Frankfurt Am Main-Stadtansicht von der Deutschherrnbruecke am fruehen Abend-20110808

Mainhattan is a term referring to Frankfurt's skyline, especially that of its

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " city ...

, the

Bankenviertel Bankenviertel (; ''banking quarter'') is the name of the central business district in Frankfurt, Germany where many banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions are located. It is the most important German financial hub, if not ...

. The word is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsMain Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

, the river on which

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

lies, and

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of counties in New York, origin ...

, a reference to the inner city area's visually impressive high rises and

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

s, a special feature for a European city. Together with the historically important Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew and St. Paul's Church, these buildings form the skyline of the city. The first tall buildings were built in the 1960s. Banks and other financial institutions settled there, which resulted in the district also being referred to as "Bankfurt" (''Bankford''). Originally, both expressions were sometimes used derisively, but the

connotation A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...

has changed to a purely positive one. The seat of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important central b ...

is located in Mainhattan. The

Commerzbank Tower Commerzbank Tower is a 56- story, skyscraper owned by Samsung of Korea since September 2016 in the banking district of Frankfurt, Germany. An antenna spire with a signal light on top gives the tower a total height of . It is the tallest bui ...

was the tallest building in the European Union until

the Shard The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge, and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that forms part of The Shard Quarter dev ...

in London was built. After the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit), plans were made for several financial institutions to move from the City of London to Mainhattan. However, a report by the think tank New Financial found that even after Brexit, there is still around five times more international financial activity in the UK than in France and Germany, suggesting that

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

will remain the most important

financial centre A financial centre ( BE), financial center ( AE), or financial hub, is a location with a concentration of participants in banking, asset management, insurance or financial markets with venues and supporting services for these activities to ...

on the European continent, ahead of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and Frankfurt.

References

External links

What does Mainhattan mean?
* {{Commons inline, Skylines in Frankfurt am Main, Mainhatttan Districts of Frankfurt Financial districts in Germany