Bahnhofsviertel

The Bahnhofsviertel is a centrally located district of Frankfurt and is located directly at the eponymous main train station. The Bahnhofsviertel was created as a typical Wilhelminian style district, essentially in the German Empire until shortly before the outbreak of the First World War on the site of the former Frankfurt western railway stations. The wide east-west streets of the Bahnhofsviertel have been developed as boulevards and convey big-city charm. Numerous historic buildings survived the Second World War and the waves of demolitions in the first post-war decades; they are complemented by simpler residential buildings from the 50s and 60s and several high-rise buildings.

In terms of its population structure, the Bahnhofsviertel is a multicultural part of the city. The Bahnhofsviertel has the most foreigners in the city as a percentage of the population: 65.8 percent of the people here have a migration background. Bahnhofsviertel means literally “station district” in German.

At just over 0.54 square kilometers, the Bahnhofsviertel is the second smallest district of the city after the old town. The longest border line is just under a kilometer long. The quarter is almost trapezoidal between the Mainzer Landstrasse in the north, the Anlagenring in the east, the Main river in the south and the Alleenring in the west.

Neighboring parts of the city are the Gutleutviertel to the west and Gallus with the central station, the Westend to the north, Innenstadt to the east and Sachsenhausen to the south on the opposite side of the river.

In addition to the jobs in the office space, the economic focus of the district is above all gastronomy and retail, including a large number of foreign restaurants, snack bars and grocery stores due to the population structure. They are heavily dependent on the transit role of the Bahnhofsviertel in the direction of the city center and the general proximity to the main station, which represents an important crossroads not only for commuters in the Rhine-Main area, but for travelers throughout Germany.

Contrary to popular belief, the red-light trade occupies only a small part of the Bahnhofsviertel, being mainly concentrated along Taunusstraße and parts of its cross streets, especially the northern Elbestraße and Moselstraße, where several whorehouses are located.

Due to its central location, the Bahnhofsviertel is very well connected to the transport network. The Frankfurt Central Station, which itself no longer belongs to the district but to the neighboring Gallus, offers connectivity to regional and long-distance traffic. Numerous tram lines also cross the area.

High-rise buildings were built in the station district, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. These include the Silver Tower on Jürgen-Ponto-Platz, the Gallileo on the corner of Kaiserstrasse and Gallusanlage, both of which originally belonged to the Dresdner Bank headquarters, as well as the Skyper on Taunusstrasse and the Trade Union Building on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Strasse.