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Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt City Hall Romer.
Photographer: Frank Seifert.
© Tourismus+Congress GmbH Frankfurt am Main
* Located in Hessen in central western Germany
* Banking center - HQ of the European Central Bank
* Transport hub for rail, air and road traffic
* Population 650,000, of which 83,000 work in banking
* Consulates: 86
* Tourist offices of foreign countries: 58
* World's biggest book fair
* Easy access to Luxembourg
World Cup 2006 Matches in Frankfurt
Sat June 10 England v Paraguay
Tues June 13 South Korea v Togo
Sat June 17 Portugal v Iran
Wed June 21 Netherlands v Argentina
Sat July 1 QF D
[Do not confuse the city with Frankfurt an der Oder, located east of Berlin on the Polish border, a long way from Frankfurt am Main.]
Skyscrapers and traditional timbered buildings are an indication of Frankfurt's reputation as a city of contrasts. Education and culture on one side, trade fairs on the other; the neo-marxist thinkers of "the Frankfurt School", Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Jürgen Habermas, and the city's being the seat of the European Central Bank.
The moniker "Mainhatten" is sometimes given to Frankfurt (lit. "Ford of the Franks") due to its tall buildings.
The German National Library is located in the city, befitting a city whose most famous former citizen is Goethe, as is the Institute of Social Research. Goethe Haus, where the writer was born, is now a museum. The world's biggest book fair is also held in Frankfurt in late September/early October.
Other attractions: Museum Mile on the banks of the River Main, which includes the Städelsches Kunstinstitut with a world class collection of fine art by various old masters and the Deutsches Filmmuseum, the Naturmuseum Senkenberg has a great collection of fossils and dinosaur bones, then there are the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, the Museum für Völkerkunde (Ethnological Museum), the Deutsches Postmuseum, the Museum für Kunsthandwerk (Museum of Applied Arts) and the Ikonen-Museum (Icon Museum); Paulskirche (St Paul's), the site of the first German parliament; the Main Tower, a skyscraper with a public viewing gallery at 200m and the gleaming twin towers of the Deutsche Bank.
The many university students in Frankfurt leads to a lively nightlife scene with a varied variety of places to eat and drink to suit all budgets. Sachsenhausen is a good area to head for.
Getting to Frankfurt
Air
From outside Europe there are direct flights to Korea, India, China, Japan and North America. Frankfurt airport has two railway stations, linked by a shuttle bus service. One station is for local traffic, the other for long-distance trains.
The airport is located 12km (8 miles) southwest of the city center.
Stations at the Airport:
Frankfurt airport has two railway stations:
The Regional Train Station (platforms 1-3), open 24/7, under Terminal 1, below level 0 (Area B). From this station, S-Bahn commuter trains (lines S8 and S9) leave every 15 minutes ( 4.30am – 12.40am ) for central Frankfurt and the Hauptbahnhof (central station). Journey time: 11 minutes.
Fernbahnof long-distance train station (platforms 4-7) ( 5am – 12.30am ) located at the AIRail Terminal. It is linked via a connector building to Terminal 1. From here, a number of high-speed trains (ICE, InterCity and Eurocity) leave for national and international destinations.
Train
The central station (Hauptbahnhof) is near the Frankfurt Fair (Messe) and walking distance to the Central Business District.
Frankfurt is well served by the rail network. Less than 4 hours is needed to get there from Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Basel or Amsterdam.
For trains from Frankfurt Airport, see section above (Stations at the Airport).
Bus/Road
Connections to all parts of Germany via the autobahn.
A climate-neutral World Cup
Click here for the 2006 Fifa World Cup venues
Click here for general information
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