Talk:Frankfurt

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In the US, "Frankfurt" refers to a single city most commonly. Is this true elsewhere? (i.e., should one of these cities have an article here with the less famous one at a disambig block) Does anybody know which one is what Americans call "Frankfurt"? (Specifically, I want to fill in the link at Timeline of trends in music (1951-present).) Tokerboy

I know of two Frankfurts in Germany. The larger and more prominent one (Frankfurt a.M. = Frankfurt am Main (Main is a river)) is the financial centre of Germany. The other (Frankfurt a.d.O. = Frankfurt an der Oder (Oder = a river)), is much smaller and located on the border to Poland. So when someone talks of just Frankfurt - it is most likely going to be the former. I would leave this article as it is and just refer to the specific city when necessary. snoyes 23:04 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)
Is it more likely enough to make this not a disambiguation page? An awful lot of pages link here, and if they're mostly meaning Frankfurt am Main, this shouldn't be a disambig page -- it should have a disambig block. Tokerboy
I'm relatively new here, so am not entirely sure. I'll give you the population (and with the info stated above) you make the decision: F.a.M.: 650 thousand; F.a.d.O.: 70 thousand. snoyes 23:22 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)
I think that's enough -- if someone who knows more about it disagrees, they can always switch it back. I'll go make the move. Tokerboy

Talk from Frankfurt am Main:

Um...Charlemagne wasn't crowned Emperor until 800, so I don't think the assembly was imperial. I'm pretty sure it was just a synod, but will have to look it up in the ARF and the AF. Should also be changed (when I have time, unless someone beats me to it) to reflect that Frankfurt was much more important for Louis the Pious than Charlemagne. Louis also built a major church (cathedral?) there. JHK

It was a synod. --MichaelTinkler
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is Germany's largest, the site 85% of Germany's turnover in stocks

Where is this 85% figure from? -- JeLuF 21:02, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

In Germany, only Frankfurt and Düsseldorf have high-rise skyscapers.

Are you sure about that? What about cologne? Isn't the "Köln Turm" a high-rise skyscraper as well?

That's nonsense! Nearly every bigger city in Germany has got an high-rise skyscraper! And you bet there are some. Think of the television-tower (Fernsehturm) of Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich etc. IN FACT do think twice everytime you're writing on a subject you don't know really much about! Sincerely -- fake.kevin 22:40, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
Some cities in germany have one (or two...) high-rise buildings above 300 ft (100 m). But the most and highest of them are in Frankfurt, the skyline is unique in Germany. Take a look at the list of the highest buildings in germany: [1] - You are right, you can find tv-towers on every field in germany, but they cannot be considered as skyscrapers.


Contents

[edit] Capital city

"Frankfurt is the German capital that never was."

Is this the reason why the largest and the most important German airport is located in the vicinity of this city and not in Bonn or Berlin for that matter? Meursault2004 09:35, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

No, the reason is that Frankfurt is both very central in Germany and Europe. It is also home of the largest US Air Force bases in Germany and has been a key location for the Americans in many post-war situations (for example the Berlin airlift).
Actually it nearly got the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany in '49. There even had been built a parliaments-building in Bertramstrasse, Frankfurt for it was quite sure Frankfurt would win the election of Germanys new capital. On May 10, 1949 with only 33 to 29 voices of members of the parliament at that time, Bonn won the election over Frankfurt and then became the capital. The building now is the HQ of a local radio and tv-station, called Hessischer Rundfunk (HR). -- fake.kevin 23:01, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
No, actually, it's because that's where the Frankfurt Assembly gathered during the Revolution of 1848.Zweifel 22:55, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Location

It seems to me that this article should be at Frankfurt, since it is by far the most famous Frankfurt. Currently, Frankfurt is a redirect to Frankfurt (disambiguation). john k 23:05, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I think Franfurt should lead to this page, and a link to the disambiguation page should appear at the top. If not, at least the disambiguation page should somehow make it more clear which Frankfurt is the one commonly known among English speakers (I had to click both links because I couldn't figure out which page led the article I was looking for). Rc251 23:07, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] External links

I've removed a lot of the external links for the following reasons:

Angela. 10:38, July 24, 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Tfine80's edits

