Stephan-Cosacchi-Platz

The square named after the Hungarian composer, music educator, and musicologist Stephan Cosacchi (actually Dr. István Kozáky) is located south of the Speyer Gate, on the site of the former Frankenthal sugar factory. Stephan Cosacchi was born in Budapest in 1903 and lived and worked in Frankenthal from 1959 until his death in 1986. More than 150 musical works are attributed to him. Today, the remaining administrative building of the sugar factory houses the municipal music school, the adult education center, and, in the former gatehouse, the children's and youth office. The opposite Congress Forum Frankenthal offers a diverse event and cultural program.

The Frankenthal Sugar Factory

The "sugar" as the factory was primarily called by the employees was relocated from Kaiserslautern to Frankenthal in 1843 by the Karcher brothers after its founding in 1838. This placed the factory more favorably near the beet fields and allowed it to utilize a canal to the Rhine that had been restored a few years earlier. With its demand for boilers, boiling facilities, and other machinery, it facilitated the establishment of additional industrial companies.

In 1873, the family business, Frankenthaler Zuckerfabrik, was converted into a public limited company. In the same year, the merchant Friedrich Christoph Fanck joined the sugar factory, which counted just 100 employees and produced just over 3000 tons of sugar per year, at the age of not quite 27. When he died in 1906, there were over 1200 workers during the campaign (the sugar beet harvest period) and sugar production had risen to 76,000 tons. The Frankenthal company had become the largest sugar factory in Germany, with Fanck playing a significant role in this. Thus, after the death of Philipp Karcher in 1894, he was entrusted with the management of the company as director. In 1898, Fanck received the title of "Royal Bavarian Commercial Council" and became one of the most influential people in the city, overseeing an institution that provided livelihood to over a thousand workers from the city and surrounding areas. With about 17,000 inhabitants, that was already an enormous number.

However, even under Philipp Karcher, the factory had exemplary social facilities for the time: a health insurance fund, old-age care, widow and orphan fund, and a savings bank provided financial security for the employees, who could also shop at discounted rates in a "consumer cooperative." Nearly two hundred families lived in factory-owned apartments, and there was an in-house kindergarten.

Around 1900, the Frankenthal sugar factory was considered the largest sugar producer in Germany.

After World War I and the inflation of 1923, a comprehensive change occurred, leading to the merger of South German sugar factories into Süddeutsche Zucker AG in 1926, with a new headquarters in Mannheim. The former head of the Frankenthal sugar factory, Albert Zapf, became the first chairman of the supervisory board. The merger laid the foundation for today's Südzucker AG, currently the largest sugar producer in Europe.

After the destruction of a large part of the sugar factory during the bombing night of September 23, 1943, production was not resumed. Usable buildings were used for storage or were leased to other companies. The seven chimneys, which had been landmarks of the city for decades, were demolished in 1954. In the 1980s, a residential development was established on the factory site.

Opening times

The Stephan-Cosacchi Square is freely accessible at all times.

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