European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Museums lend some balance to Manhattan by Larry Thorson the associated press looking like a giant wedge of cake with Strawberry and Vanilla icing or perhaps like a ship with flying Bridges the extraordinary building on Berliner Strasse is the Home of the newest in a Long list of museums in Frankfurt Germany. The museum of modern Art opened last year to virtually unanimous acclaim for architectural brilliance. It became the jewel in the Crown of Frankfurt s ambitious program to build or expand a dozen museums raising the cultural level of Germany s financial Center. Quot culture for All Quot was the motto during the two decade tenure of Hilmar Hoffmann As head of the City Council culture department. Hoffmann recently retired had a farsighted vision of How to nurture the Gray cells of people in the leisurely future world of the 32-hour workweek. One of his goals was to lighten the influence of finances on Frankfurt s image. One uncomplimentary nickname for the City on the main River is Quot Manhattan after the Wheeler dealers from new York. Then there s Quot Bank Furt Quot and Quot Frankfurt Quot from the German word Krank meaning sick. Another was to fulfil the lingering need to recover from the expulsion and murder of the City s jews by the nazis As Well As the Hitler Ian ban on modern Art. The result was a plan to add or expand 12 museums building on the existing cultural Stock and the steady Magnet of that giant of German literature Johann Wolfgang Goethe whose Birthplace is a few blocks from the museum of modern Art. Yet another impulse was to spare a chunk of the City from the skyscrapers favored by the Banks and insurance companies. So a 1 a a mile stretch of the main River was designated a Low Rise cultural District called the museum embankment with museums on both sides of the River. A new footbridge Over the main shortens the schlep for visitors trying to squeeze in one More museum and Riverside paths Are lined with benches to give the weary a place to study the map before marching on. The North Side has the jewish museum in the Rothschild palais the museum of archaeology the historical museum the Schirn Art gallery for travelling exhibitions the museum of modern Art and the Goethe museum. On the South Bank the staedel Art Institute stuns Goethe fans with the famous . Tischbein portrait of the poet reclining amid classical ruins during his journey to Italy. A amps Michael Abrams the museum of modern Art helps bring a larger slice of culture to Frankfurt Germany s financial capital. Similar projects adding a note of Competition so that today the acknowledged cultural capital Berlin has Strong contenders in Cologne Munich Dusseldorf and even Money mad Frankfurt. Quot Frankfurt is largely a service Center and there is a Strong need to offer the population a Rich selection from the world of culture Quot Huber says. The City s population is 620,000, with about 2 million in the metropolitan Region a including a Large concentration of americans connected with the . Military. Huber says there is a marked Public interest in recovering Quot the things that Aren t there Quot a bombed out historic buildings. One such project to be finished later this year is a Section of the old jewish ghetto. The museum of modern Art was intended to be the strongest architectural statement in the entire project. Viennese architect Hans Hollein had a Long triangular site to work with and As his building grew it was soon nicknamed torte stuck a wedge of cake. Its exterior of hessian red Sandstone and Ivory plaster is topped with nautical looking skylights and the sides have Unsymmetrical windows. The three Story Interior features Large triangular Halls and unusual stairways that recall puzzles in an . Escher drawing. Die Welt the nationally circulated newspaper praised the museum As a Quot powerhouse of Art. A place of High energetic  works from the 1960s by Andy Warhol George Segal Claes Oldenburg and others came from the collection of the late German industrialist Karl Stroeher. From this base the directors assembled Many european and american works. The main triangular Hall shows three immense works. Table society by Katharina Fritsch is 32 identical statues seated at a Long  Long Wall has a set of Large photographs by Anna and Bernhard Johannes Blume. The other Long Wall is covered with 899 framed pages of typing not a Book but rather the spelled out dates of an entire Century. This work by Hanne Darboven is dedicated to a that giant again a Goethe who complained As a Young Man two centuries ago that Frankfurt lacked Eood taste. Skyscrapers give the City a new York like Skyline. Farther along the South Bank Are museums dedicated to ancient sculpture Stamps film ethnology the decorative arts and religious icons. Early this year the City finally gave the Green Light to an expansion of the ethnology museum Long in the planning but delayed As the Cost of cultural Utopia grew. It is the last of the museum projects and the most expensive costing $70 million. New York architect Richard Meier has that commission and his bauhaus influenced style is already part of the museum embankment in the much admired museum of decorative arts. The City budgeted $236 million for the 1 2 museums the first of which for architecture opened in 1984. Related projects to restore historic quarters destroyed in world War ii raise the total to a whopping $420 million. Quot the entire project could not be realized these Days Quot says Herbert Huber building director in the City s office for science and culture. Quot today Money is tighter there s a lower priority on culture and More on social  Huber says Frankfurt had five municipal museums in the 1970s when it was decided to do something about its second rate cultural life. Quot there weren t great problems getting the Money then Quot Huber says. Other German cities were starting 12 stripes Magazine May 28, 1992