Inspired by the Sharing Economy, This Frankfurt Hotel Feels Just Like Home

In Frankfurt's historic Alt Sachsenhausen district, the Libertine Lindenberg is a different type of place to stay. Sure, the hybrid hotel, which is located in a historic turn-of-the-20th-century building fully renovated by Franken Architekten, offers rooms by the night, but here you're more likely to cook dinner with a fellow guest than order in room service. Adding to the sense of community: Each of its 27 bedrooms, suites, and maisonettes can be rented by the month as well. 

Inspired by the rising popularity of the sharing economy, and taking its name from an infamous Frankfurt hostess, the hotel is centered around a number of public spaces. There's Lekker, a fifth-floor space where guests can purchase groceries and cook food, plus traditional amenities like a bar, restaurant, and gym. Like the Lindenberg Rückertstrasse, which opened in the city's Ostend in 2012, the "guest community" offers a number of activities ranging from movie night to Vespa trips.

The interiors, designed by Studio Kathi Kaeppel, are an interesting mix of light and dark, a dramatic chiaroscuro effect heightened by abrupt transitions from pastel to black.

The furnishing include e15 Houdini chairs, pendant lamps by Rokokorelevanz, and Moroccan rugs from Fashion for Floors. Guests can even purchase their own Lindenberg textiles by Lure Folk or Finnish box spring by Fennobed. 

Throughout the space, architect Bernhard Franken and designer Kathi Kaeppel pay homage to the history of the surrounding area, known as the home of Apfelwein, or cider. Each of the rooms is named for a different apple variety, and the diamond lozenge motif that appears everywhere from the pink powder-coated staircase and the wrought-iron base of the bar to the bed linens harkens back to the pattern on the traditional Ebbelwei glass.

The project is the second hotel created by the group of siblings that own it, who hope—just like Libertine herself—that visitors here will make themselves right at home.

The Libertine Lindenberg is located at Frankensteiner Strasse 20, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Cover photo by Dieter Schwer.