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Frankfurt / Main
Frankfurt / Main
Mainhattan Project
Are you in the mood for America? Then off to Frankfurt and experience a different kind of motorcycle foray. And discover a metropolis that started almost from scratch 60 years ago. Much screwed up in the process, but also used some opportunities in a fascinating way.
Annette Johann
12/09/2005
The huge Boeing roars into the field of vision of the visor. Comes close, damn close, landing gear and flaps extended, the headlights glistening brightly. With hissing turbines even drowning out the traffic on the ten-lane A3 at Frankfurter Kreuz, the jet sweeps towards Rhein-Main-Airport, only to roll there seconds later, roaring in reverse thrust . Welcome to the hub of Europe and the bridgehead from overseas. Today for business, once for the airlift to Berlin. Also the Speed triple have to get down here, onto the Frankfurt-Sud turning lane, past the gallop racetrack and Eintracht stadium and through the city forest in the direction of Sachsenhausen. The most romantic flight path into the metropolis with 652,000 inhabitants and the relevant reputation of exclusively following the color of money.
On the Morfelder Landstrasse, however, it doesn’t look like it yet. The Shell petrol station, which used to be attacked at least once a week, forms the entrance, followed by a faded “Georg von Opel” sign that testifies to a better time in nearby Russelsheim, and behind it residential blocks in need of renovation, in front of which two Africans are preparing the spray can painting of an old Datsun. Shortly afterwards, the first renovated turn-of-the-century houses, trams and lively activity.
Iron ham
The Eiserne Steg, one of the most beautiful squares in the city.
Grandma and grandpa lived very close by in the 1960s. Kranichsteiner Strasse. The cobblestones are still there, as is the old apartment building. The grandparents lived on the mezzanine floor, two dark rooms with no chance of sun and at best a view of the clotheslines in the backyard. Just like it was in post-war Sachsenhausen. The main thing is to have a roof over your head.
At the Amalfi Pizza Service, just before the Sudbahnhof, the turn-off to Schweizer Strabe, the lifeline of the south of Frankfurt, where gloom has long ceased to be an issue. Hustle and bustle under dense trees, charming street cafes next to vegetable stalls, books and sausages next to Woolworth and designer furniture. In the “Cafe Fellini” on Schweizer Platz, creative people sit with laptops and housewives with Edeka bags, the range is liberating. Even if the bank towers on the other bank of the Main are already in sight, “dribb de Bach” (translated roughly “across the river”), between the museum bank, the publishing houses and the abbelwoi district, has different values.
A few more meters and the Untermainbrucke becomes the perfect ramp to Mainhattan, into the American moments of Germany. The skyscrapers rise up to 300 meters next to the medieval Romerberg, mirroring and mighty. A little to the side, only the cathedral is still impressively involved, but the whole phalanx of Frankfurt’s economic power is forming in front. Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank, Eurotower, Main Tower, an entire skyscraper district into which Neue Mainzer Strabe dips like a throat. And then I’m inside, absorbed by mega-perspectives, tapering lines shooting towards the sky that don’t seem to stop, glass walls with innumerable reflections. Hissing cool from her triple, the Triumph glides through the urban canyons, finally thoroughbred street fighter terrain under the wheels, while I force myself to look forward from time to time. Intoxicating feelings, far too short, over far too quickly, the lowlands of the savings banks begin. I branch off to the Taunusanlage, where it is temporarily quieter and the green belt on the former city walls provides breathing space. In the “Cafe am Centralpark” the bankers are already sitting at lunch in a N.Y. feeling. Opposite the euro monument in front of the European Central Bank, on the right the Stadtische Buhnen, on the left Goethe in bronze and in the north the magnificent Alte Oper – Frankfurt lives seamlessly.
Frankfurt / Main (Info)
Iron ham
Looking in the mirror: the old town offers a contrast to Mainhattan’s high-rise buildings.
Anyone who wants to discover Frankfurt needs some support. Here are our tips for the optimal Mainhattan trip.
Unlike other large cities, Frankfurt does not reveal itself at first glance. Often narrow and winding, classic cruising miles are rare. We have therefore put together a round in the box on the right that includes many distinctive locations and creates a “feeling” for the city. In the city center there is a lot more to discover on foot, especially around the Romerberg. In a few minutes you can get to the Sachsenhausen shore and one of the most important museum ensembles in Germany via the Eiserner Steg. (The historical museum on the Romerberg shows models of the old and new Frankfurt.) The bridge itself offers the most beautiful perspective of the city: the Middle Ages form dramatically in front of the skyscrapers. To the north, you can walk through the city center to the Alte Oper, to the west through the partly rebuilt Kaiserstrabe to the imposing train station from the 19th century. The Main Tower in Neue Mainzer-Strasse offers skyscraper views.
