The brick building, erected in 1890 by the Jewish industrialist family B. Dondorf, is one of the last industrial buildings in the Bockenheim district of Frankfurt. The Dondorf printing factory was specialized in high-quality printing—producing, for example, playing cards and board games, as well as stocks, bonds, and banknotes. As a result of the inflation following the First World War, the production segments of the printing factory were divided up and sold individually. In 1928, the premises were acquired by the Union printing works owned by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which printed the social democratic daily newspaper Volksstimme.

After having seized power in 1933, the National Socialists confiscated the site and the Volksstimme was prohibited. For a time, the Nazis produced the Frankfurter Volksblatt in the building. The printing presses were later moved to Nuremberg and the antisemitic hate sheet Der Stürmer was produced there. After the war, the printing presses were returned to Frankfurt. Since the Dondorf family was Jewish, they were persecuted by the Nazi regime: some family members were deported, while others committed suicide or managed to emigrate.

During the 1960s, the premises were transferred to Frankfurt’s Goethe University; most recently, until 2022, it was used by the Institute for Art Education. Thereafter, the building stood empty, and a series of cultural-political and local initiatives campaigned for the retention of the historic building so that it could be devoted to permanent cultural use. During the Schirn’s temporary residence at the former Dondorf printing factory, the City of Frankfurt is making one story of the building available for selected initiatives.