Everything about Frankfurt totally explained
(German: [ˈfʁaŋkfʊɐtʰ], English: [ˈfɹæŋkfɜːt]) is the largest city in the German
state of
Hesse and the
fifth-largest city in
Germany, with a 2007 population of 667,598. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001. The city is at the centre of the larger
Frankfurt Rhine Main Area which has a population of 5.3 million and is Germany's
second largest metropolitan area.
Situated on the
River Main, Frankfurt is the
financial and
transportation centre of Germany and one of the two largest financial centres in
continental Europe, the other being
Paris. It is the place of residence of the
European Central Bank, the
German Federal Bank, the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the
Frankfurt Trade Fair.
Frankfurt International Airport is one of the world's busiest airports,
Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, and the
Frankfurter Kreuz (
Autobahn interchange) is the most heavily used interchange in
Europe. Frankfurt is the only German city listed as one of ten
Alpha world cities.
Among
English speakers the city is commonly known simply as "Frankfurt", though
Germans occasionally call it by its full name when it's necessary to distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) Frankfurt in the German state of
Brandenburg, known as
Frankfurt (Oder). It is also called Frankfort-on-the-Main in English, a translation of Frankfurt am Main.
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Nine
S-Bahn lines connect Frankfurt with the
Rhine Main Region. All lines have a 30 minute service during the day but the majority of the routes are served by two lines thereby offering a 15 minute schedule. All lines, except line S7, run through the Frankfurt city tunnel and serve the stations
Ostendstraße,
Konstablerwache,
Hauptwache,
Taunusanlage and Frankfurt Central Station. When leaving the city the S-Bahn travels above ground. It provides access to the Frankfurt Trade Fair (S3-S6), the airport (S8, S9), the stadium (S7-S9) and nearby cities such as
Wiesbaden,
Mainz,
Darmstadt,
Rüsselsheim,
Hanau,
Offenbach am Main,
Bad Homburg,
Kronberg and smaller towns that are on the way.
The
U-Bahn has seven lines serving the city centre and some larger suburbs. The
trains that run on the line are in fact
lightrails as many lines travel along a track in the middle of the street instead of underground further from the city centre. There is only one line (U4) that's completely underground. The minimum service interval is 2.5 minutes, although the usual pattern is that each line runs with a 7.5-10 minute frequency which combines to approx 3-5 minutes on the city centre sections served by more than one line.
Frankfurt has 9
Straßenbahn (tram) lines, with trams arriving usually every 10 minutes. Many sections are served by two lines, combining to give a 5 minute frequency during rush-hour. The tram runs only above ground and serve more stops than the U-Bahn or the S-Bahn.
A number of
bus lines complete the Frankfurt public transportation system.
Night buses
take over the service of the U-Bahn and Straßenbahn at 1:30 am to 3:30 am on Friday and Saturday nights.
Taxis
Taxis can be found outside most S-Bahn or U-Bahn stations and major intersections. The normal way to obtain a taxi is to either call a taxi operator or go to a taxi rank. However, although not the norm, one can hail one on the street.
Bicycles
Deutsche Bahn also rent out
bicycles to the public. One finds them at many major road intersections and railway stations. All one has to do is make a phone call to hire them for €0.06/min or they can be hired per day for €15,-. The bicycles are a bit heavy but they do have
shock absorbers to ensure a smooth journey. The
silver-
red colour of the bikes with their unique frame make them easily visible and difficult to steal.
The public can now use a
velotaxi which involves the operator using a
tricycle with a sheltered passenger cab. There is room for two people and the service covers all of the city centre.
Frankfurt has also a network of modern cycle routes throughout city. Many of the long distance bike routes into town have dedicated cycle tracks. A number of city centre roads are "bicycle streets" where the cyclist has the right of way and where motorised vehicles are allowed access if they don't disrupt the cycle users.
Every first Sunday in the month there's a
Critical Mass cycle event which starts at 2 pm at the Old Opera.
