1879: How electricity came to Offenbach

The seemingly pointless concrete elements in the northern part of the park still bear witness to the widely acclaimed presentation of industrial performance at the time: a bridge arch over nothing, a wall-less pavilion with a slightly vaulted ceiling. In 1879, they wanted to demonstrate the possibilities offered by this new building material. This fascinated architects and builders. For the majority of Offenbachers, the sensation was the electric light and the electric alarm system that was demonstrated.

One anonymous poet was inspired to write poetry. You can read about it in a brochure published by C. Forger at the time under the title "A tour of the exhibition". The unknown poet enthuses: "The mysterious magic power / is hidden in that long, thin wire, / which in forbidden transactions / causes the ringing betrayal. / The lust for your gold / is now endangered early and late. / You may go to sleep peacefully, / electricity is watching."

Electricity, that was the message from Dreieichpark, had left the physical laboratories. It penetrated Mr. Everyman's everyday life, serving but also bossy. Of course, it was not yet a storming advance. When the wooden exhibition hall in the park was dismantled, electricity also left the city. It was not until 1884 that it returned, on the tracks of the tramway between Frankfurt and Offenbach. It was powered by a steam engine in Oberrad.

Some Offenbach tradesmen recognized an opportunity in the new energy. They bought the right from the operating company to tap into the streetcar lines. Larger factories began to use their existing steam engines to generate electricity to cover their own small requirements.

Electricity as a by-product - this was also the approach taken by the company on the corner of Kaiserstrasse and Große Marktstrasse, which produced compressed air that was used to operate an inner-city communications network. It used its steam engine to generate electricity and was thus also able to supply neighboring houses. This is where the electricity finally came from that powered Offenbach's first municipal street lamp in 1890. It stood in front of the "Stadthaus" on Frankfurter Straße. At the northern end of Aliceplatz, where today the Stadthof opens up towards the town hall.

But not all the gates were yet open to electricity. When the construction of a municipal power station was discussed in the 1890s, many city councillors remained skeptical. Those who had reservations argued that Offenbach only needed about 400 lamps, too few for profitable production.

The believers in progress won by a narrow margin with the argument that electricity was not just about light, but also about power, and therefore an investment in the future. The municipal power station was then built on the corner of Schlossstraße and Frankfurter Straße, in an outbuilding of the "Erbacher Hof" inn. With it, Offenbach entered the 20th century, many years after the first rendezvous in Dreieichpark.

It remains to be said that more remains of the State Trade Exhibition of 1879 than the concrete elements and the memory of the electrical miracle. The event ended with a surplus of around 40,000 marks. The city used the money to build a new building for the School of Arts and Crafts on Mathildenplatz. The building still stands today. However, the school left it in 1913 and moved to a new building at Isenburger Schloss, where it was known as the "Technische Lehranstalten" and is now known as the Hochschule für Gestaltung. You can see: Dreieichpark is not only home to trees.

By Lothar Braun

Published in the Offenbach Post (opens in a new tab)