Konstablerwache
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Konstablerwache is a central square in the centre of
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and part of its
pedestrian zone Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
. It lies to the east of Hauptwache with both squares linked by the
Zeil The Zeil () is a street in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany. The name, which dates back to the 14th century, is derived from the German word ''Zeile'' "row" and originally referred to a row of houses on the eastern end of the north side; th ...
, the central shopping area of the city.


History

At the corner of the current ''Konstablerwache'' square near the street of Fahrgasse, an
armoury An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are most ...
was established in 1544 for the defence of Frankfurt; this long represented the eastern end of the Zeil. In 1822 the building, which had been upgraded into a military guard house, was converted into a police station. The name ''Konstablerwache'', (literally: "constable watch-house") comes from the period when the building was used as an armoury; the term
constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
was then used in Frankfurt for a military rank in the artillery. In 1833, it was at the centre of an attempted revolution when revolutionary students attacked and attempted to loot it and the main watch-house (''Hauptwache''). Later the two watch-houses proved too small for a growing city, and a new police headquarters was built at Hohenzollernplatz (now Platz der Republik). In contrast to Hauptwache, ''Konstablerwache'' was demolished in 1886 and replaced by commercial buildings. The Bienenkorbhaus office building was built on the site in 1953–54, the architect was
Johannes Krahn Johannes Krahn (17 May 1908 – 17 October 1974) was a German architect and an academic teacher. Career Born in Mainz, Johannes Krahn studied architecture from 1923 to 1927 at the Technische Lehranstalten Offenbach. He continued his studies 19 ...
. Until 1881 the present square was a significant but narrow road junction at the end of the broad street of the Zeil, with Allerheiligenstraße connecting towards the southeast to Allerheiligentor, Fahrgasse continuing to the east and Große Friedberger Strasse as the main north-south link in the
old town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
, leading to Alte Brücke (old bridge) in the south and Friedberger Tor in the north. In that year, the New Zeil was built as a wide commercial street leading from Konstablerwache to the east towards Friedberger Anlage (the eastern section of the old city wall). Between the New Zeil and Allerheiligenstraße there was a small square, which was far smaller than the modern square. At the beginning of the 20th century ''Konstablerwache'' became a major transport hub, both for cars and
trams A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
. The situation changed dramatically after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. With many of the buildings on the Zeil destroyed in air raids, it was decided not to rebuild all of them in order to create a larger square. At the same time Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse was built, replacing Fahrgasse as the main north-south route in the eastern part of the city, and giving ''Konstablerwache'' its current eastern boundary. When the square was converted into a pedestrian zone, the level of the square was raised by just under 80 centimetres in order to create room for the underground U-Bahn/S-Bahn station.


Public transport

The former tram junction lost its significance when the main tram lines were closed in the inner city in the 70s. The Zeil was initially served by trams even after its conversion into a pedestrian zone; the track was closed during the construction of the
S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
tunnel between Hauptwache and Konstablerwache, a new line was built in the parallel Stephanstraße, taking over part of the traffic. This line had been closed in the 1960s, but was put back into operation until 1986 as the terminus of line 12 connecting to
Nordend Nordend (meaning ''north end'' in German) is a northern peak of the Monte Rosa Massif. Nordend is the fourth highest peak of the massif, after the Dufourspitze (4,634 m), the Dunantspitze (4,632 m) and the Grenzgipfel (4,618 m). See also *List o ...
. In 1999, tram tracks were opened in Kurt-Schumacher-Straße, creating a through route for line 12 from
Fechenheim Fechenheim is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the ''Ortsbezirk A ''Stadtbezirk'' (also called ''Ortsbezirk'' in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate) is an administrative division in Germany, which is part of a larger city. It i ...
to Schwanheim. Konstablerwache station is a major junction of Frankfurt's
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
and S-Bahn networks. {{Authority control Streets in Frankfurt Frankfurt-Altstadt Squares in Frankfurt