Cowherds' Tower
In October 1923 Paul Hindemith moved with his mother and sister Toni into the Cowherds' Tower on the south side of the Main. The 14th-century tower, a last relict of the medieval fortress of Sachsenhausen, had been used as the dwelling of the «cowherds» during the 19th century and had stood empty since 1888 due to dilapidation. Hindemith's attention was probably drawn to the possibility of using the tower as a residence by the art historian Fried Lübbecke, and he received a permit to do so from the Magistrate of the City of Frankfurt in April 1923. The condition was that he would have to bear the costs for renovation and rebuilding himself.
A lucrative composition commission, received in early 1923, came to Hindemith's aid in the financing. The Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War, commissioned the «Klaviermusik mit Orchester (Klavier: linke Hand)» Op. 29 from Hindemith, finished in May 1923. The fee amounting to 1,000 US dollars corresponded to about 30 million marks during the hyperinflation year of 1923.
Hindemith had a new stairway installed, as well as a telephone and bath. When he moved into the tower in October 1923, the following appeared in the newspaper: «At the old Cowherds' Tower, piano and harmonium, tables and beds floated upwards, then disappeared through the windows into the interior. […] One wouldn't believe how much comfortable space these walls, almost two metres thick, contain. […] May Paul Hindemith, who is presently performing the premiere of his latest work with the Amar Quartet in Vienna, enjoy many years of happy creativity in his tower!»
Hindemith lived in the Cowherds' Tower until he moved to Berlin in 1927; his mother and sister Toni inhabited it until it was destroyed in October 1943.