IG Farben Building edit
The IG Farben Building was built from 1928–1930 as the corporate headquarters of the IG Farben conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. On completion, the complex was the largest office building in Europe and remained so until the 1950s. The IG Farben Building's six square wings retain a modern, spare elegance, despite its mammoth size. It is also notable for its paternoster elevators.
The building was the headquarters for research projects relating to the development of Nazi wartime synthetic oil and rubber, and the production administration of magnesium, lubricating oil, explosives, methanol, and Zyklon B, the lethal gas used in concentration camps. After WWII, the IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Command and became the principal location for implementing the Marshall Plan, which largely financed the post-war reconstruction of Europe. The state apparatus of the Federal German Government was devised there. The IG Farben Building served as the headquarters for the US Army's V Corps and the Northern Area Command (NACOM) until 1995. The US Army renamed the building the General Creighton W. Abrams Building in 1975. After the US Army left the building in 1995 following the end of the Cold war, the building was refurbished for use as the Westend campus of the University of Frankfurt. The formal reopening as the Poelzig-Bau was celebrated on October 26, 2001. During the ceremony a plaque was unveiled at the building's entrance to commemorate the slave labour victims of the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz III and all those murdered by Zyklon B gas. (More...)
Recently achieved FA status. Architecturally interesting building with a very interesting history. --Mcginnly | Natter 12:44, 24 July 2006 (UTC)