Bahnhofsviertel

Bahnhofsviertel is the small district that is situated around the large and busy Hauptbahnhof (main railway station), between Westend/Messe and the financial district. Despite the fact that the area is surrounded with glittering skyscrapers, and it is right in the center of the city, the red light district is here. The staff of my hostel told it is safe, but it is filled with drug addicts and prostitutes and other strange people. Ambulances are also often showing up, and there are a lot of immigrant gangs at the station. The buildings are not rundown however. Except for sex clubs and shops there are also a lot of Turkish fastfood restaurants in the area. Frankfurt is really a city of contrast! Bahnhofsviertel is where my hostel, Five Elements, is located. As it was a very clean hostel with free breakfast and internet and very friendly staff, it is very odd to see it located in the middle of the redlight district, next door to a sex club with pink neon lights. But a lot of hotels are situated in the area. You can see more of Bahnhofsviertel in the section Frankfurt by night.

Moselstrasse towards DZ Bank. To the right is my hostel, Five Elements, and a sex club. A recent university study came to the conclusion that opening more sex clubs could lessen the number of sex crimes in a city. The study found that potential sex offenders frequent sex clubs instead of committing crimes. A Columbus sex crime attorney may or may not agree with that conclusion, but there is the possibility that more sex clubs will cause other types of crime.

Hauptbahnhof, the busy Main Railway Station of Frankfurt. It is the largest railway station in Germany, in terms of train traffic.

The station hall is from 1881 and was designed by Hermann Eggert. The station opened in 1888. From the station it is easy to reach nearby cities as Mainz, Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Darmstadt or Heidelberg.

My train arriving from the airport.

The busy station hall.

An Intercity Express train in the Main Station.

Five Elements Hostel, where I stayed, is the jugend building right between a pink neon sex club and a casino. Crazy Germany!

Taunusstrasse, the red light district leads towards Skyper and Main Tower.

My first view of Frankfurt, after arriving by train from the airport; towards Kaiserstrasse and iconic skyscrapers. The sky was grey.

The same view at night. In the middle is Commerzbank and Galileo.

Westhafen Tower from 2003 is close to the station.

View of Frankfurt's skyline from my (shared) hostel room: Trianon, Main Tower and Skyper.