'Römerstadt' and 'Nordweststadt'

Cover photo by Prof.hc Dr.-Ing. Philipp Meuser - we thank you for making it available

Ideal cities for the ideal man - 'model settlements' in comparison

A tour for Frankfurt and visitors who are interested in the complexity of historical city planning.

Affordable comfortable apartments in the countryside near the city - it sounds like egg wool woolly milk. The ambitious goal of the "New Frankfurt" in the twenties was to grow a new (better) generation of humans. In the sixties, the ideal living environment was to be created through the separation of function and traffic routes with living in the countryside. The expectations attached to the plans, the disappointments that have arisen, can be studied today - together?

The tour moves in the settlement triangle - Nida, Römerstadt and Nordweststadt. Nida is the name of the real "Roman city", like all cities of this period, a planned urban complex. Information boards provide information about Nida today. It never seems to have been there today, as the archaeological traces have been removed in favor of inexpensive living in the modern "Roman city". It was built in the twenties under the direction of the Frankfurt city planning officer Ernst May. One house was reconstructed as a model house by the Ernst May Society and can be viewed.

In the neighborhood is the »Nordweststadt«, planned according to the ideals of the 1960s, with separation of roads (pedestrians and cars) and functional separation (living, working, leisure). In the middle is the compressed north-west center with shops, offices, parking garage and a central bus station at an underground station. Footpaths radiate into the surrounding parkland residential areas, mostly high-rise buildings near the north-west center, and blocks of flats and terraced houses further away.

project selection

'Römerstadt'

  • Residential development (Ernst May)
  • Geschwister Scholl School (Martin Elsässer, extension: Behnisch & Partner)

Nordweststadt

  • Overall concept Schwagenscheidt, Sittmann and Apel, Beckert, Becker
  • Renovation JSK Architects