In fall 2024, my yearly trip to Germany was designed to revisit spots that involved memories or personal connections there from the last 50 years.
It started with Frankfurt, but mainly because that’s where the plane landed. Frankfurt didn’t attract me when I was a 20-something soldier living half an hour’s drive down the highway. When I thought of Frankfurt, I thought of the airport and finance.
To me, the airport is a gateway to someplace else. Frankfurt (FRA) airport is in the middle of Germany and it’s one of the half dozen busiest in Europe because its two terminals and four runways are central and offer great connections.
Once I made plans to fly into Frankfurt, I was inundated with pictures and pitches involving tours, tower climbs or river cruises that showcase “the skyline.” I’ll concede that Frankfurt has a skyline, but that’s compared to other German cities. It’s not going to impress you if you’ve seen, say, New York or Chicago.
But Germany has been an economic powerhouse for decades (although cracks in the financial veneer are beginning to show), not only for itself but for “united” Europe. It’s not romantic (meaning the era), but Germany today is as much financial Frankfurt as fast cars and cuckoo clocks.
Germany boasts the fifth-largest economy in the world and Frankfurt features 14 of the 15 tallest buildings in the country. As its skyscrapers attest, Frankfurt is the quintessential big city. Those buildings give this city on the Main river the nickname, “Mainhattan.”
Nobody goes to Frankfurt for half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets or ornamented cathedrals, although you can find some — like the Römer — that have been there since the 15th Century.
Much of Germany was bombed flat during WWII, and while some traditional architecture was restored, the construction was often pragmatic and cosmopolitan. Sometimes it was a question of money or the need to build quickly. Other times, architecture reflected the aspirations of the owners.
Frankfurt, center of the country’s economy, is home to the Bundesbank (Germany’s “Fed”), its biggest bank (Deutsche Bank) and the leading stock exchange.
Deutsche Bank’s twin 500-foot towers show up on TV and in magazines as a symbol of the country’s economic clout. About two dozen of the country’s largest industrial concerns set up headquarters in Frankfurt, where the financial action is.
About 400 years ago, rapidly expanding trading meant merchants needed to agree on the value of various currencies. That led to establishment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Today, a huge bronze bull and bear eye each other warily outside.
Maybe most important, Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank, the financial heart of the 27-nation European Union (EU).
The huge Euro symbol, in front of the predecessor to the European Central Bank, is a reminder, if anyone needs one, that Germany’s strength since the end of WWII has been as much about money as military.
Frankfurt’s financial story doesn’t end with skyscrapers and skyline. If you wanted to build a German money museum, where would you put it? In Frankfurt, of course.
The Bundesbank did, and its museum aims to answer questions such as what makes money work, what is cash vs. book money, what is monetary policy and what does a central bank do? The answers can be found in more than 60 displays and interactive media stations throughout the building just north of the center of town.
No money needed for admission.
The museum relates the history of the Euro, the currency in 20 of the EU’s 27 countries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany in the 1990s, the idea was that a common currency could simplify inter-country trade and lead to peaceful resolution of differences.
The Euro has been that common currency since 2002. Can trade or a common currency keep the peace in Europe? You’ve got your own opinion.
I searched all over the city for an angle that would reveal the skyline in a photo, but I never found a satisfying one. I tried the highest observation deck in the city (the Main Tower ).
I backed away from the city on a river cruise.
The Frankfurt skyline in the advertising must be the product of a drone or a plane. At least it’s not just somebody’s imagination.
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