Germany Hesse Frankfurt

Frankfurt Am Main, less than 40 km from the Rhine, is first and foremost the financial center of Germany. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange, more than 400 years old, was established in 1585. Frankfurt’s modern skyline with its many skyscrapers is what gave it the moniker: "Mainhatten” which is obviously a portmanteau of the two words (Main, the river and New York’s Manhattan). These tall buildings makes for a most impressive modern “skyscraper skytline” with its own “twin towers” of the Deutsche Bank, the Eurotower etc.  Occasionally, there is a (free) Skyscraper Festival – so keep your eyes and ears open and perhaps there will be one this year or next year!

The Frankfurt Art Museum is housed at 63 Schaumiankai Street in 1815 and It offers a collection of European art over a span of about 700 years - from the beginning of the 14th century, through the Renaissance, Baroque, modernism to the present day.

The Frankfurt Zoological Garden Zoo (German: Zoologischer Garten Der Stadt Frankfurt Am Main) is considered one of the oldest and largest in Europe, a green oasis in a gray city.

The area of Frankfurt Cathedral, named after St. Bartholomew, was used for religious worship for as long as 700 years before its foundation. Evidence of this has been found in remains from the late Merovingian period, from the end of the 7th century AD – proof of this is a plaque now on display in the Cathedral Museum, which was from the tomb of a girl, probably from a wealthy home.

Grosser Hirschgraben 23-25 is the address of the home of the famous writer, poet, scientist, statesman - Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, a real polymath. He was born in 1749 to educated, affluent parents, who were art and book lovers. Out of seven siblings, Goethe and his sister Cornelia were the only two children to survive.

The postmodern museum building was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein who won an open competition for the planning of the museum. It is located at Dinstrasse 10, on the banks of the River Main. To date it is composed of 3 different venues named MMK 1, 2, and 3. The MMK Zollamt (MMK3) is located in a building directly opposite the museum and the other venue (MMK2) opened within the Taunus Turm. 

In 1804 a pharmacist named Peter Zaslzwedel built a summer cottage for himself on the outskirts of the city. Today, the Museum of Applied Arts Frankfurt (The Museum Angewandte Kunst), which is on Museum Street - Schaumainkai 17, stands in its place.

The German Film Museum (DFF) is actually a NPO - not for profit institute that combines the German Film Institute with a film museum that offers the heritage of cinema from 1895 to this day under the auspices of the State of Hesse and the capital city Wiesbaden. The board, which changes every three years is comprised of broadcasters and film aficionado who manage the place.

The Frankfurt Botanical Garden was established in 1868 in an almost random way, a collection of about 200 exotic plants and that were in the courtyard of the castle of a duke in Wiesbaden who ran into financial difficulties and so was willing to sell them and thus they were purchased and moved here.