Garden city “Atlantic”

The plan of the housing estate resembles a piece of cake, with a five-story main building with a curved façade at the wider end. The apartment buildings are conceived as a closed formation around the perimeter of the block, and surround a semi-public landscaped courtyard. The ground floor contrasts in color with the other four floors. Canopied building entrances ornamented with reliefs, deeply recessed loggias with rounded edges, and accentuated balconies characterize Fränkel’s residential complex. The highlight of the entire development was the Lichtburg cinema, erected by Fränkel in 1929. A vertically structured cylinder with curving horizontally banded wings, the building created a strong impact, especially at night. Unfortunately the cinema was destroyed during the war and torn down in 1970.

The fact that the garden city today exists in an authentically restored and modernized condition is due to Prof. Michael Wolffsohn, whose grandfather – who once leased the cinema – acquired the garden city in 1936. After Aryanization and later complex negotiations around restitution, his descendants were again granted title to the property.