pink perfection against neutral plastering.
frankfurt and i, we have a strange relationship. it is too big of a city for me to want to live in and it also does not feel like a home turf to me, but every once in a while the big city feeling and the prospect of seemingly endless possibilities of exploration localities lures me in and begins to work its charm on me. especially because frankfurt is full of exciting architecture, interesting cultural activities and - frankly put - a treasure trove of museums for all kinds of tastes.
i have a dear friend living in frankfurt, and when we both venture out into the city, it always involves discovering big and small surprises - be it a new concert venue i have never been to, or a small restaurant that offers the most delicious asian cuisine, or even tiny details such as little front yards with a plethora of abundant flowers. the big surprises often involve frankfurt's iconic architectural landscape - a city full of skyscrapers and other futuristic constructions, of mid-century chic and brutalist perfection, of early socialist dwellings and medieval or baroque remnants - it has everything.
the fact that i haven't set out to explore frankfurt more often is a simple one: i want to savour every visit as a special occasion, exploring it bit by bit, in a much slower pace. i want to be able to take the several districts and landscapes in more consciously, more deliberately, soaking it up slowly and understanding the fabric of it by dissecting it piece by piece, which takes time. and since the enormity of the city is quite overwhelming, some districts already cities by themselves, it makes sense to me to devour its delicacies in tiny slices, so that i don't overfill myself and then die of gluttony.
does that make sense? i mean, to me frankfurt is kinda like a cake made out of various types of cakes, with several fillings and toppings and several levels of juiciness or dryness, density and lack there-of, a mélange of hundreds of baked goodies thrown together. and you know, as good and delicious as those cakes and pastries are on their own, together they would absolutely overload your senses and destroy your appetite irrecoverably.
so here is another piece of the massive and not so easily digestible cake that's called frankfurt, from two occasions last year. the first involved a small walk around the neighborhood surrounding the mousonturm - a venue that hosts the annual japanese film festival 'nippon connection' my friend and i visit every year to watch some of the newest and most exciting movies coming from the island in the far east ( broadening my very small movie horizon a little bit ;P ). and the second one involved a visit to the german architecture museum - which is located in frankfurt and is easily one of my favourite places in the city - and a good stroll through the north of the sachsenhausen district and some part of the deutschherrnviertel neighborhood. so, let's dive in - this is going to be a long one!
on the little walk around the mousonturm, i solely focussed on small details such as flowers. i am pretty sure i posted about the mousonturm venue before ( here ) - it's a great expressionist brickstone building from the 1920ies, located in the ostend district, surrounded by lovely old town houses. the neighborhood teems of creativity and curiousity, it's what you call a 'hip' and attractive district these days, where all the youngsters and young families live. you can find lots of cafes, restaurants, little bars and theaters everywhere, which contributes to the quality of living here. it's definitely an area where creatives feel very welcome and settle down to work and sculpt and add to the cultural landscape of frankfurt.
these pictures are quite random, though, and i don't think they do the district any justice, lol. what they do though, is showing you stuff that i found worth capturing, and up-rooted tree stumps randomly lying around is something my brain registers immediately, probably because it is out of order and in violation to its surroundings. as you know, i love strange contrasts and out of whack images, a little insight into almost surrealist realms.
i can't remember anymore where exactly i shot these photos as well, i only know that it was at a second nippon location in the nordend district near the mal seh'n cinema. that area is full of residential buildings and is equally made up like the ostend, so of course i would have a problem remembering which photos i shot at which district 😂
loved the round metal balconies next to an old brickstone building.
i gave the camera to my friend at some point, who went wild on the flowers. he really does the best flower photos, and detail shots in general. normally he's taking pictures with an analogue camera, quite artful ones, with a big mood going on. if you want to get a glimpse of his photography, you can head over to tsumitobakudan on tumblr, which he had to create recently, because tumblr deleted his old blog of over 10 years ( screw you, tumblr ). i hope he's going to find a way to re-introduce his photography again, amongst all the other excellent visual eye-candy he always posts ❤
and yes, the red-haired thing behind the flower is me 😂 i don't have long nor equally as red hair anymore by now ( which, if you are not a follower of me on instagram, you probably wouldn't know, i just realized 😳).
normally i prefer filled peonies to unfilled ones, until we discovered that unfilled ones have the most interesting pistills.