Outside Westend, Bockenheim, Nordend, Bornheim and Sachsenhausen are particularly worth seeing, on the periphery the old core of Frankfurt-Hochst. The classic abbelwoi district in Sachsenhausen between Deutschherrenufer, Dreieichstrasse and Elisabethenstrasse has meanwhile fallen victim to the tourist hype. You can find more of the original Frankfurt atmosphere, for example, in the old pubs on the upper Berger Strabe. The scene meets in Nordend and Bornheim, Uniklima is in Bockenheim, the yuppie scene strolls in Sachsenhausen. The Dumont travel paperback “Frankfurt / Main” offers the best information. Dieter Bartetzko provides background information on high-rise construction with “Frankfurts Hohe Hauser” (Insel-Taschenbuch). Wolfgang Klotzer makes comparisons between pre- and post-war Frankfurt in “Frankfurt then, yesterday and today”. Information and hotel services are available from the tourist offices on the Romerberg and in the main train station, which are open daily. The room search is also handled there for three euros. Further information and events are also available at Frankfurt.de.
Iron ham
Often a look at the city map helps to get further.
The A 3 exit Frankfurt Sud is a nice entry point. There drive on the Morfelder Landstrabe to Sachsenhausen and before the Sudbahnhof, turn left through the Schweizer Strabe to the Untermainbrucke. Straight on into the skyscraper district on Neue Mainzer Strabe to the Eschenheimer Turm. Turn almost a 360-degree loop and via Bockenheimer Anlage / Alte Oper to Taunusanlage and Mainzer Landstrasse. At the Platz der Republik, make a detour to the right to the “Messe-Kreisel”, circle around and take the same route back. Turn back on Mainzer Landstrasse in the direction of Gallusviertel. At the Galluswarte either straight ahead to Frankfurt-Hochst or diagonally left to the Adler-Werken in Kleyerstrabe. Then via Cambergerbrucke to Gutleutviertel and there pass the train station south and head towards Bethmannstrabe and Romer. This is the best start for exploring on foot: Romerberg, remains of the old town, city center or via the Eiserner Steg to the museum bank to Sachsenhausen. Continue straight on via Battonstrabe to Allerheiligen Tor, then left into Friedberger Anlage until you reach the Sandweg junction. From now on it gets complicated because of the many one-way streets in Nordend and Bornheim. The easiest and most attractive way is to drive the Sandweg to Allenring and follow it for a few kilometers in the direction of Hanau / Offenbach. At the Saalburgallee junction, turn left to the “Bornheim Mitte” underground station. There right into Berger Strabe to Altbornheim. Exit left into Wollstadter Strabe and left again into Seckbacher Landstrabe / Im Prufling. Via Saalburgallee and Allenring you finally get to the mega-junction on Hanauer Landstrasse. And from there either back to the city center or to the city’s motorway bypass.
Frankfurt / Main (2)
Iron ham
The two sides of the city: money and glamor in the banking area …
I stay at skyscraper altitude, on the eastern Mainzer Landstrasse and in the direction of the fair the highest rises up again, Deutsche Bank, DG-Bank, continue what Frankfurt Jews like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and the Bethmann brothers in the middle of the 18th century have started. Which even successfully silvered US government bonds on the young Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Today, alongside New York, Tokyo and London, it is considered the fourth top financial center in the world, with almost 500 credit institutions operating in the city. But the fight in Frankfurt was bitter when banks and building speculators blew the first vertical meter halali in the Westend in the 60s. Citizens’ initiatives and squatters from the nearby university and 1968 scene fought desperately for the last Wilhelminian style villas spared from the war, over which the wrecking ball was swinging.
The exhibition tower appears, 256 meters high and striking like the Empire State Building. It marks the place where the division of Germany brought in cash. After competitor Leipzig was out of the running, much better opportunities opened up for Frankfurt’s centuries-old trading traditions. The former free imperial city almost got more out of it. Because in the election of the federal capital in 1949 Bonn was only barely defeated.
Iron ham
… meets semi-silky street life in the Bahnhofsviertel.
The B-side of the world of success and glamor is already breaking out on the western Mainzer Landstrasse with graffiti-sprayed walls and neglected city ruins. The elegance is smoky, battered used cars instead of expensive Porsches populate the streets, sausage stalls instead of Maredo, and at the “Wasserhausche” there is a binding bottle of beer for one and twenty instead of a latte macchiato. We are in Gallus, the base of the working people since the century before last. Triumph even discovers reference points behind the Galluswarte when the huge brick building of the Adler-Werke appears – Frankfurt’s factory for bicycles, motorcycles, cars and Triumph-Adler typewriters, founded in 1887. After the war, it was still an employer for 10,000 people, but today the disused complex is a stone symbol of structural change and houses theaters, logistics companies and canteens.
Behind it, as wide as the Amazon, runs the desolate shunting area of the magnificent, 24-track terminus in the city center. In front a couple of pubs called “Adler-Stube” or “Kleines Paradies”, next to them the lottery acceptance point and the “Badwan Auto Im- und Export”. The houses are gray from decades of soot from the locomotives, the residents’ ears dull from the constant rumbling and squeaking of the trains.
Via Camberger Brucke I change to the Gutleutviertel, the counterpart of the Gallus south of the railway line. Father worked there, maneuvered trucks, loaded boxes and tried for decades to gain something from the station atmosphere. The residents desperately strive for something like quality of life, but the conditions in the Gutleutviertel are as difficult as in Gallus.
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