Gerstenberger Höfe

In 1895, Moritz Gerstenberger bought the Mantz joinery and founded the Mantz und Gerstenberger company in the industrial district of Frankfurt, which had been steadily growing north of the old town since 1871. The company ran a large scale production of furniture and entire room furnishings. It grew dynamically, setting up one production and administration building after the next. The largely preserved mixed residential-commercial-factory complex currently takes up the rectangular area between the Berliner Straße, Klingestraße and Ziegelstraße as well as the former harbor. The post 1914 history of Mantz and Gerstenberger’s business turned out quite turbulent. Having taken on the production of gramophone casings, the company would witness its peak employment of 900 staffers by the beginning of the roaring twenties.
In 1953 the Gerstenberger family fled to West Germany. Their operations were nationalised and set to manufacturing standard furniture. In 1993, the property was returned to the Gerstenberger family. Nowadays the complex features the aforementioned "Theatre des Laughs" in the old boiler house, the climbing hall of the Alpine Club and a number of art studios and workshops