Uhrtürmchen () is a protected monument in

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 ...

, Germany, located at the corner of Friedberger Anlage near the

Zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

. It is one of only two remaining clock towers in the city, the other being located in Bornheim, and is the oldest surviving one, having been first erected in the 19th century. Today the tower serves as a popular tourist attraction, as well as a meeting point for people in the city. The clock was designed by architect Alexander Linnemann and endowed in 1894 by the former ''

Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...

-Verein'', an organisation consisting of tradespeople, in a primarily Jewish part of the city at the time. Following the removal of many other former clock towers at locations like ''Kaiserstraße'' and ''Opernplatz','' this then became the tallest and most decorated clock tower left in the city. The tower survived the destruction of the city during 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 opposi ...

but fell into a poor condition over time. During the 2010s, a campaign to finance the restoration of the clock tower began, supported primarily by the city cultural department and a local organisation called ''Freunde Frankfurts'' (friends of Frankfurt). The restoration of the clock cost approximately €150,000, of which €25,000 came from the cultural department, €15,000 from the municipal council for said district, €20,000 from an anonymous donor, and €90,000 from fundraising efforts from the ''Freunde Frankfurts''. After being deconstructed and restored in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

, the clock was returned and officially inaugurated before a crowd on 26 March 2015. The original design has been maintained, which shows the base of the nine-metre high tower covered in sheet metal and adorned with coats of arms. On top of the clock base itself is a street lantern with a crown atop, upon which a knight holding a flag extended vertically stands. A few years later, citizens also began to push for the smaller clock tower in Bornheim to be cleaned up and cleared of graffitied articles, which was completed in 2019 by the local waste management authority.

References

Tourist attractions in Frankfurt Clock towers Clocks in Germany {{Coord, 50.11576, N, 8.69556, E, display=t, format=dms