From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bahnhofsviertel is a district or
Stadtteil of Frankfurt am Main. It is part of the
Ortsbezirk Innenstadt I. It was developed between 1891 and
1915 on the land of the established Westbahnhof.
Geography
Bird's eye view of the Bahnhofsviertel
The Bahnhofsviertel is scarcely half a square kilometre larger
than the Altstadt, making it the
second smallest borough of the city. The longest border line is
just short of a kilometre long. Almost trapeze shaped, this borough
lies between the Alleenring to the west, Mainzer Landstraße in the
north and the Anlagenring to the east. The River Main forms a
natural border in the south. Adjacent boroughs to the west are Gutleutviertel and
Gallus around Frankfurt Central
Station, Westend-Süd in the north
and Innenstadt in the east.
To the south, on the opposite side of the Main, lies Sachsenhausen-Nord.
History
The developing Bahnhofsviertel, 1893. The unbuilt area shows the
grounds of the western stations of five years previously. The new
street network is already finished.
The area between the Frankfurt city wall and field of the
gallows had hardly been constructed by the early nineteenth
century. Only farming estates were to be found in this area. Near
to the city gallows and as an unprotected site outside the city
walls, it was left alone for a long time. As industrialisation came
in, the city walls and its gallows were torn down to be replaced
initially by villas with large gardens. The technical advances were
especially noticeable here. When in 1839 the Taunusbahn was taken
into the still nassauisch town of Höchst am Main, the first station
was constructed on the Anlagenring. The track of the Taunusbahnhof
ran through the middle of the district of today's station quarter.
Later the stations of the Main-Neckar and Main-Weser-Bahn were
added to that. The western stations were in enterprise together
until 1888, after which time they were replaced by the new central
station of Frankfurt which was situated another 500m further west.
Thus the railway tracks also became redundant, and the year 1889
was able to begin with a dividing up of the area. As there was
still no significant residential zone existing in 1891, the area
became the central site of the international electrotechnical
exhibition led by Oskar von Miller. In the meantime, the large
civil land development in the style of the Wilhelminian period was
placed under monument protection. In the Second World War the
quarter was not so strongly bombed as the inner city, but
nevertheless many buildings were destroyed, particularly in the
north. In the time of the occupation by the American armed forces
the district developed an active nightlife, allowed soldiers free
rein to endless brothels.
Infrastructure
The Nizza on the banks of the Main
The Bahnhofsviertel is well connected to the public transport
system because of its central location. The Hauptbahnhof, which borders the borough,
offers connection to regional and long distance trains. Two tram lines (11
and 12) cross the Bahnhofsviertel on Münchner Straße. The U-Bahn
station Willy-Brandt-Platz and the S-Bahn station
Taunusanlage are also easily reachable. The well-known
meaning of Kaiserstraße has been lost among the street traffic,
travel from the Alleenring to the Hauptbahnhof is no longer
possible through the Kaisersack. Instead the main traffic vein
today is Gutleutstraße, which flows into the theatre tunnel and
offers a connection to the old part of town. The roads arrange in a
chessboard-like fashion and make orientation easy. The wide
east-west streets are constructed like boulevards and communicate
the charm of a big city. Numerous nineteenth century buildings have
survived through World
War II and became chaste residential houses in the 1950s and
1960s, whilst several supplemented skyscrapers. Best known are the
Silvertower and the Gallileo at Jürgen-Ponto-Platz (named after the
murdered president of Dresdner Bank), the Skyper and the
Gewerkschaftshaus in Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße. The latter was built
in 1931, (the architect was Max Taut), and was then the biggest
skyscraper in the city. The best known of many hotels in the
Bahnhofsviertel, the InterContinental, is also in
Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße.
There are no large parks but in the south of the district lies
the Main Riverbank, one of the most popular green areas in
Frankfurt. In 1860 a silted branch of the Main, the Kleine Main,
was filled up and the offshore island Mainlust was connected to the
main bank. On this land Sebastian Rinz, the city gardener, laid out
a green area with Mediterranean vegetation which was soon named
Nizza in common speech. The Frankfurt families Guaita and Loeen had
already possessed large landscaped gardens in the climatically
favoured area of the river west of the old city walls since the
seventeenth century.
Life
Münchener Straße, a view in the direction of
Willy-Brandt-Platz.
The red-light district occupies a small part of the
Bahnhofsviertel which is concentrated mainly along
Taunusstraße and in parts of its side roads.
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