amazing details 😍
passed by a cider pub. this sign is an old-fashioned clue that it is part of wine presses that have their own bar in and around frankfurt. apple cider is a local specialty here, and the vessel you see is a traditional apple cider jug, called 'bembel' in frankfurt dialect. it's usually made out of stoneware, and it's only a 'bembel' if it's grey and blue!
and then we found a GORGEOUS graffiti 😍 it was made in 2017 by the artist COR aka justus becker and was named 'freedom of thoughts/limitation of deeds'.
the complete graffiti ( almost, an open book is also part of it, but i didn't manage to include it in the photo ). now, you tell me, what do you think is the meaning behind it? do you relate money and books with freedom of thoughts? i'd really like to know your stance on it, without telling you mine.
beautiful poppy flower ( they also have the best pistills 😍 ).
this is also frankfurt, full of grime, old flakey facades and the occasional urban jungle!
the evening light created a dreamy atmosphere to that particular house. isn't it wonderful how simply a change in light or perspective can turn an ugly thing into a beautiful one? this is one of my favourite concepts in life, ugly objects and subjects turning into something stunning after something special happens to them. it occurs a lot, in objects, in living things, in humans. so, so good. ugliness takes a big part in my perception of beauty ❤
one more flakey house wall photo :3
glimmering sunshine against glass balconies. tiny magic moments, y'all!
das leben ist (k)ein ponyschlecken. ( life is(n't) pony licking ). well, there are two sayings in german that actually go like this: life is not a pony farm & life is not sugar licking. they both essentially mean that life is not an easy walk in the park, no swiss picnic, no bed of roses etc. here, some funny people combined sugar licking and pony farm and made pony licking out of it, which is hilarious in so many ways. it sounds a bit like something i would say, because i often mix up different sayings and create a new one out of it 😂
enough of the random frankfurt tidbits, on to the day i went to the german architecture museum! as you all know, i lllllllluuuuuurvvvveeeee architecture and a visit to this museum should've been on my itinerary looooooong before i finally made it there! i read in the papers that there would be an exhibition on 'neues frankfurt' - a big construction project that was brought into being between 1925 to 1930 by city planner and architect ernst may. as you know, this particular time is pretty well-known for bauhaus and expressionist architecture, which i am pretty wild about, so of course i took that as a nudge to finally make my visit. i was not let down, and i feel that i really need to revisit as soon as possible for another round of architectural satisfaction. the museum is situated at the southern banks of the main river in sachsenhausen in a building from the end of the 19th century, which was a double villa before it was turned into the museum. inside the building they constructed a house into the original walls, creating a house within a house. that's a pretty special way to illustrate the purpose of the museum, if you ask me! as always, my pictures don't do it justice, so you should check out their website for much better insights into the museum.
here are some impressions of the museum:
there was another exhibition taking place about architecture in bangladesh, which was really interesting, especially because that part of the world is so threatened with natural disasters ( mainly floodings ) and they have to find clever solutions to integrate architecture into a landscape that is so heavily tested all the time. they put up little models of projects and also hung up printed fabric where you could see photos and explanations about the real buildings in bangladesh. going through this exhibition i imagined myself wandering through bangladesh's dense mangrove woods and many waterways that lance through the country - the printed fabric always swaying gently in the wind that blew softly through the room. of course that was completely unlike the climate you would experience if you would really be in bangladesh, but, hey, at least your girl is still able to imagine things?
the architecture presented was really cool, bangladesh construction is very light and airy, in tune with nature and the annual monsoon season. here's some more infos on that particular exhibition.
completely fell in love with this facade that combined brickstone modern with traditional details. typical for me, i didn't note down the architect or name of this project, which is the reason why we all now have to die stupid 😜
there is a little atrium inside, with access to fresh air and a little patch of sky. a few trees also curiously grew there, which was fascinating to me, because the atrium was basically encased in all kinds of non-organic materials.
i do quite love such tiny urban jungles, in case you haven't noticed ;)
i adored this wall made out of cardboard, all the different patterns and structures were making me very happy.
the exhibition that i was interested in mostly though, was called 'new human, new housing'. it introduced and explained what hides behind the term 'neues frankfurt', who were the main initiators and architects and the architecture that came of it. you can still find several remnants of 'neues frankfurt' architecture all over the city ( and inspired by that, in other cities as well ), which i diligently wrote down, because i want to visit all the places eventually!
