It's been a long time since Johann Wolfgang von Goethe got a loan right here.

And yet the story of the native of Frankfurt, who received money from the Bethmann Bank for his trip to Italy in 1786, fitted well into the narrative that was to be conveyed on Monday evening.

Namely the one that creative people and bankers have always worked together in Frankfurt.

"It's typically Frankfurt," said the President of the Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Ulrich Caspar, at the opening of the House of Creativity and Innovation, which, as the center of the regional creative industry, is temporarily housed in the historic Bethmannhof opposite Frankfurt's Paulskirche until the end of the year.

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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In other cities, said Caspar, creative people are mostly offered old brownfield sites, somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

In Frankfurt, however, many actors have campaigned in recent weeks to ensure that employees from the eleven branches of the creative economy can go in and out of the former bank headquarters, from which the company moved in 2018 and which has been empty since then.

Homeless creatives

After years of unsuccessful search for a center in which agencies, artists and associations rent offices, install recording studios and events take place, Stephanie Wüst (FDP), head of the economic department, Frankfurt Economic Development under Managing Director Oliver Schwebel and the Hessian creative cluster Cluk succeeded in the summer to keep the Bethmannhof rent-free for six months in order to set up a long-term financing concept during this time.

But two and a half months after the Bethmannhof was presented, there were still no answers on Monday at the opening event of the “Creative Week Frankfurt” that runs until Friday – all of the events are taking place in the creative house, which is abbreviated to “Hoci” – as to what the long-term financing should look like in concrete terms.

The fact is: If by the end of the year there is no clarity as to how the rent for the 8,000 square meter building could be raised, the creative people move out again - and have to start their search for a home all over again.

Economic department head Wüst told the FAZ that it was not so easy to provide municipal grants for the Hoci project.

Those responsible for the cluster, on the other hand, expect the city and Wüst personally to follow up on the announcements that they want to support the creative industries that are so important for the city and to support a center with action.

This included financial concessions, it said on Monday.

The idea for the long-term preservation of the Bethmannhof as a creative house is to sign rental contracts here, for example with advertising agencies, designers, software companies, architects, musicians, co-working providers, artists and industry associations;

a restaurant is also to be housed on the ground floor.

However, there is a fear that the proceeds from this alone will not be enough to cover the costs for the U-shaped building, which have not yet been finally negotiated with the owner.

In addition, an initial investment is needed to upgrade the building, Weyand said.

That's why the Cluk representatives hope that the city could pay for this and for the common areas in the Bethmannhof, for example.

Conferences and other events are to take place on the ground floor, such as on Monday at the opening of Creative Week as a premiere in the Hoci.

"Of course, we are aiming for long-term use of the entire building," said Wolfgang Weyand, adding that there were numerous people interested in moving in.

City Councilor Wüst said that she would also be committed to this until the end of the year and praised the personal commitment, especially from the ranks of the Cluk, who had prepared the premises for the first events with a lot of their own work in the past few days.

However, she never promised that financing would be successful, in case of doubt one would have to continue looking for suitable rooms.

Whether that succeeds will show whether she is a good politician.