Tfine80, I am not interested in the skyscrapers. My concern is the results from the University of Liverpool which shows that Frankfurt is the richest city in Europe by gross domestic product per capita. That it is "Frankfurt's financial industry [which] gives it the highest GDP per capita" is unsubstantiated and needs sources. Until these are provided we should stick to the results from the University of Liverpool and simply state that it is the richest city by GDP per capita. --John 21:12, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with listing that statistic at all. I think it is a fine addition. My only problem is the phrase "richest city", which has no precise economic meaning and can be misleading. Rich often has social connotations and often means acculminated wealth. I would think of some exclusive suburb or some resort town -- or maybe the days when venice was all-powerful. For example, google lists about only 13,000 hits to "richest city". (and if you note the use it is often very imprecise) Why not just state the statistic and let the reader decide if that makes it the richest city by any measure. Tfine80 22:52, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
And I see your point about the financial industry. Having lived there I thought it was self-evident. I think one of the reason its GDP per capita is so high is because of the strength of its finance industry in a city of about 600,000. So let's just say something like: "Frankfurt's key role in finance and other industries gives it the number one GDP per capita of major cities in Europe." [CITE] I think it would be best to include the overall city GDP rank as well, just to put it in perspective - What do you think? Sorry about the reverting but the edits came across to me as a bit chauvanist at first. Best, Tfine80 23:12, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The anonymous user (aka John) should provide the link to the study by the University of Liverpool. According to official statistics by Eurostat, the region of Frankfurt is absolutely not the region with the highest GDP per capita in Europe. Places like Luxembourg, Brussels, Greater London, or Paris metropolitan area have a higher GDP per capita than the region of Frankfurt. You can check Economy of the European Union. The GDP per capita of Hesse as a whole is only #10 of the NUTS-1 regions in the EU, while the GDP per capita of Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt (the region of Frankfurt) is not even in the top 10 of the NUTS-2 regions. Hardouin 10:34, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

This is not about Hesse but about the city of Frankfurt in case you didn't notice. The link is already provided. In 2001 Frankfurt had a GDP per capita of 74,465 €, while Paris had 67,200 €, Brussels 51,106 € and London 35,072 €. --John 11:30, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

A city GDP means absolutely nothing in itself. What is meaningful is the metropolitan area GDP. A city is just an administrative territory with limits fixed arbitrarily. Small cities like Frankfurt have automatically high GDPs because commuters are not counted inside city limits, whereas in countries that have large cities like Rome or London, most commuters live inside city limits, which automatically deflates the GDP. But this is just artificial. Again what's really meaningful is the GDP of a whole metropolitan area. The Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt matches quite well the metropolitan area of Frankfurt, and it is not in the top 10 of the highest GDPs in the EU. The claim that Frankfurt has the highest GDP per capita in Europe is therefore unfounded. Hardouin 18:05, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

I would tend to agree that the metropolitan area is the important one, or perhaps just the urban area. For instance, the City of London, tiny as it is (the most of what people think of as London is actually part of Westminster - the City of London not the same as the city of London), has a huge per-capita GDP. This is because of a combination of fewer than 10,000 people living there and the high concentration of banks and other commercial powerhouses based there. And as its working population swells to over 300,000, this a pretty meaningless measure. Matthew 08:28, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

I think an infobox would do the article well or at the very least a map showing Frankfurt's location. The articles for Berlin, Bonn, Augsburg, Kiel, Lübeck, Stuttgart, Rostock, Potsdam, Wiesbaden, Düsseldorf, Oldenburg and probably some more all have such an infobox. The articles for Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Koblenz, Aachen, Dresden, Hanover, Leipzig, Mainz, Dortmund, Bremen, Nuremberg and many more all have at least a map showing where these cities are. fr:Francfort-sur-le-Main, de:Frankfurt am Main, pl:Frankfurt nad Menem, for example, have an infobox for their article on Frankfurt. NightBeAsT 13:59, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

We should transfer over and translate the one used on DE Wikipedia... That seems to be the standard for German cities. Tfine80 17:38, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Since the EU is a economic union and not a national entity like the US,i think comparing the two is flawed logic. Now if NAFTA,the North American economic union was used as a comparison,you would find that North Americas' economy is much larger than the EUs'.

