45city (figure 15). This vast construction program was promoted by the publication of a
monthly magazine called Das Neue Frankfurtthat was aimed at an international read-
ership. Not only was architecture in Frankfurt extensively discussed and docu-
mented in its columns; the magazine also covered an extremely wide range of topics
whose common denominator was “modern design.”^53 Theater, photography, films,
art and industrial design, and other subjects were all discussed. Particular attention
was paid to the subject of “education,” in keeping with the view that upbringing and
education formed the key to the creation of the new man who would be capable of
understanding and appreciating the new culture that was being developed with so
much enthusiasm.
Like Giedion, Ernst May was one of the most important figures of the early
years of the CIAM. He was one of the founding members who met in La Sarraz in
1928, and he was responsible for the proposal to hold the second congress in Frank-
furt in 1929. On this occasion he prepared a report on the subject of the congress,
“Die Wohnung für das Existenzminimum.” The success achieved in Frankfurt was
one of the most important that the still youthful modern movement could claim to its
credit. Making use of the possibilities created by the social policies of the Weimar
Republic, a housing program was realized that was unrivaled elsewhere in Germany
(with the possible exception of Berlin). The impact of the sheer number of dwellings44
15Map of present-day Frankfurt
indicating the Siedlungen built
by May and his group. Those
discussed or mentioned in this
chapter are: (1) Westhausen,
(2) Praunheim, (3) Römerstadt,
(18) Riedhof, (22) Hellerhof.
(From Volker Fischer and
Rosemarie Höpfner, eds.,
Ernst May und Das Neue
Frankfurt 1925–1930,p. 105.)