Bankenviertel (Banking District) in Frankfurt

Bankenviertel (; ''banking quarter'') is the name of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

where many banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions are located. It is the most important German financial hub, if not one of the largest in Europe along with La Défense in the

Paris aire urbaine The Paris metropolitan area (french: aire d'attraction de Paris) is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs. Overview In 2020 France's national INSEE statistical ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...

. Having no official or strict borders, it is commonly defined as the western part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend and the eastern part of the Bahnhofsviertel. Its most central square is the

Opernplatz The Opernplatz (Opera Square) is a central city square in Frankfurt, Germany, located in the district of Innenstadt (Inner City) and within the central business district known as the Bankenviertel (Banking District). The Opernplatz is the most ...

Location

Frankfurt Am Main-Zeil-vom Maintower aus gesehen

Skyline of Frankfurt from Goetheturm on a hazy evening 140827 1

The Bankenviertel is not an official city district and has no officially or strictly defined borders. It stretches across three city districts: the western part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend and the eastern part of the Bahnhofsviertel. Many of the largest banks in Germany, e.g.

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 800 cooperative banks and their around 8,500 branch offices. Within the German Cooperative Financial Group, which is one of Germany's lar ...

, Commerzbank and

Helaba Helaba, short for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, is a commercial bank with core regions in Hesse and Thuringia, Germany offering financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and interna ...

, have their corporate headquarters here, as well as many representation offices of foreign banks. It is also the place where most of Frankfurts high-rises and skyscrapers are located, which gave it also the nicknames Bankfurt and

Mainhattan Mainhattan is a term referring to Frankfurt's skyline, especially that of its central business district, the Bankenviertel. The word is a portmanteau of Main, the river on which Frankfurt lies, and Manhattan, a reference to the inner city area's ...

. The heart of the Bankenviertel is located on both sides of the Taunus- and Gallusanlage, an inner-city parkway, and the surrounding streets (Neue Mainzer Straße, Junghofstraße, Kaiserstraße), and the central square of the Bankenviertel is the

. Furthermore, the area on both sides of the

Mainzer Landstraße The Mainzer Landstraße is one of the main arterial roads in Frankfurt am Main, running west from the city centre to the outlying suburbs of the city. The road runs largely parallel with the River Main along its northern bank, and at in length ...

from Taunusanlage to Platz der Republik and the Bockenheimer Landstraße, beginning at the

, are part of the area. The Bankenviertel also includes the areas near the Opernplatz on its eastern side, notably the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Locat ...

east of the Opernplatz, as well as a number of banks in its immediate vicinity.

Financial institutions

Public transport

The Bankenviertel is very well accessible with the

public transport system Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typica ...

. Eight of nine suburban

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...

lines (S1-S6, S8, S9) serve the stations Hauptwache, Taunusanlage and

Frankfurt Central Station Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, also called Frankfurt Central Station and Frankfurt Main Station, is the busiest railway station in the German state of Hesse. Because of its location near the middle of Germany and usage as a transport hub for lo ...

. All inner-city

U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

lines have stops within the area: U1-U3 at Willy-Brandt-Platz and Hauptwache, U4 and U5 at Willy-Brandt-Platz and Frankfurt Central Station, U6 and U7 at Hauptwache and Alte Oper. The tram lines 11 and 12 stop at Frankfurt Central Station and Willy-Brandt-Platz, and the lines 16 and 17 link the central station and the

Frankfurt Trade Fair Messe Frankfurt () is the world's largest trade fair, congress and event organizer with its own exhibition grounds. The organisation has 2,500 employees at some 30 locations, generating annual sales of around €661 million. Its services inclu ...

area.

References

{{Authority control Districts of Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...