Economy and business
Frankfurt is one of the leading financial centres in Europe. According to an annual study (2007) by
Cushman & Wakefield it's one of the top three cities for international companies in Europe, along with
London and
Paris. According to a ranking list (2001) produced by the
University of Liverpool, Frankfurt is the richest city in Europe by
GDP per capita. After Frankfurt are
Karlsruhe,
Paris and
Munich . The Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2007 ranked Frankfurt at the seventh position of the cities with the highest
quality of life worldwide. The only German city that did better was
Düsseldorf at number six .
Banks
Frankfurt is commonly known as "the city of the banks". In 2006, six of the ten major German banks had their headquarters in the city, including the top four (
Deutsche Bank,
Commerzbank,
Dresdner Bank and
DZ Bank) . Other important banks are
ING Diba,
KfW,
BHF Bank,
Bankhaus Metzler,
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei,
DekaBank,
Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and
Frankfurter Sparkasse. More than 300 national and international banks are represented here .
The
European Central Bank (
Europäische Zentralbank) is one of the world's most important central banks, responsible for monetary policy covering the 15 member countries of the
Eurozone. Since its foundation in 1998 the headquarters are located in downtown Frankfurt although plans have now been made for a move to a landscaped area on the site of the former wholesale market hall (
Großmarkthalle) in the eastern part of the city.
The
German Federal Bank (
Deutsche Bundesbank) is an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It was established in 1957.
Stock exchange
With the
stock exchange (
Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) and
XETRA, which belong to
Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt has the second largest stock exchange in Europe after the
London Stock Exchange. It is by far the largest stock exchange in Germany with over 90 percent turnover in the German market. In terms of market capitalization, Deutsche Börse is the largest stock exchange in the world.
Trade fairs
Fairs have a very long tradition in Frankfurt. They were first mentioned in the 12th century. Today Frankfurt has the third-largest exhibition site in the world. The
Messe Frankfurt corporation arranged 120 fairs in 40 countries in 2006. Hosted in Frankfurt are the
Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (the world's largest motor show), the
Frankfurter Buchmesse (the world's largest book fair), the Ambiente (the world's largest consumer goods fair), the Achema (the world's largest plant engineering fair) and many more like Paperworld, Christmasworld, Beautyworld, Tendence Lifestyle or Light and Building.
Advertising agencies
Although it's best known for its banks, Frankfurt is also a centre for media companies. There are around 570 companies of the
advertising industry and 270
public relations companies.
According to a ranking of
FOCUS magazine from November 2007 there are seven of the 48 largest
advertising agencies in Germany based in Frankfurt, including
Saatchi & Saatchi,
JWT, and
Publicis. Topping the list is
Berlin with nine, followed by
Hamburg with eight. After Frankfurt comes
Munich with six.
Wiesbaden is also on the list with two .
Accountancy and professional services
The
Big Four, the four largest international accountancy and professional services firms, are all represented in Frankfurt.
They are
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,
Ernst & Young,
KPMG and
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
PwC has also its German headquarters in the city.
In October 2007, KPMG's member firms in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein merged to form KPMG Europe LLP, which is now the largest accountancy and professional services firm in Europe. The European headquarters will be situated in Frankfurt.
Management consulting
Some of the largest international management consulting firms are represented in Frankfurt, including
McKinsey & Company,
Boston Consulting Group,
Oliver Wyman,
Bain & Company and
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
Electronic communication
Frankfurt is also an important location for the internet. It is home to Germany's largest
internet exchange point,
DE-CIX, and is where domain names are registered for the top-level-domain "
.de".
Lawyers
Frankfurt has the highest concentration of lawyers in Germany, with one lawyer per 99 inhabitants.
