Lower Eastside Offenbach: the Heyne factory

Twice a year, the local fashion labels open their doors and turn the brick building in Nordring into a hot spot for fashionistas from all over the region for their seasonal collection sales.
This is where Christoph and Georg Heyne primarily produced metal screws in their "Fassondreherei Gebr. In 1914, the company employed 400 people, making it one of the third-largest factories in Offenbach. The administrative building was designed by the architect, founder and later director of the German Leather Museum, Hugo Eberhardt, and stands out clearly from the clinker brick buildings by architect Friedrich Stock: strongly profiled pillars divide the three-storey façade into framed fields. The entrance area is adorned with ornamental reliefs and life-size sculptures in the style of late Darmstadt Art Nouveau. The former high roof of the administration building was not restored after it was damaged in the Second World War.

The company was run by the owner family until 1962, when it was sold to the Stinnes Group and closed in 1968. After years of vacancy, the old factory halls and the administration building were very carefully redesigned by the Munich architects Allmann, Sattler and Wappner. In 1999, the conversion of the Heyne factory was awarded the Hessian Monument Protection Prize and it is part of the Route of Industrial Heritage project.

But the Heyne factory is not only a popular destination for the fashion-conscious: gleaming chrome, unadulterated mechanics, whether in sober sportiness or classic elegance, are the focus of the annual classic car meeting, which not only attracts friends of beautiful automobiles to the Nordring.