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Westend-Nord and Westend-Süd are two city districts of
Frankfurt am Main 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 ...
, Germany. The division into a northern and a southern part is mostly for administrative purposes as the Westend () is generally considered an entity. Both city districts are part of the ''
Ortsbezirk A ''Stadtbezirk'' (also called ''Ortsbezirk'' in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate) is an administrative division in Germany, which is part of a larger city. It is translated as "borough". In Germany, ''Stadtbezirke'' usually only exist in a metr ...
Innenstadt II''. The Westend with its Wilhelminian style buildings is a beloved residential quarter and has the highest real estate prices in Frankfurt. Many old villas serve as offices for law firms and companies of the financial community. Along with the
Bahnhofsviertel The Bahnhofsviertel (; literally: ''train station quarter'') is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the '' Ortsbezirk Innenstadt I''. The Bahnhofsviertel was developed between 1891 and 1915. Along with the Westend, the Norde ...
, the Nordend and the
Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariaker ...
, it is part of Frankfurt's dense inner city districts.


History


Western Boundaries

Like the other districts constructed in the Wilhelminian period the Westend has been within the town walls of Frankfurt since the building of the ''Frankfurter
Landwehr ''Landwehr'', or ''Landeswehr'', is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortificatio ...
'' . Largely consisting of fields and heathland, it was area made up of isolated farming estates. Streets in the area still carry the names of these estates which were called Hellerhof, Hynsperghof and Kettenhof.


Classicism and the Wilhelminian period

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the old Frankfurt fortifications were razed. Soon numerous classic suburban villas with generous gardens sprang up along the Bockenheimer Landstraße, the arterial road in the neighbouring town of Bockenheim. Among them were the Gontardsche garden house and the Villa Leonhardi designed by the architect Nicolas Alexandre Salins de Montfort, as well as the Rothschildpalais of Friedrich Rumpf. Around the middle of the nineteenth century the area through the town was divided up and the streets and Squares were laid out. The narrow, built-up Frankfurter Neustadt was bursting at the seams and so people were continuously moving to the outer western town. Paris became an archetype for street construction, therefore wide boulevards as well as squares with radial streets leading outwards began to appear. In 1858 the first Frankfurt Zoo was laid out on the Bockenheimer Landstraße, which was later moved to the
Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariaker ...
. The Westend then became a residential quarter for the affluent, as in other towns and cities with a Westend. Many villas and grand residential houses sprouted, of which many still stand today. At the end of the nineteenth century nearly the whole southern part of the Westend was built-up. In the northern part was the newly laid Palmengarten, the Grüneburgweg with its emerging Grüneburgpark as well as the ''Irrenanstalt'' (the so-called ''Irrenschloß'', a psychiatric hospital) founded by Heinrich Hoffmann on the Affenstein. Around the well-contained development
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
Franz Adickes had the Alleenring built at the beginning of the twentieth century, which at the same time bound all the new boroughs of the city together. The northern borough was less densely built-up due primarily to the generously laid borders of the Grüneburgpark. In 1930 Hans Poelzig erected the
IG Farben Building The IG Farben Building – also known as the Poelzig Building and the Abrams Building, formerly informally called The Pentagon of Europe – is a building complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which currently serves as the main structure of the West ...
. Until the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
nothing else changed much. In the
Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
the borough was abolished and the Westend became part of Frankfurt-Nord. Police station nine in Lindenstraße 27 was the center of the Frankfurt
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
. The Westend was spared from carpet bombing during the airraids of the second world war. Initially, after the war almost the whole Westend-Nord (from Wolfgangstraße) was declared a restricted zone. The American military set up their headquarters in the I.G. Farben building. Surrounding boroughs were converted into housing estates for GIs. In 1948 barbed wire was removed from the restricted zones.


Skyscrapers and street riots

In the 1950s the Westend was still a clean residential area for around 40,000 people. The houses had only four floors as a general rule.


The first skyscraper

In 1938 Frankfurt came upon the chance to purchase a 58 hectare area between Bockenheimer Landstraße, Unterlindau, Staufenstraße and Reuterweg at a very reasonable price, which had previously belonged to the well-established Jewish
Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a Court Jew, court factor to the German Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Landgraves ...
, land which the Nazi government had put into probation. Although the 1950 selling price was later improved, the return of a third of this area was demanded to be returned as part of the Rothschild inheritance. After this, approval of the construction of a multi-storey development on the Rothschild's returned land was received (they sold it to Schweizer Zürich-Versicherung and Berliner Handelsgesellschaft) and office towers were established directly opposite the old opera house. The Zurich building built in 1960, and demolished again soon after was the first multi-storied building in Frankfurt Westend. The city transformed the remaining part of the area into the Rothschildpark, which is accessible to everyone.