though the architects in frankfurt were not bauhaus architects, they still were heavily inspired by the teachings of the school, and i think some of them were in close contact with the bauhaus people anyway, walter gropius was even part of the concept planning. so, despite not having the term 'bauhaus' written all over it, what was eventually realized were bauhaus concepts through and through - which basically originated in the need of having to build thousands of new homes for many people in a quick and an inexpensive way, which still propagated modern living and promising future prospects. and what they did create survived to this day, because its timelessness and simplicity and functionality still serve our current needs in terms of living spaces perfectly.
this beautiful model depicts the villa may in the ginnheim district, which ernst may built for himself and his family in 1925. i adore the big window front out into the garden, it reminded me so much of the meisterhäuser in dessau built by gropius.
villa elsaesser, built by martin elsaesser in 1925/26, another very important architect of the 'neues frankfurt' project,
gesellschaftshaus palmengarten - an event location inside the palmengarten park. the original building is from 1871 and is attached behind the annex in the front, which got built in 1929 by ernst may and martin elsaesser. i actually have already seen this building with my own two eyes, and it's quite a looker! now i really wanna revisit this botanical garden again, as it's also quite a beautiful sight of frankfurt!
behind the palmengarten venue house you can see a tiny bit of the gustav-adolf-kirche from 1928, which was also built by martin elsaesser.
view up into the roof part of the house within the villa. on the second floor of the building you can find a permanent exhibition which showcases the history of architecture from its very early beginnings in the stone age to contemporary architecture today.
the exhibition consists of various models that depict different time spans. here you can see an industrialist scenery, inspired by an english settlement, many of which sprung up nearby power or mining plants all over europe to house the workers. it's the only picture i made of that exhibition, though it had lots more interesting sceneries to offer.
when you are at the top of the museum, you might be able to have a glance outside and get a great view on the banking district of frankfurt! that skyline is simply unique in germany, there's nothing like it anywhere. yeah, i know, it's really rather a small version of international banking capitals all over the world like london, new york, you name them, but it's quite special for us germans. a tiny glimpse of manhattan, which is why frankfurt citizens lovingly name it 'mainhattan' ( because of the river flowing nearby 😉 ).
after i left the museum i was quite ready for something sweet, so i went on search for a tiny cafe to buy me some coffee and a piece of cake. i found a turkish bakery not far away and happily delved into a cherry pie 😋 while nourishing myself, i wrote down all the places i saw inside the exhibition and wanted to visit into my cute little triadic ballet notebook ( pretty adult-like, as if i was an important reporter who took notes for an article i wanted to write, lol ), which i got at the bauhaus museum in weimar ( which i had visited in may as well - maybe i should post about that someday 💁).
after my coffee session i continued to explore sachsenhausen for a bit, totally on a quest and full of appetite for more architectural goods and nourishment. spotted this curious and pretty space-y installation by luzius ziermann.
and since frankfurt is filled with amazing street art, here's a piece of COR again, who obviously is well-known in frankfurt. this one's called 'let your life grow', and it's pretty self-explanatory, right?
this beautiful depot building from 1899 has once been a cable car railyard before it was turned into a community center with a restaurant, library and supermarket inside in 2009.
from the vantage point of the cable car depot you could see the very new ( finished in 2017 ) henninger turm, a modern version of the old and very iconic one, which wasn't iconic enough to withstand a demolition though. the new tower was designed in imitation of the old one, which was a grain elevator in its past life and also had served as a lookout point for many years before it eventually was decided to give it a new face and purpose. now, the tower's purpose is one of a living quarter, albeit quite an expensive one, for sure. there is a restaurant on the very top of the building as well, so at least the lookout kinda stays open for the public in a way. more on this tower later.
the street the new henninger turm is situated in has a few more modern buildings to offer, one of them being this residence tower from 1969 by helmut joos, which is about 73 meters tall.
while it might not be something to brag about, it still kinda possesses a certain appeal. i think it's the strange little balconies!
on the other side of the street another brutalist appearing building caught my eye, and this one charmed me a quite a tad bit more! unfortunately there's not any trusted information about it anywhere, though someone suggested it might be a johannes krahn creation from 1969. i don't want to varify that, but it definitely fits into the late 1960ies, early 1970ies era. from this angle, the building isn't that special, unless your interest is piqued by tiny details, which for me was the discovery of the balconies.
when i looked closer, i also noticed the strange window frames, which were not typically rectangular, but alveolar! and in addition to the bright red undersides of the balconies they started to turn on an alarm bell in my head, alerting me about the discovery of a rather inconspicuous seeming, but all the while hidden brutalist/space architecture gem.
