But what is Frankfurt? A cosmopolitan city? A city of money? A Jewish city? A traffic and transport hub?
Simply Frankfurt
No other German city so obviously combines modernity, progress, history and living traditions. Right next to the skyline, ancient ruins are on display at the Kaiserpfalz franconofurd, while the Historical Museum and the Jewish Museum bring the city's rich history to life. The roots of the metropolis on the Main also extend far into the surrounding region, where the apples for Frankfurt's traditional apple wine and all the products available at the weekly markets are grown.
The Frankfurt DNA
Kaiserpfalz franconofurd: Here, you'll find the oldest remains of the city's first settlement.
Jewish past: Learn about Jewish history in Frankfurt at the Jewish Museum and Museum Judengasse.
The whole city under one roof at the Historical Museum Frankfurt.
Culinary traditions: UNESCO Cultural Heritage - Apple Wine, Green Sauce.
Traditional festivals: Wäldchestag ("Forest Day"), Main Festival, Christmas market.
Rooted in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region.
Local and sustainable: Weekly markets and regional food.
Nestled in the heart of nature, surrounded by the GreenBelt with its hiking trails, a vineyard, the cultivation areas of the Green Sauce herbs and comical art of the New Frankfurt School.
From the tree to the jug
Culinary pleasures as a cultural asset
There’s no doubt about it. Apple wine is Frankfurt’s beverage of choice. As if to prove a point, Hessian apple wine culture was recently recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. And rightly so, too. It is one of the many Frankfurt traditions that has remained to this day. Apple wine is not only part of the identity of this wonderful destination; it is – like many other local traditions and initiatives – an important step to a more sustainable use of natural resources.
It could hardly be more local
It’s a short way from the fruit orchards of Frankfurt to the rustic apple wine pubs of Old Sachsenhausen. Frankfurt apple wine is traditionally poured from a blue-grey earthenware jug known as the “Bembel” and drunk from a diamond-patterned glass, the “Gerippte”. This most popular of local beverages is traditionally enjoyed together with the legendary “Green Sauce”.
A tram dedicated to apple wine and a market hall for one and all
Not only the production of apple wine is sustainable. There’s also the transport. On weekends and public holidays, Frankfurt offers visitors a mobile apple wine pub. Known as the Apple Wine Express, this colourful streetcar from the 1950s crisscrosses Frankfurt on a merry tour of discovery. The one-hour loop tour – accompanied by music, pretzels and, of course, apple wine – passes by various downtown sightseeing attractions and apple wine pubs. A special podcast informs on the stops along the way – in German, English and Hessian dialect.
Meeting point: Farmers' market
One place that has become a particularly firm component of Frankfurt’s DNA is the “Kleinmarkthalle”. This famous market hall is a time-honoured Frankfurt institution. The neo-renaissance-styled building opened its doors at the end of the 19th century but was destroyed in the air raids of 1944. Reconstruction commenced ten years later and today the clinker-brick hall is not only a green-grocer’s delight, it is also a popular meeting place of the local populace, serving foods and beverages from all across the globe. The market’s 150 sales stalls sell produce ranging from the gardens of the Rhine-Main region to Asia, South America and everywhere in between.
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