Dr. Michael Kummer

Lawyer / Counsel
  • Chief Magistrate (ret.)
Eschersheimer Landstraße 25-27
60322 Frankfurt am Main
+49 69 95 957-215
kummer@fps-law.de
Business card

Dr Michael Kummer, former Chief Municipal Director of the City of Frankfurt am Main, has been working as a lawyer at FPS since 2015. Dr Kummer advises on strategic issues in the development of complex real estate projects. His goal: to find solutions in dialogue with the project stakeholders and taking into account the interests of neighbours and public concerns. He is particularly interested in the revitalisation and recycling of old buildings. Dr Kummer can draw on more than 40 years of practical experience in these areas. He gives lectures on real estate industry topics and has held teaching posts at the University of Frankfurt am Main (real estate development) and the University of Kassel (construction law), as well as at the Hessian Association of Administrative Schools (administrative law). He is a monitor for the development of World Heritage Sites in Germany and an appointed member of the German Academy for Urban and Regional Spatial Planning (DASL) and the Association of German Architects (BDA), as well as the German Association of Garden Art and Landscape Culture (DGGL). Dr Kummer was the administrator of the Dr Senckenberg Foundation in Frankfurt am Main from 2018 to 2024 and a member of the supervisory board of Bürgerhospital und Clementine Kinderhospital gGmbH.

As Head of the Planning department and Head of Building Supervision, Dr Kummer played a key role in shaping the development of Frankfurt am Main’s construction sector. During this time, he managed around 80,000 building projects. These include large urban development projects and architectural beacon projects as well as smaller urban maintenance measures, complex special buildings for all types of use, the conversion of offices into flats and the development of the airport.

As Head of the Department of Monument Protection and Preservation in the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art, he previously developed renovation programmes for complex cultural monuments in Hesse and was involved in the conversion of the former landfill Grube Messel in Darmstadt into a World Heritage Site. As an advisor, he has influenced the banding law in favour of historical heritage and accompanied the new conceptualisation of monument protection in Berlin and Hamburg. Dr Kummer was able to build on a wide range of practical experience during the establishment of the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments in Hesse.

  • Expertise
    Public construction and planning law, environmental law
    • Listed building preservation

      Conferring listed status on a building has far-reaching and restrictive implications for the owner. That’s because once this status has been granted, all construction work carried out on and within the building – and in some federal states even mere changes of use – require a special permit from the relevant authority that deals with listed buildings (known in Germany as the Denkmalschutzbehörde). We advise and assist clients when liaising with the listed building authorities and other competent authorities and go through their options for dealing with any restrictions imposed under listed building law.

    • Neighbour law

      The high value placed on property ownership in Germany necessitates a considerable number of neighbour regulations that govern the legal relationships between landowners. In both public and private law, there are a whole range of regulations that attempt to strike this balancing act and play a major role when it comes to approving or revising construction projects in particular. Since neighbour law is notorious for its high potential for conflict, it is often a good idea to come to an arrangement where a satisfactory settlement is reached in the interests of both parties. We have built up considerable experience over a number of decades in the negotiation and conclusion of such neighbourhood agreements. This can particularly be seen in the neighbourhood agreements covering many of the high-rise buildings in Frankfurt am Main, for example.

    Building permits
    Land-use planning
    Fire protection

    Language skills

    German
  • Education
    since 2015Lawyer at FPS 
    2015Admission to practise law in Germany
    1999–2014Head of Building Supervision, Frankfurt
    1989–1999Head of the Planning Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main
    1986–1989Head of the Monument Protection and Preservation Department in the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art
    1981–1986Head of the Legal department at the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse
    1978–1980Research assistant in the Law Dean’s Office of Goethe University Frankfurt
    1972–1978Research assistant in the Institute of Business Law at Goethe University Frankfurt
    1981Doctorate (Dr. iur.) with a dissertation on the relationship between monument protection law and building law
    1978Second state law exam
    1975First state law exam
    1973–1975Scholarship holder of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation
     Law studies, philosophy studies and architectural history studies in Paris (France), Marburg and Frankfurt
  • Memberships
  • Publications
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Frankfurt am Main: Wachsende Stadt zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts
    Architekturführer Frankfurt 2000-2009, , S. 12-15
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Messehalle 3
    Architekturführer Frankfurt 2000-2009, , S. 50-55
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Kundenzentrum Stadtwerke
    Architekturführer Frankfurt 1990-1999, Hrsg. Freunde Frankfurts e.V., Wilhelm E. Opatz, Hamburg, , S. 146-155
    Dr. Michael Kummer Dr. Thomas Schröer
    Öffentliches Baurecht: Die Gefahrenabwehr geht vor
    FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nr. 8, , S. 13
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Die Gartendenkmalpflege im Gestrüpp der Paradoxien
    Generaldirektion der Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Historische Gärten und Gesellschaft, Potsdam 2020, , S. 146-152
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Der städtebauliche Denkmalschutz im Baugesetzbuch
    Schriftenreihe des Deutschen Nationalkomitees für Denkmalschutz – SHARING HERITAGE als Aufgabe, Band 94 | 2019, , S. 37
    Dr. Michael Kummer
    Innenentwicklung – Ein alter Bekannter!
    gif im Fokus, Nr. 2, , S. 21 f.