1850: From the hospital to the Palace of Justice

Offenbach around 1850 is a small town with barely more than 13,000 inhabitants. However, it was undergoing rapid development. Only 25 years earlier, it had only had around 7,000 inhabitants. A small hospital was opened for them in 1825 near the French Reformed Church.

In the meantime it was no longer sufficient, it had become too small. A hospital fund was therefore set up. In 1850, a considerable donation was made to this fund. The doctor Dr. Hauck left him a farmstead on the outskirts of the town. Today, Kaiserstraße and Geleitsstraße intersect here. The donor made it a condition that a second hospital be set up in the farmstead. And so it happens.

However, this does not seem to have led to a satisfactory solution. Both hospitals are small and far apart. The hospital issue remains on the agenda. Soon, the city council makes up its mind. It decides on the big solution. A meadow a stone's throw away from Hauck's farm was made available for the construction of a new, large hospital. Work began in 1858 and the new building was ready for occupation the following year. 55,700 guilders were spent on it. Almost half of this came from foundations and donations, and once again Doctor Hauck was among the benefactors. However, the street leading to the new building is named Hospitalstraße.

This building still exists in the year 2000 for the anniversary, but now with the house number Kaiserstrasse 18. Because it is a listed building, its eventful history can be illustrated.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the Offenbach hospital had to care for wounded French prisoners of war. Barracks were erected especially for them. Curious Offenbach residents made a pilgrimage there in droves, mainly to see the exotic "Turkos" in their red pants, the North African colonial soldiers of the French army.

This hospital soon proves to be too small. The town seems to explode. In 1880, the population had risen to 28,000, ten years later to 35,000, and development was pushing southwards. In 1879, the courthouse was built on Kaiserstraße next to the hospital. The railroad and the main station have been in existence since 1873. In 1881, the prison wing is added to the district court. The hospital is cramped and a structural extension seems impossible. Offenbach therefore decides to build a new, modern hospital, again far outside the city. In 1894, it was ready to go into operation at the corner of Starkenburgring and Sprendlinger Landstraße.

The old hospital stood empty for two years. Then the girls' school on Bleichstraße can accommodate a few classes there. The commercial school taught in the basement. Both had to make way when a military hospital was once again set up in the old hospital at the start of the First World War in 1914. After the end of the war, the municipal commercial college moved in. In 1958, it makes way for the municipal library, with plenty of space for exhibitions, lectures and readings.

Once again, a war gives the building a new use. When the bomb damage was repaired in 1949, part of the city administration moved in. The Lord Mayor resides on the second floor, next to the narrow, modest meeting room of the magistrate. His official residence in the Büsingpalais has been bombed. Since then, he has had emergency accommodation in the fire station at the Stadthof. The head of the city council finds rooms on the first floor. Most departments and offices remain scattered throughout the city. However, the building at Kaiserstrasse 18 remains the political and administrative headquarters of the city for twenty years. Hans Klüber and Georg Dietrich were the Lord Mayors during the difficult years of reconstruction.

Kaiserstraße 18 becomes vacant again when the old fire station at the Stadthof is replaced by the town hall in 1970. The public prosecutor's office moves into the former hospital as a tenant. They also left again. The building was up for sale and served as a dance floor for the mice. Negotiations with potential investors were hampered by the building's listed status, which prevented demolition and fundamental changes.

At the beginning of the new millennium, a decision brought relief to Offenbach. A new justice center was to be built next door on the site of a small park. The former hospital was to find its place in its triangular shape as one of the legs. But as soon as the excavation pit was dug, the building collapsed.

Nevertheless, more than the memory remained, preserved by Hospitalstrasse. The building was rebuilt: hardly distinguishable from the outside. Its interior, however, is more in keeping with modern standards.

By Lothar R. Braun

Published in the Offenbach Post