Mayor delighted at inauguration of new Protestant Academy in direct vicinity of Römer
After more than two years of construction, the Protestant Academy Frankfurt officially reopened on Sunday (August 20) with a grand ceremony. Directly at the Römer in the heart of the city, a three-storey event building with a spectacular glass facade has been created. The architecturally special bridge building offers, in addition to the Great Hall for up to 300 people and a panorama hall with fascinating views over the entire city, several seminar rooms as well as offices for the staff of the Protestant Academy. It is also a deliberately striking contribution of the Protestant Church to the new development of the historic centre of Frankfurt. The celebrations had begun on Sunday morning with a festive service in the Dreikönigskirche on the banks of the Main in Sachsenhausen. Afterwards, the guests paraded with a sound carpet of saxophone notes over the Eisernen Steg to the Haus der Akademie on the Römerberg.
In the future, according to its director Thorsten Latzel, the academy wants to be a "Protestant forum for contemporary issues, helping to shape political, cultural and religious debates from a Protestant faith and inviting people from all areas of society." Especially in "politically turbulent times," the academy can also help "strengthen our democratic, open society," Latzel said.
At the inauguration of the Protestant Academy Frankfurt at Römerberg, Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann said: "When we come from Sachsenhausen across the Eiserner Steg to our new Evangelical Academy, the many love locks catch our eye. They are signs of connection. Even if they sometimes cause trouble for our city administration, they stand for what can ideally be created in the new Evangelical Academy: new relationships between people. Certainly not always love relationships, but relationships between people who were previously strangers to each other, who had less to say. This is what the great tradition of the Protestant Academy Frankfurt stands for, for example with the Arnoldshain Communion Theses for the reconciliation of Reformed and Lutherans after more than 450 years of church separation. The Protestant Academy has also made important contributions to the dialogue between Christianity and Judaism.
So we need places like the Evangelische Akademie where things <x>ampersand</x>sbquo;click'. Where relationships are forged again and again and locks symbolize closeness. So that our society remains as open, philanthropic and civil. We are very happy about our new neighbour."
Until 2001, the Römerberg 9 building housed the Central Theological Library of the Evangelical Regional Association on the upper floor. The two lower floors were used by the Evangelische Sankt Paulsgemeinde until 2015. After the library closed, the rooms were converted in 2006 for use by the Evangelische Stadtakademie of the Evangelical Regional Association of Frankfurt. The conversion was carried out by Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten and cost 710,000 euros. At the same time, initial planning considerations were made for the use and conversion of the entire building for the academy. In 2009, the room programme was developed by a project steering group with representatives of the Protestant Regional Association, the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau and the City Academy. In 2010, the Evangelical Regional Association Frankfurt and the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau agreed on the location Römerberg 9, and the Evangelical City Academy Frankfurt and the Evangelical Academy Arnoldshain merged. Construction of the Protestant Academy began in July 2015