the fawn-coloured tiles of the clinker facade were also a detail i liked. the annex you see here was part of the actual high-rise in the back, probably intented to be a community center for the residence tower.
creeping closer to the highlight. another tiny detail was made visible - tiny windows on the outer walls. oh, and just so you can laugh about me - the order and arrangement of the balconies gives me great pleasure 😍
the building inflamed my heart by the time i finally shot this angle 💖
from the other side it wasn't as visually pleasing and orderly-looking, actually a bit messy, due to the various window types.
the alveolar windows still looked super cute, though.
and from a more central point of view, the look suddenly turned into a small symmetrical dream again :3 it's the small things that turn a building into something extraordinary for me, and this one is definitely proof of that!
but let's return to the street again, which is called 'hainer weg' and explore some more structures! always part of the hainer weg is the new henninger turm, you simply can't miss it.
but i also took interest in another small building, the blue and fawn clinkered house below.
formerly a printing office it was abandoned for a little while, but when i visited they were in the middle to tear down everthing to make room for more residence appartments. i first sneakily took some pictures, but some construction workers noticed me and allowed me to have a closer look. i didn't want to disturb too much, though, so i just got some frontal pictures, thanked them, and then went my ways again. it was a bit awkward, especially when one of the construction dudes hit on me 😳 always a sure sign to get me shy and wanting to melt together with the grounds below me or seeking an escape route as quick as possible, haha.
i was super much into the tile situation, though and i loved it in combination with the overgrowth 😍
right next to the old printing office - another brutalist abode - also about to be torn down. i found absolutely no info on this, but i still liked the coarse concrete panels and the very 80ies feel of it.
it was actually a pretty cool building, this one, not too shabby. we have a lot of similar buildings in wiesbaden as well, and they are still used to this day, even by official agencies. but what can you do when somebody has great plans to revive a rather run-down part of the sachsenhausen district. a revitalisation will probably always get a precedence in urban planning, and often it is done by destroying the old, cheap and ugly, to make room for something shiny, luxurious and extremely expensive.
and yup, this one would also be victim of the wrecking ball. and quite frankly, another pretty interesting one! one that looked actually still pretty new and kinda futuristic. it was formerly seat of an architecture office called JSK. that explains the interesting structure. the architecture firm ( which was founded by helmut joos, the guy who built the white high-rise i mentioned earlier ) had to register bankruptcy in 2013 and therefore ceased to exist.
in comparison to the immaculate design of the new henninger tower, all the mentioned to be torn down smaller buildings next to it pale quite a bit and for people who are advocating for new and shiny contemporary architecure they probably are quite a thorn in their flesh. i mean, how can these run-down buildings exist, in the presence of this outstanding tower? of course it is in dire need of having adequate neighbours that fit the gentrification bill!, is probably a thing city planners utter under their breath these days.
i admit, while i don't like the increase of luxurious appartment buildings and therefore a rise in rents and leases, i still can't put away the fact that some of these buildings hit an aesthetic string within me, especially when they create an interesting landscape or are simply gorgeous to look at. lines, and squares, tetris-inspired structures, the use of uncommon forms and shapes, exquisite materials... all reasons for me to fall in love with the evil new contemporary architecture for the rich.
the new henninger turm hits some of the aforementioned strings. it's monumental, it's got a cool appearance and that little something, an extravagant platform on the top.
in 2013 the old tower, which was made out of concrete and only had a three-storey platform ( instead of the six storeys it has now ), was torn down and in 2014 the first construction works started to errect the new one. the tower is 140 meters tall ( the old one had 'only' 120 meter ) and completely is a residence building, with only the restaurant 'franziska' on top, and very few retail options surrounding it.
the architects were meixner schlüter wendt who created a pixelated glass facade on 3 sides of the rectangular tower, reminding you indeed of my favourite nintendo game, tetris. i read that the windows are made out of 90 different types of glass in various measurements, which is pretty nuts and definitely announces this as a highly exclusive project, super high maintenance. no wonder they want lots of money for the appartments. sometimes it's mind-boggling to me that people are actually willing to pay such high rents, and that there is a NEED for so many of these. there are 200 appartments inside this behemoth, are there really so many people earning so much money to buy these? i can't quite wrap my head around it.
the costs of the tower and the surrounding structures amounted to 150 million euro.
i quite like the look of the tower from this angle - it's like a jenga tower made out of glass!
