Yes, we care. The New Frankfurt and the Question of the Common Good

The exhibition is dedicated to the topic of care for the common good and welfare – its institutions and associations, its people, concepts and initiatives during the 1920s. At the same time, it draws a connection to today’s care crisis, which is not only evident in the debate about the unequal distribution of care work between men and women, but also in access to affordable housing and the provision of care services in urban districts.

In the 1920s, Frankfurt am Main developed a pioneering urban planning and housing program. It continued the previous urbanization processes that had taken shape as social urban development at a high level: by founding and further developing municipal institutions such as welfare, sports and health offices, by professionalizing youth and health care, by structuring the educational system, which initiated pedagogical reforms in the school system and also provided education for women and vocational training in those years with rooms and programmes, and by attempting to simplify domestic work through central laundries and heating systems.