The annual conference of Docomomo Germany e.V. 2023 will take place in Frankfurt am Main in cooperation with the ernst-may-society e.V., the German Architecture Museum (DAM) and the City of Frankfurt. With the opening in Frankfurt‘s Paulskirche, a special conference venue is once again available.

The conference theme Politics-Society-Housing has been planned for a long time and is more topical than ever in Germany and in other European countries. We see parallels to the situation in the 1920s, when the reform movement in Germany-and in other European countries-found not only a socio-political but also an architectural expression with the housing estates of Modern Movement. At this point, reform movement means a social (awakening) mood and setting the political course, e.g. for a supply of affordable and healthy living space. These developments are often associated with strong personalities, whether in a decisive position in public life or in the field of urban planning and architecture.

With the inscription of six Berlin settlements on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008 these efforts and design have been internationally recognized. With a future inscription of the settlements Römerstadt and Höhenblick as well as the Nidda Valley connecting them, the buildings of the New Frankfurt could expand the range of topics and thus also contribute to a general public awareness of the New Frankfurt as a holistic project with housing, infrastructure, green, leisure, sports, culture and education.

Today, the issues of homelessness, social division and globalization are strongly intervening in the debate and demand political answers, on a national, regional and municipal level. This year’s conference aims to make a contribution to the debate in Germany in an international context by including experiences and examples from other European countries into the discussion.’

To this end, the conference will be held in cooperation with the COST-Action Middle Class Mass Housing (MCMH-EU) with a central plenary opening in Paulskirche and parallel sessions in German and English in the facilities of the Stadthaus. Questions we asked ourselves and like to discuss are: How has the City of Frankfurt, co-host of this conference, addressed these issues and what challenges lie ahead? How can we deal with the differentiated architectural heritage of the post-war period, in terms of urgently needed housing? And finally: in what way is housing in the 21st century subject to change, as it was 100 years ago?

In addition to contributions from architectural history and the field of heritage preservation, the event will also be deepened with positions from art, film and music, and supplemented by student works related to digitization and documentation.

You can find information about the program here