Frankfurt’s skyline

There are not many cities in Europe that can score points with a distinctive skyline. But Frankfurt is one of them. Everyone knows the typical buildings of Paris and London. And Frankfurt’s skyline also belongs to the illustrious circle of the european skyscrapers. The towers of the skyscrapers rise up to 300 metres into the sky of the so-called “Mainhattan”.

Between the Römer and Frankfurt’s skyline

The beauty of Frankfurt is the mixture of history and modernity. For example, in historic squares like Frankfurt’s Römer. The popular square with the striking town hall is located in the middle of the city. And in the background you can see Frankfurt’s skyline. Or the Old Opera House on Opernplatz. The concert and event venue was built between 1873 and 1880 as the opera house of the Städtische Bühnen and destroyed in an air raid in 1944. While the Frankfurt Opera was given a new venue on Theaterplatz in 1951, the opera house remained in ruins for a long time. Today it shines in new splendour. Renaissance in the middle of the city surrounded by modern architectural buildings.

But how did Frankfurt get its skyscrapers?

After the war, Frankfurt became the city of banks and thus also the city of skyscrapers. After the race for the seat of government was decided in favour of Bonn in 1949, Frankfurt was awarded the seat of the Deutsche Bundesbank, as a consolation, so to speak.

Over the next decades, more than 550 domestic and foreign banks and insurance companies as well as another 2,000 financial service providers settled in Frankfurt. Many of them wanted to underline their importance to the outside world with a representative high-rise building – and space for office space in the city centre was becoming scarce anyway.

Thus, from the 1970s onwards, the banking district was built in the city centre, between Hauptwache, Alter Oper and Hauptbahnhof. Numerous old houses were also demolished in the Westend district, which many residents protested against. With the decision to keep the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt after reunification and the choice of Frankfurt as the seat of the European Central Bank, a second building boom began in the 1990s. Source: planet-wissen.de

Maintower – a view from above

Normally, Frankfurt’s skyscrapers are not open to the public. However, with one exception. The “Maintower” of the Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, opened in 2000, offers a viewing platform at a height of 200 metres.