Frankfurt part 3, outside the centre

...Continued from part two

Walls and park

The city centre is surrounded on three sides by a strip of parkland (and the river on the south side). This is where the city wall and defenses once surrounded the city.



As far as I know, only one tower and a short bit of wall remains.


An Egyptian goose in the park. They are an invasive species, and not welcome... Unlike the Canadian ones?


The Euro-Skulptur, erected by the  European Central Bank when the Euro was introduced. The bank was sited in the adjacent building until 2015. 


The Alte Oper (Old Opera House) is also in this band round the city.


The River

The River Main forms the southern bounder of the old city. This is taken from the Altebrücke (Old Bridge). The Dom is on the right. The iron footbridge is the Eiserner Steg, which means iron foot bridge.


Another view of the Eiserner Steg, with a working boat, Xeryus, passing underneath.


This was taken from the south bank, looking to the skyscrapers of the city centre.


The south bank seems to be lined with museums. This is the Städel, an art collection founded in 1817, with a gallery built here in 1878. It was rebuilt to some extent in 1966 to repair wartime damage. 


The view from Friedensbrücke (Peace Bridge), which was built in 1950-51.


Westhafen (West Port) Tower, completed in 2004, is locally called Das Gerippte, referring to traditional apfelwein (cider) glasses.


This is West Port. The Main is still a working river, and behind me when I took this was facilities for unloading coal, but the dock on the left is now used for pleasure boats only.


The Druckwasserwerk is now a cafe. At one time this building would have provided hydraulic power to a host of equipment serving the dock and railways here.


Upriver there are further port facilities, some is still operable. However, this crane is now part of a cafe.

Goethe University

The university was founded in 1914, but only moved into this building in the nineties.


The building dates from 1928-30, and was built by IG Farben, which at the time was the largest chemical company in the world, formed by merging six companies in 1925. Clearly a product of the Art Deco movement, externally it has a rather no-nonsense brutality that is impressive, but not quite attractive.

The interior works better I feel.


After WW2, the companies were split up, and the building used as headquarters for the US Army's V Corps and the Northern Area Command (NACOM).

Behind the main building is the casino...


Which in this context means somewhere to eat, not to gamble, apparently.

Behind that, rather more modern buildings of the university.


A monument to Theodor Adorno, a major German philosopher - his desk and book in a glass box.


The library houses the remains of an ice house that was part of the Institute for Lunatics and Epileptics, which seems to have been a relatively progress place for the nineteenth century.

And Also...

The Hauptbahnhof was opened in 1888, amalgamating three earlier stations in the same area.


Looking up the street to the station from the city centre.



German car registration plates feature a one to three letter code for the region. from Frankfurt that is an F. This is followed by one (front) or two (back) spots, the lower being the arms of the state, the upper, on the back only, certifies the equivalent of the MOT. Thereafter one or two letters and up to four digits, and these seem to be used sequentially?




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