Frankfurt Rhine-Main

The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, abbreviated FRM) is the second largest metropolitan region in Germany, with a total population exceeding 5.8 million. The metropolitan region is located in the central western part of Germany, and stretches over parts of three federal states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria, as well as the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Mainz, Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg.

The polycentric region is named after its core city Frankfurt am Main and the two rivers Rhine and Main. The Frankfurt Rhine-Main area is officially designated as a European Metropolitan region by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and covers an area of roughly 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 sq mi).

Subdivisions

Rhine-Main is a polycentric metropolitan region, but the economic size and political weight of the city of Frankfurt sets it into a very monocentric relation with her commuter belt. Since the early 1970s the Frankfurt am Main metropolitan area (German: Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main) is defined as an area encompassing the cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach and their directly neighboring districts. The Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt of the state of Hesse could be seen as the next administrative division, as it lies entirely within the metropolitan region and further includes the cities of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden and a number of larger districts. Only on a level further, the metropolitan region also includes the cities and districts of Mainz and Aschaffenburg in the two adjoing federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria.

Metropolitan area/metropolitan region

Larger Urban Zones

Eurostat's Urban Audit splits the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region into four Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). These four Urban Zones do exclude a number of districts in the metropolitan area.

Cities and districts

Traffic

The growth of the area is chiefly to be traced to the favorable communications, that promoted an early industrialization. Today however, the importance of industrial concerns has to a great extent been replaced by banking, trade and logistics. Frankfurt lies within the populous blue banana, which runs along the Rhine valley and the city is also a stepping stone from and to various parts of Switzerland and Southern Germany. The Rhine-Ruhr is accessible via a one hour trip on the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line and the air route Frankfurt-Berlin is the busiest in German domestic air travel.

Frankfurt International Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany and one of the three busiest airports in Europe. Thereby, along with a strong railway connection, the area also serves as a major transportation hub.

Education

The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region is home to five universities and over 20 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 200.000 students. Largest university is the University of Frankfurt and the oldest is the University of Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), originally founded in 1477 AD. Other universities include:

• the Darmstadt University of Technology,
• the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main,
• the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and
• the European Business School International University Schloss Reichartshausen.

Notable colleges and universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) include:

• the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences,
• the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences,
• the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences
• the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and
• the Städelschule.

See also

• Global city

References

1. ^ http://www.planungsverband.de/index.phtml?La=1&mNavID=1.100&object=tx|1169.342.1|1169.2.1
2. ^ http://www.planungsverband.de/index.phtml?mNavID=1169.50&sNavID=1169.50&La=1
3. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE005C&CountryCode=DE
4. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/505.html
5. ^ http://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/media.php/678/2003_1_R%C3%A4umlichen_Ebenen_des_UrbanAudit.pdf
6. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE020C&CountryCode=DE
7. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/527.html
8. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE025C&CountryCode=DE
9. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/523.html
10. ^ http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx?CityCode=DE037C&CountryCode=DE
11. ^ http://www.staedtestatistik.de/528.html

External links

• Planungsverband Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Conurbation Planning Association
• Region Frankfurt RheinMain online - Gateway to Europe
• Frankfurt International Airport
• Rhein-Main Metropolitan Transit
• Frankfurt Economic Support
• Frankfurt/Rhein-Main 2020 – the European metropolitan region
• One region - Boundless possibilities