Working in Frankfurt
With over 922 jobs per 1,000 inhabitants, Frankfurt has the highest concentration of jobs in Germany. The high number of around 600,000 jobs with only 663,000 inhabitants of the city itself is explained by the high number of commuters who work in the city, which raises the per capita GDP of the resident population significantly. On work days and Saturdays there are around one million people within the city limits. On other days, the statistics regarding Frankfurt's wealth are reduced, in favor of the communities and towns of the so-called "Speckgürtel" (literally
bacon belt, meaning the suburban area), such as
Bad Homburg,
Königstein im Taunus,
Kronberg im Taunus and
Bad Soden am Taunus, many of whose inhabitants work in Frankfurt.
Despite that, Frankfurt also had, as of 2003, the highest levels of crime per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany. However, this statistic is a result of the commuter population, for it's calculated based on the 650,000-inhabitant figure, and also includes crimes committed at the airport, such as smuggling. Frankfurt is actually therefore a very safe city, corroborated by surveys among the inhabitants.
Frankfurt International Airport is the single largest place of work in Germany.
Other businesses
Frankfurt is home to
chemical industries,
software businesses and
call centers. Business development and other important departments of the
Deutsche Bahn are located at the DB-Headquarters in Gallus. Because of
Hoechst AG, Frankfurt is considered the "Apothecary of the World". Höchst's industrial park in Frankfurt is one of the three largest locations for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Europe. Frankfurt is also home to several large German industrial associations, such as the Chemical Industry Association; the Association for German Machine- and Equipment-building; the Electrotechnical, Electronic, and
Information Technology Association e. V. with its affiliated electrotechnical standards commission; and the Association of German Automobile Producers, which is currently moving to Franfurt. The Union of German Automobile Producers meets in Frankfurt every two years to coincide with the International Automobile Exhibition, mentioned above. Furthermore, the Trade Association of German Booksellers has its headquarters in Frankfurt, and organizes the Frankfurt Book Fair. In terms of labor unions, Frankfurt is home to the headquarters of
IG Metall and
IG Bau, two of Germany's largest labor unions.
Businesses with regional headquarters or based in and near Frankfurt include:
Property and real estate
Frankfurt has the highest concentration of home owners in Germany. This is partly attributed to number of financial workers in the city but also because of its cosmopolitan nature with a quarter of the city's population being foreigners. For this reason Frankfurt's property market often operates differently than the rest of the country where the prices are generally much flatter than Frankfurt. German property prices are pulled down nationally because of the former East Germany, however, economically sound cities like Frankfurt and other cities in the west of Germany, have a buoyant housing market, which attracts a lot of buyers from the Far East.
Establishments and organization
Frankfurt is home of the
German National Library, the Hessian State Supreme Court, and the Hessian State Employment Court, and has its own police academy. The fire department, founded in 1874, and the volunteer fire department have eight fire stations. Until their dissolution at the end of 2003, Frankfurt was the location of the Federal Disciplinary Court.
The German office of the
International Finance Corporation, part of the
World Bank group, and the Committee of European Insurances and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (Ceiops), the European insurance control, have their headquarters in Frankfurt.
Frankfurt hosts 88
consulates. Only
New York and
Hamburg have more foreign representation, excluding capital cities. Russia and China have recently opened general consulates in Frankfurt. The
Consulate General of the United States in Frankfurt in Eckenheim is the largest American consulate in the world.
Media
Two important daily newspapers are published in Frankfurt. The conservative
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was founded in 1949 and is the German newspaper with the widest circulation abroad, with its editors claiming to deliver the newspaper to 148 countries every day. The
FAZ has a circulation of over 380,000 copies daily. The other important newspaper, the
Frankfurter Rundschau, was first published in 1945 and has a daily circulation of over 181,000 copies.
Frankfurt is also home to the German headquarters of
Reuters, one of the world's most important news agencies.
Several magazines also originate from Frankfurt. The
Journal Frankfurt is the best-known magazine for events, parties, and "insider tips". An "ecological magazine",
Öko-Test, publishes materials for the
Green Party of Germany in Bockenheim. Bockenheim is known for the quiz magazine of the same name, and is home to the editorial office of the satire magazine,
Titanic.
