knoblauch before the end of his term and also ousted the popularly elected second mayor Henne Wirbel. A house capable of withstanding street violence was thus a prudent investment.
Moreover, in the 14th century the Fahrgasse was one of the few paved streets and a major artery of Frankfurt. Traffic from the south via the Alte Brücke and from the north through the Bornheimer Pforte flowed along it. Owning a fortress-like building on this street meant influence and power, which could only benefit Holzhausen in his position as mayor. After his death on 7 February 1393 the house passed to the von Breidenbach family.
15th and 16th centuries
In 1447 Johann von Breidenbach sold the Fürsteneck for 1,530 Gulden to his son-in-law Wigand von Heringen, married to Anna von Breidenbach. Battonn's claim that the house belonged at that time to a Philipp von Fürstenberg – repeated uncritically in some post-war literature – lacks any historical evidence, as does the suggestion that the building dated from this period.Ein Baudenkmal Altfrankfurts – Das Haus zum Fürsteneck. In: Frankfurt Tourist Office (ed.): Frankfurter Wochenschau. Bodet & Link, Frankfurt am Main 1937, pp. 513–517Frankfurt um 1850. Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1967, pp. 196–199
Wigand von Heringen was also a major figure in Frankfurt's history. Tax records show that in the year he purchased the house he paid the second-highest tax in the city – 132 pounds of heller. In 1478 he became junior mayor and died, like Johann von Holzhausen 99 years earlier, in the Fürsteneck in 1492.
The house remained in the Heringen family and related families (Hynsberg and Schleunitz zu Stauchitz) for the following decades. After two centuries continuously owned by patricians, it passed in 1582 for the first time to (albeit high-ranking) burghers when the wealthy cloth merchant Siegfrid Deublinger bought it together with several neighbouring houses for 3,200 Gulden. Deublinger, from a rich cloth-merchant family that had moved from Ulm to Frankfurt, was also involved in the construction of the Großer Engel and Kleiner Engel on the Römerberg. He only lightly renovated the Fürsteneck without fundamentally altering it.
Renaissance period
Around 1600 the Deublinger family sold the western half of the complex to the Unckel family; Siegfried Deublinger died in 1608. In 1609 the remaining parts were sold to Dietrich Goßmann for 5,000 Gulden. Goßmann, a cloth merchant and hat-trimmer from Düsseldorf, had acquired Frankfurt citizenship in 1596 and in 1616 also bought the neighbouring Haus zur Wiede (Fahrgasse 15). The price increase for the now-halved property from 3,200 Gulden in 1582 to 5,000 Gulden in 1609 reflects the strong influx of wealthy Dutch Calvinist refugees driving up property prices.
In 1610 Goßmann concluded a detailed contract with the western neighbour, who now called himself Johann Karl Unckel zu den drei Sauköpfen. The contract confirms that the two plots had previously formed a single property that was now divided. Goßmann had to content himself with a high-walled well courtyard behind the house and block other doors and windows to the courtyard. No further external changes occurred until the late 18th century.
Inside, however, the house experienced its most splendid period under Goßmann: in 1615 he had the first-floor hall panelled with elaborate Renaissance woodwork and the ceiling decorated with equally rich stucco. This interior later became famous as the Rittersaal (Knights’ Hall) or Fürsteneckzimmer (see images).
Dietrich Goßmann died only five years later, on 30 December 1620, in the Fürsteneck. His widow married the cloth merchant Nikolaus Leye in 1623; their son Gerhard continued the business until his death in 1640. In 1674 the Goßmann heirs sold the building for 6,000 Gulden to the cloth merchant Philipp Mangold from Mainz.
18th century to the Second World War
Mangold's heirs sold the Fürsteneck in 1726 for 12,000 Gulden to the cloth merchant Markus Fester. The continuous ownership record then has a brief gap until 1786, when a cloth merchant Johann Peter Bauer sold it to the iron merchant Johann Anton Zickwolff.
Zickwolff apparently modernised the house in the same year in the then-popular Louis-seize style. The pointed Gothic arches on the ground floor were replaced by rectangular openings (see images), Baroque balustrades and door decorations were altered to contemporary taste, and the gable was widened on all sides and extended over the fourth-floor crenellation. Only the first-floor Knights’ Hall remained untouched, although it was actually far too lavish for the prevailing style. Zickwolff not only tolerated but valued the historic interior, having all furniture made in antique style to create a harmonious whole.
In 1860 the house passed to the master-carpenter family Beydemüller. Industrialisation created enormous demand for housing; the large rooms were subdivided into apartments. The Knights’ Hall served as a dance-school rehearsal room. In 1863 the clockmaker Wilhelm Alexander Christ (1836–1927) opened his first shop in the Fürsteneck.
In 1887 the Beydemüller family sold the wooden panelling for 10,000 marks to the antiques firm J. & S. Goldschmidt; it was bought back a few years later by wealthy Frankfurt citizens and donated in March 1891 to the local branch of the Mitteldeutscher Kunstgewerbeverein, which transferred it in 1908 to the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts), where it was displayed in a dedicated room together with a plaster cast of the original stucco ceiling.
In 1923 the Fürsteneck changed hands for the last time when two Beydemüller heirs offered it for sale together with the southern neighbouring plot. To prevent it falling into the hands of a Saarland butcher who intended to turn it into a meat-processing centre, the Bund tätiger Altstadtfreunde, founded by Fried Lübbecke, purchased it.Alt-Frankfurt. Ein Vermächtnis. Sauer und Auvermann Publishing House, Glashütten 1971, pp. 301–304 The building was carefully restored; in 1931 the printing workshop of Paul and Ursula Koch (children of the famous Offenbach typographer Rudolf Koch) was established in the former Knights’ Hall, and in 1934 the Bund moved its office to the second floor.
Second World War and present day
Like most of the old town, the Fürsteneck was destroyed on the night of 18–19 March 1944. Fried Lübbecke described the event:
The original stucco ceiling of the Fürsteneck Room was thus lost. At the same time, the Renaissance paneling in the Museum of Arts and Crafts, which was also severely damaged, burned down. Another comment by Fried Lübbecke confirms the regime's unwillingness to save it, like numerous irreplaceable art treasures, from destruction that had been foreseeable for some time: