Frankfurt The headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank in the Bockenheim district of Frankfurt is characterized above all by a lot of visible concrete. The building was designed in the style of brutalism at the end of the 1960s and is considered a symbol of “stability culture” – but technically it is no longer up to date.
This is shown, among other things, by the fact that there is only air conditioning on the 12th and 13th floors – which in hot summers means that many employees sweat a lot. In terms of energy efficiency, too, the building has long since ceased to meet today’s requirements.
The central bank therefore wants to completely refurbish its headquarters and also expand it into a campus. Almost all employees from Frankfurt will work there in the future. So far, they have been spread across the city at different locations.
According to the Bundesbank board member responsible for construction, Johannes Beermann, it is about “the largest construction project in the history of the central bank” and “probably one of the largest building construction projects currently in Germany”. Some time ago he set the goal of being finished by 2027 if possible.
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So far, however, the Bundesbank has avoided naming the costs of the project as much as possible. According to Handelsblatt information from central bank circles, it is likely to be considerably more expensive than the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB).
This was completed in 2014 and cost a total of 1.3 billion euros, which caused sharp criticism at the time.
Reliable statements about the expected costs are not yet possible
The Bundesbank points out that the requirements for public construction projects have “changed substantially” in the meantime, especially with regard to ecological sustainability. Construction costs and raw material prices have also risen sharply.
The planned campus will also have up to 5,000 workplaces, while the new ECB building will only have places for around 2,900 employees. According to the Bundesbank, it is not yet possible to make reliable statements about the expected costs because the project is still in the planning phase.
Only in 2023 will the final decision on the construction project be made “on the basis of a cost estimate then available”. According to the current state of knowledge, the campus project could be completed by the beginning of the next decade.
According to the Bundesbank, it is not yet possible to make reliable statements about the expected costs.
(Photo: Morger Partner Architects AG)
The project is divided into three parts: One of them is the relocation of around 2000 Bundesbank employees from the head office to various alternative quarters in downtown Frankfurt. Another is the renovation of the headquarters. The building’s appearance is to be retained, but the interior is to be completely rebuilt. Many toxins are built into the massive concrete building.
The third part is the campus. In the future, around 5,000 employees will work at the headquarters, many of whom have previously worked at various other locations in the city that are connected by a shuttle service.
Bundesbank hired former BND deputy chief for the project
In order to create space for this, the Bundesbank wants to erect three new office buildings at its headquarters. A conference center, sports facilities, a daycare center and a catering pavilion are also planned. In August, the Bundesbank awarded the planning contract to the Basel architects Morger Partner.
The renovation has often been a topic of conversation. In 2018, the Bundesbank separated from the responsible project manager. At that time, she wanted to completely reorganize the project. To this end, she hired, among other things, the former Deputy Head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Guido Müller, as head of the newly created Central Construction Department.
At the BND, Müller was largely responsible for the new construction and relocation of the headquarters from Pullach in Bavaria to Berlin. This also made headlines at times because not everything went according to plan. Nevertheless, the Bundesbank had actively sought the senior secret service agent, which was justified internally, among other things, with the fact that he had experience with possible problems of major public projects.
The project is also lagging behind earlier plans in terms of timing. The roughly 2000 employees from the headquarters should actually move to alternative quarters at the end of 2019 and the renovation work should begin. But nothing came of this because the alternative quarters, including the Frankfurt Office Center (FBC), were not ready for occupancy on time.
Recently, at least the Bundesbank board member, Johannes Beermann, moved into his new office in the FBC. The other employees are to follow gradually by January, two years later than originally planned. After that, the renovation work in the headquarters could begin.
Internally, some are already questioning whether the campus will also be realized in its previously planned form. As with other companies and authorities, most of the Bundesbank’s employees worked from home during the pandemic.
There are some indications that they want to make more use of this possibility in the future. That in turn would mean that the need for office space would be lower. The project may have to be completely revised again, they say behind the scenes.
The Bundesbank replies that it is currently difficult to estimate how developments such as home office, digitization and pandemic preparedness will affect the demand for office space. On the one hand, the need for home office and the sharing of workplaces could decrease – on the other hand, stricter hygiene regulations would require more distance and thus more space. “It would therefore not make sense to change demand parameters at the present time.”
Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, who is leaving office at the end of the year, will no longer decide how things will continue. The term of office of Johannes Beermann, who is responsible for construction, will also expire at the end of 2022, and an extension is considered rather unlikely. Whoever follows them inherits a difficult construction site.
More: Bundesbank President Weidmann resigns – several candidates for successor.