The abolition of housing space

After the abolishment of control of living space in 1960, Hans Kampffmeyer, the head of the social democratic planning department developed the concept of decentralising the inner city. The adjacent boroughs were to become an extension of the Westend. The so-called Fünf-Fingerplan of 1967 designated that through the Westend five leading axles –
Mainzer Landstraße The Mainzer Landstraße is one of the main arterial roads in Frankfurt am Main, running west from the city centre to the outlying suburbs of the city. The road runs largely parallel with the River Main along its northern bank, and at in length ...
, Bockenheimer Landstraße, Reuterweg, Grüneburgweg and Eschersheimer Landstraße – should be developed under an intensive construction plan. From this came a wave of property speculation, numerous nineteenth century building were demolished in the following years, their long established tenants driven out by rough methods. Several hundred houses stood empty in the Westend of 1970, often in completely shabby condition. The development soon encountered resistance by the population. The middle classes reacted with the creation of the first ''Bürgerinitiativen'' (citizen's initiative), the ''Aktionsgemeinschaft Westend'' (AGW). The AGW put together a land register of monuments and buildings worthy of preservation and by 1970 obtained a modification ban for Westend. Henceforward, the city wanted to turn around the development plans for any newly introduced developments. 1972 saw the federal state of
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
issue a regulation against dwelling misuse. At the same time the ''Frankfurter Häuserkampf'' (house squatting) developed, which was mainly driven by students at the University situated in the Westend. Many houses were occupied, which received constant supplies to demonstrate on the streets with the police.
Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fis ...
was also involved in this. The high point of the Häuserkampf was between 1970 and 1974. In 1972 an attack on the American headquarters in the I.G Farben building was carried out by the Red Army Fraction, in which a soldier died. In the 1970s yet another row of multi-storey buildings were built in Westend such as the AfE-Turm on the university grounds. The City-Hochhaus at Platz der Republik, in those days the highest skyscraper in Germany (and burned down in 1973 to the jubilation of several students) was however finished later. Although in 1976 a construction plan was decreed that no more skyscrapers would be planned, exceptions were approved in the southern part of Westend along Mainzer Landstraße and the Alleenring. Today the southern part of Westend has grown together extensively with 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 o ...
. On the edge of Westend the second highest skyscraper in Germany, the
Messeturm The Messeturm, or Trade Fair Tower, is a 63-storey, skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It is the second tallest building in Frankfurt, the second tallest building in Germany and the third tallest building in the E ...
, rose up to 257 metres.


Situation and demarkation

Westend lies at the northwestern border of the inner city and north of Bahnhofsviertel and Gallus. Its longest border separated it from Bockenheim to the west. To the north the Westend meets the borough of Dornbusch, and to the east of is Nordend. The northern border of Westend is identical to that of the former Frankfurter Landwehr, which protected the territory of the free city of Frankfurt for centuries. Normally the people of Frankfurt say Westend is hemmed in by Reuterweg, the Bockenheimer Anlage at the Opernplatz, the Taunusanlage, Mainzer Landstraße up to Platz der Republik, Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, Senckenberganlage, a small piece of Zeppelinallee, then from the southern boundary of the Palmengarten, Siesmayerstraße, Grüneburgweg up to its bend in the south east and Fürstenbergerstraße to the corner of Reuterweg. The official urban districts of Frankfurt are not covered completely by these borders. According to these the whole Messe (fair) grounds, except in the west border area of Bockenheim and in the east of the district up to Eschersheimer Landstraße, also belongs to Westend.


