Das Hugenottenrathaus Neu-Isenburg – Designed for Democracy

The Hugenottenrathaus stood for liberty, equality, fraternity and the separation of powers, at a time when absolutism still prevailed everywhere when it was built in 1702. In 1876 it was demolished – and ever since, the market square has been an empty space. Last year, the Huguenot Town Hall was posthumously recognised as a site of German democratic history.

The Huguenot Town Hall was officially recognised by the World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain on account of its unique history of democracy. The market square and the Alte Ort are set to become a real-world laboratory for forward-looking ideas on neighbourhood development.

At a time when our democracy and its history must be defended, there is often a lack of illustrative material to spark citizens’ interest in the democratic development of Neu-Isenburg. The 30 Huguenot refugee families had, at the time, 53 children in their midst – for them, the co-founder of the refugee settlement, Count Johann Philipp zu Ysenburg, also had a schoolhouse built in 1704.

“People have the ability to visualise the future in such detail that they can create it,” says Dr Florence Gaub, a futurologist. The initiators of the project – the Hugenottenrathaus e.V. association and the Neu-Isenburg City Marketing Working Group – invite you to help shape the market square as a public space.

The topping-out ceremony will take place on 12 September at 2.30 pm on the market square in Neu-Isenburg. The XXL decorative structure, complete with roof and clock tower, is now finished and open to the public. On Open Monuments Day, 13 September, the Town Hall sculpture will be dedicated to the theme: NetzWERKE – Denkmale & Infrastruktur. The Huguenot Town Hall was the major hub in this network, the ‘Point de Vue’ of the Huguenot settlement.

The project was initiated by the Neu-Isenburg City Marketing Working Group, in collaboration with the Hugenottenrathaus Neu-Isenburg e.V. supporting association and “Pour l’Yseboursch”; the association for living history in the Old Town. The project was funded by the “Orte der Demokratiegeschichte” foundation, as well as through donations.

The City Marketing Working Group is a politically independent network that utilises its expertise in marketing and communication to develop a unified city identity and a holistic city marketing strategy.

The Hugenottenrathaus Support Association is campaigning for the reconstruction of the Old Town Hall in the centre of Neu-Isenburg’s Old Town, as part of a neighbourhood development concept

‘Pour l’Yseboursch’ focuses on the period when the town was founded in 1699 and the demolition of the Huguenot Town Hall in 1876. How did the first Huguenots live here in the settlement, a living space created especially for them?