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Junior-House
Kaiserplatz, Frankfurt
1951
The so-called Junior-House is a striking building on Kaiserplatz in downtown Frankfurt am Main, which was buitl in 1951 and is a listed building today. Its architect is Wilhelm Berentzen, who had also designed the Rundschau House, built in 1954. The Junior-House is named after its builder Kurt Junior, who operated the Jacob Carl Junior Property Management. On the grounds of the Junior House previously stood a building with café, which was acquired and restored by Jacob Carl Junior in 1890. This building was destroyed in a bombing raid 1944. The nine-story Junior-House is nearly 35 meters high. With this height of construction, the Junior House broke at this time with the hitherto usual height for Frankfurt downtown. However, the building now seems tiny with the high-rise giants of the banking district as its background. With the curved glass staircase, which is accompanied by two office wings arranged symmetrical at an acute angle to the left and right, the corner building between Kaiserstraße and Friedensstrasse opposite of the traditional Hotel "Frankfurter Hof" is considered to be one of the most important buildings of the reconstruction period. It is still exposing the charimsa and the euphoria of the economic boom years. While the emphasis of the streets by the conspicuous construction and the symmetrical arrangement of the building volumes refers to older traditions, especially the technical equipment then belonged to the most modern available. For example the building featured an elevator with group collective control. The externally visible spiral staircase contained in glazed tower was intended to symbolize unscrewing from the ruins of the historic town. At night the staircase is illuminated by neon lights mounted at the bottom of the steps. Clad in pale limestone, the flanks of the side wings were intended to provide space as billboards, which at the time signaled modernity and belief in progress. On the ground floor Mercedes-Benz was operating a representative showroom for over 50 years, from 2010 there was briefly a restaurant in this area. Still today a large Mercedes Star adorns the roof of the Junior-House.