Fastnacht is over, now is the end of fun! Since Ash Wednesday, fasting and renunciation is now the order of the day. As we all know, everything has an end, even gluttony and merriment. So a little balance is certainly good. But so that the rest of the month doesn't completely sink into gloom (weather!!!), and so that we don't hold our stomachs with laughter, but still have something to smile about and marvel at, today we have 28 curious facts about Frankfurt for locals and tourists.
Because: How well do you actually know Frankfurt? By that I don't just mean knowing how to get from A to B as fast as possible - which is often an adventure in itself with this traffic ;-) I don't mean the knowledge that Frankfurt is a city full of banks and that the pubs are in Sachsenhausen. My question is rather about the completely useless knowledge that we carry around in our heads. In honor of the beautiful month of February, here are 28 completely superfluous facts about Frankfurt:
1. Concrete city, my ass: about 52 percent of the city's land area is made up of green open spaces and water bodies.
2. Interestingly, the remaining area has room for 1446 kilometers of paved roads.
3. And while we're on the subject of the ever-popular city traffic: we spent around 36 hours in and around Frankfurt in 2017 stuck in traffic jams.
4. On this occasion, our gaze may digress and fall on the Ginnheimer Spargel, which - you guessed it - misleadingly does not protrude from Ginnheim at all, but Bockenheim.
5. Asparagus makes me think of sausages, which in Vienna are actually called frankfurters.
6. The 53 dogs per square kilometre in Frankfurt certainly don't care. The main thing is meat :-)
7. By the way, the dirt that we, dog, cat and mouse leave behind flows into sewers with a length of 1581 kilometres in the city's underground.
8. No sewage is caused by the pee tree of F.K. Waechter at the Jacobiweiher, even if the assumption suggests itself!
9. By the way, you can find the pond at the Oberschweinstiege. And for orientation's sake: the city of Frankfurt lies at northern latitude 50°06' 38.3" and eastern longitude at 8° 41'06.0".
10. While the lowest point rises 88 meters above NHN, the highest measures only slightly more at 212 meters.
11. Oh, to complete the water thing: Only 2.1 percent area is found on the Main. A bit little, isn't it?
12. Nevertheless, the 50 or so lakes are packed in summer.
13. No wonder with now more than 736,000 inhabitants (as of 30.06.2017)
14. Of these, more than half are female, exactly 50.4 percent. Well, dear gentlemen: in front is in front ;-)
15. Frankfurt's reputation as a city of singles has once again been confirmed, as 54 percent are actually single.
16. In return, however, we all have quite a lot of space in the apartment: on average, each individual has 37.1 percent space. Lush, huh?
17. A head-scratcher, though, is the number of total apartments in the city. Am I the only one who finds 378,472 accommodations (source: Tätigkeitsbericht / Amt für Wohnungswesen, 9.2017) feeling low?
18. The Volkshochschule is something to behold, with 4,747 courses and over 52,000 participants (2016).
19. No wonder Frankfurt ranks #1 among Germany's 15 largest cities in GDP per employed person.
20. The airport, with its roughly 60 million passengers including transit, has certainly contributed to this.
21. Those who come to our city as tourists - most of them Americans - spend an average of 1.7 days here.
22. We should be glad that they choose Frankfurt am Main. Because Francfort, in the American state of Kentucky, is not only the state capital (move over, Wiesbaden!), but with a population of four million, it's a lot bigger.
23. As they make their way through Frankfurt, most people are sure to pass Mainzer Landstrasse sooner or later, which actually winds and twists its way through five city districts for over 8.3 kilometers.
24. Speaking of city districts, one of the most expensive streets - brace yourselves - in Germany is located in the Holzhausenviertel. With the modest name "Anna".
25. So it is rather normal that 14 of the 15 highest buildings in Germany are located, yes exactly, where??
26. Quite cute from today's point of view is that in 1926 the Mousonturm was the highest tower in the city with a stately 33 meters at that time.
27. Whoever leaves our city again or arrives here also travels via the beautiful main station: 350,000 travelers roll their suitcases through the building every workday.
28. That Frankfurt is just a village is proven once again by the city limits of only 113 kilometers.
Which facts did you already know and what surprised you the most? Do you have any more curious and superfluous facts? Keep them coming