Townscape


Skyscrapers in Westend-Süd

The western part of the Innenstadt, the eastern part of the Bahnhofsviertel and the southern part of the Westend form Frankfurt's central business district, 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 o ...
. The concentration of skyscrapers here is higher than anywhere else in Germany. The skyscrapers which are located in the Westend line up from the Bockenheimer Anlage via the Taunusanlage and Mainzer Landstraße to Platz der Republik. From east to west along this stretch are the Parktower (115 m), the Opernturm (170 m) the
Deutsche Bank Twin Towers The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers, also known as Deutsche Bank Headquarters (German: ''Zwillingstürme der Deutschen Bank'' or ''Hauptverwaltung Deutsche Bank AG''), is a twin tower skyscraper complex in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Ge ...
(each 155 m), the Trianon (186 m), the
Frankfurter Büro Center Frankfurter Büro Center (German for ''Frankfurt Office Centre''), also known as FBC, is a 40-storey, skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was designed by architect Richard Heil from Frankfurt. The building's anch ...
(142 m), the Westend Tower (208 m) and the
City-Haus City-Haus is a 42-storey skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was constructed from 1971 to 1974 and designed by architects Johannes Krahn and Richard Heil. It was the tallest building in Frankfurt from 1974–197 ...
(142 m). There are more tall buildings at the Messe grounds: the world-renowned
Messeturm The Messeturm, or Trade Fair Tower, is a 63-storey, skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It is the second tallest building in Frankfurt, the second tallest building in Germany and the third tallest building in the E ...
(257 m, the tallest skyscraper in Europe between 1991 and 1997), the
Westend Gate Westend Gate, formerly known as Plaza Büro Center, is a 47-storey, skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was the tallest building in Germany from 1976 until 1978 when it was surpassed by the Silberturm, which is a ...
(159 m, the tallest skyscraper in Germany between 1976 and 1977).


Infrastructure


Traffic

As a predominantly residential area the Westend mainly has narrow roads, which are calm in relation to traffic. Apart from a few exceptions all the roads are one-way streets, which change directions at cross roads. Therefore, the Westend is much loved by driving schools. The exceptions are streets which lead out of the Westend borough into other parts of the city. Initially these streets are Eschersheimer Landstraße, the Anlagenring and the Alleenring, which carry a majority of the rush-hour and Messe traffic. Other important traffic-bearing streets are Bockheimer Landstraße as the main street to the Messe lying in an east-west direction, and the fairway made up of Reuterweg, Bremer Straße and Hansaallee as an arterial road in the North and Grüneburgweg as another east-west connection. Apart from that Grüneburgweg is also the Westend-Nord Westend-Süd border. The Westend was one of the first boroughs with a connection to the tram network. In those days the main route lead through Bockenheimer Landstraße. Since the building of the C-route of the
Frankfurt U-Bahn The Frankfurt U-Bahn is a Stadtbahn system serving Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Together with the Rhine-Main S-Bahn and the Frankfurt Straßenbahn, it forms the backbone of the public transport system in Frankfurt. Its name derives from the Germ ...
the Westend still only had Messe line 16, which travels through the western edge and over the Alleenring. The Westend was also attached to the underground from its very beginning. The A-route traffic ran through a tunnel under Eschersheimer Landstraße. The Westned had another U-Bahn route since 1986 underneath Bockenheimer Landstraße. The C-route runs from the Alte Oper to Bockenheimer Warte. A third U-Bahn route was added in 2001. The D-route runs underneath the Alleenring and serves the eastern Messe grounds. A railway junction developed at Bockenheimer Warte. Through the stations at Taunusanlage in the east and Messe in the west, the Westend is also linked into the Network of the
Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network compris ...
.


Public services

Despite the high population density and the good traffic infrastructure the Westend has no hospitals, fire departments or police stations. All emergency services are however located close by in Nordend. In contrast the Westend has many superior educational facilities available. Near to the university the Westend has the Frankfurter Musikhochschule and the Sigmund-Freud-Insitut. Numerous schools can be found in the Westend of which several of primary schools (Elsa Brandström-Schule, Engelbert Humperdinck-Schule und Holzhausenschule), the I.E. Lichtigfeld-Schule of the Jewish community, a private school ( Anna-Schmidt-Schule) and several grammar schools: :* Bettinaschule is a grammar school with an emphasis on modern languages. It was founded in 1898 under the name Viktoriaschule as a higher girls school and renamed after Bettina von Arnim in 1947. :* The Goethe grammar school was separated in 1897 as a Realgymnasium (an old special type of grammar school which no longer exists) from the urban high school created in 1520. :* The classical Lessing grammar school likewise developed in 1897. It continues the humanistic tradition of the old Frankfurt grammar schools. The school building has been situated in Hansaallee in the Westend since 1902.


