Seat of the European Central Bank and Frankfurt Skyline at dawn 20150422 1

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany, is one of the few European cities with a large cluster of high rise buildings in its downtown area. In many other European cities, skyscraper construction was not well received in the past due to the historical value of existing buildings. For this reason, Frankfurt is sometimes referred to as "

Mainhattan Mainhattan is a term referring to Frankfurt's skyline, especially that of its central business district, the Bankenviertel. The word is a portmanteau of Main, the river on which Frankfurt lies, and Manhattan, a reference to the inner city area ...

" (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the local Main river and

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

), and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

am Main. The 15 tallest buildings in Germany are located in Frankfurt. The tallest structure in Frankfurt is the Europaturm, which rises . However, the tower is not generally considered a high-rise building as it does not have successive floors that can be occupied. The tallest habitable building in Frankfurt is the

Commerzbank Tower Commerzbank Tower is a 56-story, skyscraper in the Bankenviertel, banking district of Frankfurt, Germany. An antenna tower, antenna spire with a signal light on top gives the tower a total height of . It is List of tallest buildings in Germany ...

, which rises and has 56 floors. As of December 2024, it is the 22nd-tallest building in Europe and the second tallest building in the European Union. Most of Frankfurt's downtown area was destroyed by Allied air bombardment during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and only a small number of the city's landmarks were rebuilt. This left ample room for and little opposition against the construction of modern high-rises in the city. Frankfurt went through a first high-rise building boom in the 1970s; during this time, the city saw the construction of nine buildings over . In the 1990s, Frankfurt went through another building boom, with eight buildings over completed, including four of five skyscrapers. Since 2000, Frankfurt has been experiencing a continuous building boom, starting with 5 (2000–2009), 7 (2010–2019) and probably 13 (2020–2029). , the city has 20 buildings which rise at least in height, more than any other city in Germany. The increasing demand for real estate, the exit of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the favorable economic development in Germany led to a new "boom" in high-rise construction from 2015 onwards. In addition to the 185-meter-high new building of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the 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 Big Four (banking)#International ...

, high-rise projects such as the Omniturm, the Maintor site and the development of the former Deutsche Bank site with four high-rises between 120 and 228 meters embody this development. With the 180-meter-high Grand Tower, Germany's tallest residential high-rise has been located in Frankfurt am Main since its completion in 2020. There are several proposed and approved plans for new skyscrapers, including Millennium Tower I, , Das Präsidium, , Millennium Tower II, .

Tallest buildings

This lists ranks the tallest buildings in Frankfurt that stand at least tall. Only habitable building are ranked which excludes

radio masts and towers Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antenna (radio), antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the ...

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

s, steeples,

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

s and other tall architectural structures. These buildings are included for comparison.

Under construction or proposed

Under construction

Proposed

Timeline of tallest buildings

This lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in Frankfurt.

Notes

:A. Topped out but not completed.

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

SKYLINE ATLAS - An online book about the skyscrapers in Frankfurt with more than 250 pages
- incl. all high-rise buildings under construction and planned *
Diagram of Frankfurt skyscrapers
on SkyscraperPage.com {{Portal bar, Germany, Architecture !