Frankfurt's first radio station was the Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG (Southwest German Radio Service), founded in 1924. Its successor service is the public broadcaster
Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcast). Its "Funkhaus am Dornbusch" station is one of the most important
radio and
television broadcasters. There is also the
ARD-Stern that broadcasts from individual senders via a high-service network.
Bloomberg TV and
RTL have regional studios on the
Neuen Mainzer Straße, downtown. Other broadcasters in Frankfurt include
Main FM and
Radio X. The largest private radio station in the region FFH, is located nearby in
Bad Vilbel.
Since August 1945, the
American Forces Network had broadcasted from Frankfurt. Due to troop reductions, the AFN's Frankfurt location has been abandoned. Since October 2004, the AFN has broadcast its European programs from
Mannheim.
Education and research
In Frankfurt am Main, there are two universities and several specialist schools. The oldest and most well-known university in the city is the
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, with locations in Bockenheim, Westend, and Riedberg, and the university hospital in Niederrad. Alongside the university is the banking academy
HfB - Business School of Finance & Management, formerly known as the
Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft (Institution of Higher Learning for Banking Economics), with its campus in the Ostend (Eastend) neighborhood. Since 2001, it has been a specialist institution for the teaching Economics and Management, or FOM.
Frankfurt has the State Institution of Higher Learning for Artistic Education known as the
Städelschule, founded in 1817 by
Johann Friedrich Städel, that was taken over by the city in 1942 and turned into a state art school. Another art school is the State Institution for Music and Performance Art, initially a private school known as
Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium founded in 1878. The
Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main (Professional School of Frankfurt) was created out of several older organizations in 1971, and offers courses in engineering and economics. Until September 2003, Frankfurt was also home to a school for library science and administration.
The Philosophical-Theological Institution of Saint George (
Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen, a private institution with membership in the German Jesuit Association, has been located in
Sachsenhausen since 1950.
The city is also home of three
Max Planck Society institutes: the
Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (MPIeR),
Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, and the
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.
The
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, sponsored by several institutional and private sources, is involved in theoretical research in physics, chemistry, neurology, and computer science.
Frankfurt is host to the
Römisch-Germanische-Kommission (RGK), the
German Archaeological Institute branch for
prehistoric archaeology in Germany and Europe. The RGK is involved in a variety of research projects. Its library, with over 130,000 volumes, is one of the largest specialised archaeological libraries in the world.
Sport
Frankfurt hosts the following sports teams or clubs:
Frankfurt used to host these former teams or clubs:
Frankfurt is host to the
classic cycle race
Rund um den Henninger-Turm.
Sister cities
Frankfurt has several
Sister cities
Toronto, Canada
Birmingham, United Kingdom, since 1966
Budapest, Hungary, since 1990
Kraków, Poland, since 1991
Granada, Nicaragua, since 1991
Guangzhou, China, since 1988
Lyon, France, since 1960
Milan, Italy, since 1971
Prague, Czech Republic, since 1990
Tel Aviv, Israel, since 1980
Chennai, India, since 2005
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 2002
Islamabad, Pakistan
Gallery
Image:Frankfurt am Main - Skyline.jpg|The financial district at night
Image:Westendstrasse 1 from Maintower.JPG|Westendtower, also known as "crown tower"
Image:Frankfurt am Main Friedensbrücke Westhafen.JPG|View from the Main riverbank
Image:Luftbild Ffm 2005-08-11.jpg|Commerzbank-Arena in the city forest
Image:Deutsche-bank-ffm002.jpg|Twin towers of Deutsche Bank
Image:Frankfurt Goethehaus jhl.jpg|Goethehaus
Image:Festhalle-ffm004.jpg|Frankfurt Book Fair
Image:Kaiserstrasse-ffm011.jpg|Kaiserstrasse, view from Frankfurt Central Station
Image:Alteoper in Frankfurt.gif|The old opera house
Further Information
Get more info on 'Frankfurt'.
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