Economy

Korean Air Korean Air Co., Ltd. (), trade name, operating as Korean Air (Korean Air Lines before 1984), is the flag carrier of South Korea and its largest airline based on fleet size, international destinations and international flights. The present-da ...
operates its Germany office in the district.Überblick / Kontakt Info
"
Korean Air Korean Air Co., Ltd. (), trade name, operating as Korean Air (Korean Air Lines before 1984), is the flag carrier of South Korea and its largest airline based on fleet size, international destinations and international flights. The present-da ...
. Retrieved on 30 August 2011. "Niderlassung in Deutschland An der Welle 4, 60322 Frankfurt am Main"


Places of interest


Campus Bockenheim of Goethe University and Senckenberg Museum

Along the Senckenberganlage from Georg-Voigt-Straße to Bockenheimer Warte lies the Campus Bockenheim of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. The buildings still date from the start of the university or further back in time. The construction of the Senckenberg Museum is also impressive. It was erected for the Senckenberg natural sciences society from 1904 to 1907 from plans by Ludwig Neher. The museum was erected in the tradition of the baroque castles. The full, representative facade, which captivates through the building of wings for the Physical Association and the Senckenberg library in the form of open arcades, is worth seeing.


Amerikahaus

The building, (known as "Haus der Völkerfreundschaft" to the locals) inaugurated in 1958 on the corner of Reuterweg and Staufenstraße, was supposed to bring the American culture in the form of books, films and music, closer to the people of Frankfurt.


Messeturm, Festhalle and Hammering Man

The
Messeturm The Messeturm, or Trade Fair Tower, is a 63-storey, skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It is the second tallest building in Frankfurt, the second tallest building in Germany and the third tallest building in the E ...
is the second tallest building in the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
. It is located on the western end of Westend-Süd at the fairground. Alongside is the Festhalle, a civic center, with a freely supported dome construction of glass and steel between stone corner-towers. It belongs to the first building which were constructed on the fairground. Regular exhibitions and concerts take place here. On the forecourt of both buildings stands the
Hammering Man ''Hammering Man'' is a series of monumental kinetic sculptures by Jonathan Borofsky. The two-dimensional painted steel sculptures were designed at different scales (from approximately 12 feet to 49 feet high), were painted black, and depict a ...
, a moving statue by American artist
Jonathan Borofsky Jonathan Borofsky (born December 24, 1942) is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine. Early life and education Borofsky was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie M ...
.


Campus Westend of Goethe University at IG Farben Building and Grüneburgpark

The established corporate headquarters of IG Farben were erected at Grüneburgpark in Westend-Nord in 1928. After World War II the
IG Farben Building The IG Farben Building – also known as the Poelzig Building and the Abrams Building, formerly informally called The Pentagon of Europe – is a building complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which currently serves as the main structure of the West ...
became the main location of the American armed forces in Europe. Since 2001 it serves as the new campus for the Goethe University. The surrounding Grüneburgpark lies in the curve of Miquelallee and is one of the biggest parks in Frankfurt.


Horse stables

One of the few original, preserved buildings remaining is the former Livingstonsche Pferdestall in Ulmenstraße. It is the only building left of a magnificent mansion complex of Max Livingston.


Westend Synagogue

The Westend synagogue, located in Freiherr-vom-Stein-Straße 30, is the largest synagogue in Frankfurt and one of three currently used synagogues in Frankfurt. Built originally during 1908 to 1910, it served the liberal community until its closing and partial demolition in
1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...
. However, on account of the buildings' close proximity to residential buildings,
firemen A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
sped to extinguish the fire sparked by non-Jewish German civilians and
Sturmabteilung The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ralli ...
troops. After the
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
the synagogue was reinaugurated on 6 September 1950, this time by Orthodox Jews; it now houses the
Yeshiva Gedolah Frankfurt The Yeshivah Gedolah of Chabad Lubavitch in Frankfurt am Main is a Yeshiva operated by Chabad of Germany; see Tomchei Tmimim. The Director or Rosh Yeshivah is Rabbi Yossi Havlin; it was founded and continues to be run by Rabbi S. Zalman Gurevi ...
. The synagogue's original design resembled Assyrian–Egyptian architecture. Throughout the various renovations that took place this orientation was preserved.


Suhrkamp Haus

The functional structure of the Suhrkamp publishing house is located in Lindenstraße, the architectural reputation of the residence corresponds inversely to its literary importance.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westend (Frankfurt Am Main) Districts of Frankfurt