[edit] A personal comment

I used to visit Frankfurt occasionally to meet my ex-girlfriend. She warned me in advance that Frankfurt would be in her words "ugly, dull, boring, dreary, miserable, did I say ugly? Really really ugly". (I wrote the words down to quote them back to her.) She was of course exaggurating. Frankfurt was far uglier than she had led me to believe, so boring even the duck in the river I saw was asleep (maybe it had died of boredom!). The modern buildings were grotesque. The historic buildings were tacky rebuilds. The place was grey, grey, grey. The niteclubs were zzzzzz. One local joked to me: "We are so boring we have a cathedral but no bishop. Who would want to a bishop to this place?" It was without doubt the goddamn ugliest place I have ever been in. Merely thinking of it sends a shiver down my spine. What an utterly dreary dump!!! (Sorry all fans of Frankfurt of there (if there are any? I don't think it is interesting enough to have any) if I offended you. But I couldn't let this page pass without a chance to say the one word that comes to mind when I think of Frankfurt. "Yuch!". Or the phrase: "When's the next plane out of here?" FearÉIREANN\(caint) 05:20, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Granted, the skyscrapers are not the most aesthetically pleasant of that type which exist (although they are probably engineered exceptionally well). And, yes, most of the old section was destroyed in the war. The city is a bit unique for having these huge skyscrapers that stand alone alongside large open spaces, but that's probably not enough to sell the city to some people. And, yes, the city is rather serious in demeanor with its financial significance (which can also sometimes bring a sort of internationalized and cultureless decadence). HOWEVER, there is still a bit of the feel of the Frankfurt of old and the hometown of Goethe; you just have to search for it. Maybe you will be able to find it someday in an old corner of Frankfurt while having a nice meal of Rippchen and Apfelwein. Tfine80 06:16, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

There is an interesting site about Frankfurt before and after the war (http://www.altfrankfurt.com) which might explain why the city today is an ugly place. After the war there were no will and no means to reconstruct the rich architectural heritage. Unfortunately, this is true for virtually all German cities.

Did u visit those German citys? Frankfurt is not a boring and ugly place. I lived there for 8 years. The city is unique and special. The skyscrapers are very nice, modern and futuristic. The city is SOOO not boring. Allmost all nationalities of the world live there. 30% of the city dont have a German citizenship. I would say that more than half of the city's population have 2 citizenships. Its called Mainhattan for a reason. You just have to know it better.

Only think about one sentence: Frankfurt is originally not such a big party place like Köln, Hamburg, Munich or Berlin for example, and if you are there you will see the financial center in the foreground there. Perhaps N.Y. isn't the best place to have fun like a tourist...

[edit] Pronunciation

Is there some reason the pronunciation given is the German pronunciation? This is the English wikipedia after all. Perhaps it should follow the example of Paris and give both? Stevage 19:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] hey

I didn't know if anyone caught the fact that this page has been vandalized. I'd fix it myself, but I don't have an account and I've never posted anything on wikipedia so I don't know how. I was starting to read the article, and I glanced at the contents navigation and saw "al gore is gay" is a subsection. Just thought you guys would want to fix that. Thanks, Rob.

[edit] Please move to Frankfurt am Main

It makes me a little bit sad to see that the article Frankfurt refers to Frankfurt am Main and that it isn't a disambig page. The German Wikipedia came to a compromise, look de:Frankfurt. Frankfurt am Main is more popular than Frankfurt (Oder), but Frankfurt am Main is also the official name of this city, so please move it. --Grandy02 12:19, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm just passing through, but it seems to me that Frankfurt is by far the most common name for this city in English. The same is often true the other way round - how many Germans would think to look first for the city of Los Angeles under Los Angeles, California? The intro also prominently displays a disambig, and an explanation in the introductory paragraph.

[edit] SimCity Parodies

I think someone should add something about how several buildings in Frankfurt have been parodied in SimCity 3000 and 4. Just for example, many of the buildings are very comparable to the buildings in SimCity 3000, and the Commerzbank tower is REALLY comparable to the 'Hurt Enterprise' building in SimCity 4. --4.227.102.227 03:14, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

As a "trivia" piece, this shouldn't go in the main article. It could be added to a sub-article on buildings in Frankfurt, perhaps.
Hey don't forget the other spire which in simcity is named Hogan and Wallace White Insurance.

[edit] US Army Base in Frankfurt am Main

I'm an American born in Frankfurt; my father was a US Army MSG stationed in Germany during the Cold War when he met my mother. I didnt stay long, we left around 1990 when I was 2, so i dunno much. Can you guys include a section on the US Army base in Frankfurt, i dunno what it is. I heard that American comedian Martin Lawrence was also born under similar conditions on the Frankfurt Base too. Thanks alot, Xlegiofalco 04:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] List of famous people born in Frankfurt

This list, described as a stub, might be appropriate for a sub-article on this subject, but a huge alphabetical list on this is completely inappropriate for an article of this prominence. There is so much to say about a city like Frankfurt, every section has to be very concise. Other major cities like London and Paris don't even have a section on this, it would simply be far too long. Can someone working on this page perhaps spin off this section into a sub-article, with a link from the culture section? Thanks, Walkerma 17:49, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

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