1718: Lost places in a lost street
The Offenbach we are familiar with is no longer the city that was familiar to the previous generation. Take Domstraße, for example, which ends at Kaiserstraße in the east. Only those who are old enough to remember this street once led to the French Reformed Church, completed in 1718 on the edge of the old town. In the 1960s, this section was dissolved in a project that was initially called "Durchbruchstraße" and then given the name Berliner Straße. Domstraße lost its oldest part and remarkable memorials in the process.
Of course, some of its history had already disappeared before the diggers arrived. Only a few people still knew about the "Zu den Drei Königen" inn, which brewed and served beer near the church. In the turbulent times around 1848, it was a meeting place for gymnasts gripped by revolutionary fever. They fought valiantly at the beer table against princely power. But when the Hanau gymnasts wanted to take their Offenbach comrades-in-arms to the final battle in Baden in 1849, they preferred to wait at home for the time being. The Hanauers' mockery arrived in Domstraße in the form of a nightcap.
After all, this pub is also the place where the Offenbach "Workers' Education Association" was founded on 15 April 1848, the first organization of the labour movement. Trade unions and the political left can see their local nucleus in Domstrasse. The association saw its task as "providing the producers of human products with their due position in human society".
Lithographic stones piled up at the edge of Büsingpark mark the location of Anton André's music printing works. This is where he brought the inventor Alois Senefelder from Munich in 1799 so that he could perfect his lithography for the benefit of the André family, printing technology, musical culture and the fine arts. It is said that Mozart was also a guest in the house on Domstrasse, from which a new art technique was introduced to the world.
The "cricket hut" of the writer Sophie von La Roche adjoined the André property. She died there in 1807. Goethe's mother found refuge with her when French troops bombed and conquered Frankfurt in July 1795. Two years later, on August 11, 1797, her already famous son Wolfgang paid a visit to La Roche's house, which he reported to his friends with little pleasure.
For several years, La Roche's house was occupied by her young granddaughter Bettina Brentano. On July 11, 1800, the lively Backfisch claims to have watched the battle at the intersection of Domstrasse and Kaiserstrasse from the skylight, during which German troops were able to temporarily push the French back to Sachsenhausen. Two Frenchmen, two Würzburgers and an Austrian were killed. It is said that Bettina hid a scattered and injured Frenchman in a wooden stable and looked after him until he was able to escape across the Main at night. When he gratefully said goodbye, Bettina, who would later become famous, received the first man's kiss of her life.
Where Berliner Straße, Kaiserstraße and Büsingpark meet at a corner, an old villa stood until 1960, which most recently housed the Offenbach police headquarters. During the Napoleonic era, the family of French General Albert lived there, although he spent more time on campaign than at home. He stayed in Offenbach because he had married the niece Lili of the factory owner Peter Bernard, who lived in the Büsingpalais. This was because the Albert couple had a daughter, through whom new money flowed into Domstrasse.
The money came when the Albert daughter married the Antwerp merchant Christian Lemmé. He left his mark on Domstrasse, which can still be seen today. These are the "Lemmé houses" built in 1858 to the west of Kaiserstraße. These were four houses, which the Offenbach monument topography says were "the first metropolitan buildings in Offenbach". Two of them - now with the house numbers Berliner Strasse 139 and 141 - survived the war intact and tell of how one is always connected to the other. However, they do not explain to anyone the curious fact that Domstraße with the house number 58 adjoins Berliner Straße 141. Residents 1 to 57 are lost in the depths of the city's history.
What had survived the aerial bombs of the Second World War was eaten up by the excavators so that the oldest part of Domstraße could become part of Berliner Straße. The familiar face began to take shape at different speeds. Only the Büsingpark quickly approached the new street. On April 15, 1961, the Parkbad, which has since become a hotel, was inaugurated. On July 14 of the same year, the "Large Sitting Man", a work by sculptor Hans Metten (1903-1966), took its place in front of it. But when the new street was inaugurated on September 22, 1962 with a "Berlin Week", the town hall did not yet exist. Almost another nine years passed before it could dominate the south side. Lothar R. Brown
Lithographic stones piled up at the edge of Büsingpark mark the location of Anton André's music printing works. It was here that he brought the inventor Alois Senefelder from Munich in 1799 so that he could perfect his lithography for the benefit of the André family, printing technology, musical culture and the fine arts. It is said that Mozart was also a guest in the house on Domstrasse, from which a new artistic technique was introduced to the world.
The "cricket hut" of the writer Sophie von La Roche adjoined the André property. She died there in 1807. Goethe's mother found refuge with her when French troops bombed and conquered Frankfurt in July 1795. Two years later, on August 11, 1797, her already famous son Wolfgang paid a visit to La Roche's house, which he reported to his friends with little pleasure.
For several years, La Roche's house was occupied by her young granddaughter Bettina Brentano. On July 11, 1800, the lively Backfisch claims to have watched the battle at the intersection of Domstrasse and Kaiserstrasse from the skylight, during which German troops were able to temporarily push the French back to Sachsenhausen. Two Frenchmen, two Würzburgers and an Austrian were killed. It is said that Bettina hid a scattered and injured Frenchman in a wooden stable and looked after him until he was able to escape across the Main at night. When he gratefully said goodbye, Bettina, who would later become famous, received the first man's kiss of her life.
Where Berliner Straße, Kaiserstraße and Büsingpark meet at a corner, an old villa stood until 1960, which most recently housed the Offenbach police headquarters. During the Napoleonic era, the family of French General Albert lived there, although he spent more time on campaign than at home. He had stayed in Offenbach because he had married the niece Lili of the factory owner Peter Bernard, who lived in the Büsingpalais. This was because the Albert couple had a daughter, through whom new money flowed into Domstrasse. The money came when the Albert daughter married the Antwerp merchant Christian Lemmé.
He left his mark on Domstrasse, which can still be seen today. These are the "Lemmé houses" built in 1858 to the west of Kaiserstraße. These were four houses, which the Offenbach monument topography says were "the first metropolitan buildings in Offenbach". Two of them - now with the house numbers Berliner Strasse 139 and 141 - survived the war intact and tell of how one is always connected to the other. However, they do not explain to anyone the curious fact that Domstraße with the house number 58 adjoins Berliner Straße 141. Residents 1 to 57 are lost in the depths of the city's history.
What had survived the aerial bombs of the Second World War was eaten up by the excavators so that the oldest part of Domstraße could become part of Berliner Straße. The familiar face began to take shape at different speeds. Only the Büsingpark quickly approached the new street. On April 15, 1961, the Parkbad, which has since become a hotel, was inaugurated. On July 14 of the same year, the "Large Sitting Man", a work by sculptor Hans Metten (1903-1966), took its place in front of it. But when the new street was inaugurated on September 22, 1962 with a "Berlin Week", the town hall did not yet exist. Almost another nine years passed before it could dominate the south side. Lothar R. Braun
