1708: French alley is laid out
First, the bombs of the Second World War tore gaping holes. They were followed by the excavators that paved the way for the construction of Berliner Strasse. Three decades were enough to completely change the surroundings of the French Reformed Church. As if it had fallen out of time, it now stands where Berliner Straße and Herrnstraße meet in a faceless passageway called "Französisches Gässchen". Only the little church is a reminder that this place has history.
This is where Offenbach's leap over the medieval city wall can be seen, which was necessitated by the influx of Huguenot immigrants from France around 1700. However, when Französisches Gässchen was laid out in 1708, it did not yet bear this name. It was also just a stub of a street that led from Herrnstraße to Glockengasse. There it ended at the "Glockenturm". This was an old fortified tower from the town wall, where the bells of the castle chapel were rung until 1713. After that, the tower of the new castle church on Kirchgasse took over the ringing.
The new street stub was initially called "Kleine Glockengasse". It was only after the French Reformed Church was built in 1718 that the name Französisches Gässchen became commonplace. With some justification, as it was mainly "the French" who lived in the new quarter in front of the city wall.
Until 1824, only a narrow lane, called "Spitalgässchen", led from the bell tower to Schlossstraße. It led past the poorhouse of the French Reformed parish, on the upper floor of which was probably the town's first hospital. It was not until 1825 that Spitalgasse was made accessible to traffic and assigned to Französisches Gässchen. It is the section between Glockengasse and Schlossstraße that leads past the Rudolf Koch School.
This school, the towering N+M house and the church from 1718 dominate the picture. However, the church has only been a familiar sight since 1874, before which it was far more modest and unadorned. Originally, sermons were preached there exclusively in French. However, after a hundred years, the congregation had grown to include so many German-speaking members that German sermons had to be added to the French ones in 1825. However, the bilingualism did not last long. In 1828, the congregation decided to abandon French completely. Integration was complete.
By this time, Offenbach had already become the old town, what had once begun as the new town. However, the boys' elementary school still stood on Französisches Gässchen. Its rear building was one of the oldest school buildings in the city. Additions from later years then formed a school complex in which the secondary school and elementary school were housed. There was also a "general further education school". Fourteen to seventeen-year-olds "who could not be adequately taught in any other way" had to attend it twice a week from 5 to 7 pm.
Pupils from elementary schools enjoyed the advantage of not having to pay school fees. A well-known figure in old Offenbach was head teacher Meissinger from the boys' elementary school in Französisches Gässchen, who died in 1897. He set up a foundation that helped children from the so-called "shamed poor" to buy clothes and shoes when they needed them.
All that remains of all this is the Reformed Church, the last trace of the French on Französisches Gässchen. There is also nothing left to remind us of the roots of the education system and health care. The small church has turned its back on the new buildings of our time.
Lothar R. Brown