enough of luxurious appartment towers, let's return to more down-to-earth dwellings, with a little more personality. because, let's face it, the glass tower is pretty much an expressionless structure, cold and cool in its appearance. it might be able to change that if people decided to let plants do a little work on it, but i doubt it will ever get this far. so i actually prefer buildings and structures that incorporate nature into their dna, like overgrown walls, little charming gardens, decorated balconies full of flower pots and other plants. this house was one of these 💚
it was so warm and welcoming compared to the blue chill of the henninger tower. and i LOVED the balcony made out of old bricks.
a tree friend also said hello to me and we had a little internal chat about creativity and ideas and how awesome they can be.
where there are weeds, there are most certainly flowers! as this field bindweed proves!
as i made my way through a rather generic neighborhood i made out the EZB ( european central bank ) tower from afar, another shiny, but inherently chilly skyscraper down by the main river.
in the midst of all the boring family houses sometimes a little jewel stands out. this is a 18th century version of a summer house, and my research brought up that it's the last standing summer house of that era in the whole of frankfurt. which makes it very special, am i right? i really like the converted curb roof situation.
not far away from the curb roof summer house stood this mid-century church - and yeah, you guessed it, my heart beat a lot faster. unfortunately there was an event going on, otherwise i probably would've climbed up the stairs and checked it out more thoroughly. this is the herz-marien-kirche ( heart of mary church ), which is used by the polish catholic community in frankfurt. the church itself was built from 1954 to 1959 by josef ruf.
i like the round polkadot windows in the facade the most, and i probably would've found even more, if i had the chance to take a closer look. maybe i'm gonna revisit this church in the future again to take some more pictures.
the windows were actually patterned. i wonder how that affected the inside of the church?
i got a tiny glimpse of the biiig altar windows and ended up endorsing the mosaic style of it very much! i love how jesus (?) sported a cyclops eye and how it makes him look super alien 😂
close-up of the polkadot windows ( that's an apt description, right? i like making up fake architectural terms, lol ). now you can also see that they all had various symbols like the key on the top window, and the cross-thingie down below.
hidden behind an old wall and some trees... quite a fantastic little church with an interesting silhouette.
another glimpse from afar - one of my favourite landmarks of the sachsenhausen district - the main plaza with it's gold-tipped pinnacles! i don't know why, but this tower makes me think of the tower of babel, or something. and of new york. i've never been to new york, but this building got that kinda mood going on.
before we make it to the tower of babel, uh, main plaza, i first had to cross a few more streets. randomly found an overgrown scooter.
and an interesting looking children's center - kinda wearing a style that was a mix of the 80ies and 90ies? ( turns out it was built in 1988, 3 days before i was actually born 😳 - so it IS actually almost a mix of the 80ies and 90ies 😂 )
nearing the main plaza you will encounter an oval building which is called 'colosseo' and houses appartments and several businesses. it was completed in 1999 and the architect was christoph mäckler and his team.
the 90 meter tall main plaza hotel tower sits directly next to the colosseo and though it looks like an art deco tower from the 1920ies it actually is even younger than the colosseo which makes it a post-modern building! i couldn't believe my eyes when i learned this 😂 it was completed in 2001! it's supposed to resemble the architecture of the 1920ies, though and one inspiration was the american standard building in new york! so my feelings about this being a very 'new york building' weren't too far off ;) the architect was hans kollhoff, who is a fellow countryman from my homeland of thuringia ( though his family left the GDR pretty early on in 1953 - when he was still too small to actually understand living in thuringia lol )! is that also a reason why i feel so attracted to it? i mean, before i looked it up, i didn't even know that! isn't it strange sometimes that you feel attracted to certain things and later find out there's some random existing connection? it weirdly feels like it's not random at all, but like there is an invisible thread tieing you to it and it's just waiting for you to finally discover!
the golden tips are definitely a nod to the ASB. and they're my favourite detail about it, though they are not as elaborate and artful as the prototype.
the clinkered brickstone facade reminds me of northern german architecture, which i love!
simply smitten with the structure and look of the clinker bricks 😍
three different types of architecture in one picture. the main plaza ( post-modern ), the european central bank tower ( deconstructivism ) and the colosseo ( modern ).
okay, harry's new york bar basically completes the cliché 😂
the main plaza in its entirety - landmark of sachenhausen's deutschherrnviertel, which is a quarter that got built in the 1990ies.
