Focal points of municipal building activities in Frankfurt during the late 1970s and 1980s were the area of the historical city, delimited by the former city ramparts, and the embankments of the river Main. Distinguishes two different problems: on the one side, the reutilization of existing buildings, which can range from modernization and urban renewal to structural conversion, on the other side, the construction of new buildings in close vicinity to historically important buildings. Discusses three principal ways of building in a historical context: 1) strictly modern, in which the new structure in the center of the former historical city is a piece of postmodern architecture and the museum of arts and crafts represents the qualities of the modern movement 2) continuation, in which the possibilities of contemporary design, in respectful dialogue with the historical surroundings, are shown by the museum of early history as well as by the museum of architecture; and 3) reconstruction, such as the reconstruction of seven half-timbered houses which had never looked like that in their history. Monument preservation under the predominance of postmodern ideas shows the tendency towards preservation of merely optical values, thus degrading monuments to decorative tourist attractions within a handsome environment.