Straddling the River Main not long
before it converges with the Rhine,
FRANKFURT
AM MAIN is the capital city
Germany has never actually had,
having been cheated on more than one
occasion of the role to which its
history and central geographical
position would seem to entitle it.
Yet that hasn't stopped it becoming
the economic powerhouse of the
country, a cut-throat financial
centre which is home to hundreds of
banks, including the Bundesbank and,
since 1998, the European Central
Bank. It's a modern international
city, with over 28 percent of its
residents - the highest proportion
in Germany -being of foreign
citizenship. Frankfurt is a major
communications and transport centre,
and consequently gives many
travellers their first taste of the
country. It's a place with a
surprising amount to offer and it's
worth spending at least a couple of
days here rather than treating it as
a mere transit point.
Over half of the city, including
almost all of the centre, was
destroyed during World War II and
the rebuilders decided to follow a
policy of innovation rather than
restoration. The result is a skyline
that smacks more of New York than
the Federal Republic - appropriate
enough in a city that has the
reputation of being one of the most
Americanized in Europe and whose
most commonly used nickname is
Mainhatten. It's also a surprisingly
civilized metropolis which spends
more per year on the arts than any
other city in Europe, and whose
inhabitants like nothing better than
to spend an evening knocking back a
few jugs of the local apple wine in
the open-air taverns of the Sachsenhausen
suburb.
Frankfurt has an energetic
nightlife and is a thriving
recreational centre for the whole of
Hesse, with a good selection of
theatres and galleries, and an even
better range of museums, mostly
concentrated along the south bank of
the River Main. It comes across as a
confident and tolerant city, and in
the Bockenheim district
there's a healthy
"alternative" scene, not
self-consciously institutionalized
in the way that Berlin's has become.
