The pond used to be an oxbow lake of the Main. At the end of the 19th century, the then community leased part of the reed to the manufacturer Heinrich Günther. Every winter he had ice broken down there, if possible, and stored it in two huge wooden halls north of the reed pond. To prevent his goods from melting away, the halls were insulated with an additional layer of sawdust. As soon as the ice was thick enough, men, the so-called polar bears, approached and set out with saws and rafters' hoes weighted with lead to break down the ice, which was then delivered daily to Frankfurt households, restaurants and butcher shops in summer by horse and cart. On the basis of the ice machine invented by the engineer Carl von Linde in 1870/71, the production of artificial ice was also switched to here in 1924. The ice cabinets fitted with artificial ice were still in use until after the Second World War, which were then replaced by the electric refrigerators.