from the river banks of sachsenhausen you can have a great view onto the ECB tower(s) ( 2010 - 2014 ), which is one of those buildings you feel like rubbing your eyes about, because it feels so surreal and unreal. it's comprised of three parts actually, the tower itself ( actually two towers linked to each other - one 185 meters tall and the other 165 m. ), the großmarkthalle from 1928 ( you can see a glimpse of that building on the right side ) and an entrance building. one of these days i will make my way to this high-rise and have a closer look, it's been tickling my architecture senses for quite a while now. not only because it's a visually stunning building, but also because of the old wholesale market hall by martin elsaesser - one of the architects of the 'new frankfurt' era.
the architect was wolf d. prix of the agency coop himmelb(l)au - an avantgarde architecture office from vienna, which has several branches all over europe. they produced quite an amount of unusual and mindblowing architecture over the years, you should really check out their website for more eye candy and info.
the 221 meter long flößerbrücke ( rafter's bridge ) is kinda like an extension to me to the main plaza visually, because you also might confuse it with art deco architecture. it links the sachsenhausen district with the obermainanlage - a green corridor in frankfurt's city center. the asymmetric bridge was built in 1984/1986, an era of post-modern architecture, which often used elements of art deco. the architect was egon jux, who was well-known to create unique and colourful bridges.
the bridge is a self-anchored suspension bridge with a single ferronconcrete pylon sitting in the river. i like the sun symbols on top of the bridge pillars, so simple, yet effective. the fairly new red building behind the bridge completes the new york feeling for me. the oskar residence was completed in 2017 by stefan forster architekten.
another bridge, very close to the flößerbrücke, is this one - the ignatz-bubis-brücke ( named after ignatz bubis - the former president of the german jewish central council ). prior to the renaming of the bridge in 2000 it was called obermainbrücke ( upper main bridge ). it dates back to 1876, but it was destroyed during the second world war, then rebuilt in 1949. directly behind the bridge stands the old city library, now literaturhaus ( the white classic looking building underneath the tower ).
the tower you see here is the former dormitory for nurses of the holy ghost hospital. it's quite an ugly thing, especially in relation to the beautiful, pure literaturhaus. but as it happens, this contrast of brutalism and neo-classicism is exactly what drew me in for this picture ;)
down by the main river i encountered an egyptian goose family 😘
an interesting little building which belongs to the youth hostel of the DJH. i feel like there's more to it, but unfortunately i couldn't find any info.
the new porticus is a modern version of an old bridge mill that stood at this position near the old bridge ( alte brücke ). the bridge should actually be the oldest one in frankfurt, weren't it destroyed a number of times during its history which dates back to 1222. the current bridge was built in 1926. the porticus was opened in 2006 as an exhibition space for contemporary art and is a baby of christoph mäckler's architecture office ( who's responsible for the colosseo building i showed you earlier. )
on my way back to the car i passed by the deutschordenshaus ( house of the german order ) and the deutschordenskirche ( church of the german order ). both these buildings are merged with each other creating an interesting ensemble of baroque architecture. inside deutschordenshaus you can find a museum about iconography and i hear that the church also is quite worth seeing.
sachsenhausen has another beautiful church building, that of the neo-gothic dreikönigskirche ( church of the three kings ). the church also can be found at the river banks, and it adds a wonderful atmospheric air to the already charming skyline of the district ( which is completed with the museumsufer where all the best museums are located in a neat row ).
from the sachsenhausen river banks you have the best view on the banking district. it keeps conjuring up visions of the wizard of oz's emerald city for me 😍
a tiny close-up reveals all kinds of windows and how other towers are reflected in them!
i think i will never get tired of this view, it takes my breath away everytime i visit frankfurt and end up near the river banks.
such a wild mix of styles! you can see the little medieval turret on top of the römer city hall, the neo-classical bell tower of the paulskirche, the late gothic rententurm in the front, which is part of the oldest building of frankfurt - the saalhof. also visible is the bell tower of alte nikolaikirche ( old st. nicholas church ). in the far back two highrises of the palais quartier greet you with their futuristic demeanor, the nextower, which looms over the smaller hotel jumeirah.
and this picture is basically frankfurt in a nutshell, i think! though it definitely has a more modern atmosphere overall, because... well, it was heavily bombarded during the second world war and the city basically had to re-invent itself. i quite like the wild mix that is frankfurt, though, it's rarely boring! i'd even say it's pretty much the only city in germany that loves to break superlatives and old conventions, which through a german view of point is often quite scandalous! frankfurt just happens to want to straighten your view on certain things, or clearing up preconceptions. and that's pretty much exciting, even for someone like me who does not thrive in chaos.
until next time, stay curious ✌
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