Offenbach am Main () is a
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
*Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name
*Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...
. It borders
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger
Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It has a population of 138,335 (December 2018).
In the 20th century, the city's economy was built on machine-building, leather-making, typography and design, and the automobile and pharmaceutical industries.
History
The first documented reference to a suburb of Offenbach appears in 770. In a document of the Holy Roman
Emperor Otto II
Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.
Otto II was ...
dating to 977 exists the first mention of the place of Offenbach.
During the Middle Ages Offenbach passed through many hands. Only in 1486 could the Count Ludwig of
Isenburg finally take control of city for his family, and 1556 Count Reinhard of Isenburg relocated his Residence to Offenbach, building a palace, the Isenburger Schloß (Isenburg Palace), which was completed in 1559. It was destroyed by fire in 1564 and rebuilt in 1578.
In 1635, Offenbach was given to the
Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt, but it was returned to the Isenburg-Birstein Count (later Prince) in 1642. It remained in that principality until 1815, when the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
gave the city to the Austrian Emperor,
Francis I. A year later it was given to the
Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Always very close to the city centre of Frankfurt, Offenbach was a popular location for business. The town has its own trade fair, and many companies have opened facilities here because there are fewer restrictions and no closed businesses. French Protestants (
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
s) came in the 17th century and settled in Offenbach and contributed to making Offenbach a prosperous city, e.g., bringing knowledge of tobacco with them and turning Offenbach into a centre for rolling cigars. The town was more cosmopolitan than Frankfurt; famous people such as
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
visited it several times.
The Rumpenheim Palace and its park were a popular destination for monarchs in the 19th century. The city was thereafter ruled by
Grand Dukes of Hesse and by Rhine until the monarchy was abolished in 1918. Offenbach became the center of the traditional design with figures such as the architect
Hugo Eberhardt
Hugo Eberhardt (2 May 1874, Furtwangen im Schwarzwald − 8 April 1959) was a German architect.
Biography
Eberhardt started his career as a ship interior architect for Norddeutscher Lloyd, After working in Kos as an archeologist for a German ...
, the typographer
Rudolf Koch
Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German type designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely ...
, the bookbinder and designer
Ignatz Wiemeler
Ignatz Wiemeler (1895–1952) was a German bookbinder and educator, internationally known and exhibited. He was part of the ''Offenbach School'' movement, alongside Rudolf Koch and the painter Karl Friedrich Lippmann.
Biography
Wiemeler was born ...
and
Ernst Engel and the painter
Karl Friedrich Lippmann.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a third of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing, which claimed 467 lives. With the new district
Lauterborn the city was expanded to the south in the 1960s. On the border with Frankfurt, the office district Kaiserlei was built. Offenbach is a so-called "Sozialer Brennpunkt" (deprived area) because of unemployment, poverty, gang related crime and migration.
Before its eradication in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
, the city had a Jewish population. Jews settled in the city as late as the late 16th century, and it is believed that out of the 871 residents of the town as of 1829, the 40 Jewish families accounted for nearly a quarter of the town's population. They also established
their own cemetery.
Geography
Subdivision
The inner city area of Offenbach is quite large and consists of the historic center of the city and its expansions of the 1800s. Three formerly independent suburbs were incorporated in the first half of the 20th century:
Bürgel being the first in 1908, then
Bieber and
Rumpenheim in 1938 and 1942.
South of the inner city area are the suburbs
Lauterborn,
Rosenhöhe and
Tempelsee.
Kaiserlei is a commercial district in the far west of the city bordering Frankfurt. In the west
Waldheim is a residential neighborhood on the city limits with ''Mühlheim am Main''. In 2010 the eastern part of the city center was officially named
Mathildenviertel, as the area was already unofficially called by the locals.
Unlike most larger cities in Germany, Offenbach was not completely divided into districts. Only the nine neighborhoods mentioned above were officially districts, leaving the largest parts of the city officially unnamed. Although specific names for neighborhoods and areas were already in use among the locals and residents.
In June 2019, the city council approved a new act that subdivides the city's area entirely into 21 districts. The nine existing districts largely remained the same, most of them were even expanded. The new districts were laid out after the already by locals commonly known neighborhoods, such as the Westend, the Nordend or Buchhügel. A completely new name was only needed to be found for one neighborhood south of the city center, which never had commonly used name before: Lindenfeld. The name derived from an old name of a land lot in this area, when it was still fields in agricultural use prior to the 1800s.
As of July 2019, there are the following 21 districts:
*Bieber
*Bieberer Berg
*Buchhügel
*Buchrain
*Bürgel
*Carl-Ulrich-Siedlung
*Hafen
*Kaiserlei
*Lauterborn
*Lindenfeld
*Mathildenviertel
*Musikerviertel
*Nordend
*Offenbach-Ost
*Rosenhöhe
*Rumpenheim
*Senefelderquartier
*Tempelsee
*Waldheim
*Westend
*Zentrum
Climate
Offenbach experiences a
temperate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''). Due to its location in the
Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the ...
, the whole Rhein-Main Metropolitan Region generally experiences one of the warmest climates in Germany, making it possible to grow plants such as
vineyards
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
,
palm trees
The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially ...
and
olive trees
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Originating in Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa ...
.
Governance
Mayor

The current mayor of Offenbach is Felix Schwenke of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Form ...
(SPD). He was first elected in 2017,
and was re-elected for a second term in 2023.
[Amtsinhaber Schwenke siegt schon im ersten Wahlgang deutlich]
''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...
'', 17 September 2023.
The following is a list of mayors since 1824:
*1824–1826: Peter Georg d'Orville
*1826–1834: Heinrich Philipp Schwaner
*1834–1837: Peter Georg d'Orville
*1837–1849: Jonas Budden
*1849–1859: Friedrich August Schäfer
*1859–1867: Johann Heinrich Dick
*1867–1874: Johann Martin Hirschmann
*1874–1882: Hermann Stölting
*1883–1907: Wilhelm Brink
*1907–1919: Andreas Dullo
*1919–1933: Max Granzin
*1947–1949: Johannes Rebholz
*1950–1957: Hans Klüber
*1957–1974: Georg Dietrich
*1974–1980: Walter Buckpesch
*1980–1986: Walter Suermann
*1986–1994: Wolfgang Reuter
*1994–2006: Gerhard Grandtke
*2006–2018: Horst Schneider
*2018–: Felix Schwenke
City council
The Offenbach city council (''Stadtverordnetenversammlung'') governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 14 March 2021, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Party
! Lead candidate
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Form ...
(SPD)
, align=left, Felix Schwenke
, 610,508
, 28.4
, 3.6
, 20
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...
(Grüne)
, align=left, Sybille Schumann
, 390,305
, 18.1
, 3.6
, 13
, 3
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
, align=left, Roland Walter
, 389,099
, 18.1
, 6.0
, 13
, 4
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
The Left ()
, align=left, Sven Malsy
, 183,773
, 8.5
, 0.7
, 6
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...
(AfD)
, align=left, Christin Thüne
, 157,125
, 7.3
, 1.7
, 5
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, align=left, Dominik Schwagereit
, 134,284
, 6.2
, 3.3
, 4
, 3
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Voters
Free Voters (, FW) is a political party in Germany. It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These a ...
(FW)
, align=left, Dennis Lehmann
, 91,446
, 4.2
, 1.5
, 3
, 1
, -
,
, align=left, Forum New Offenbach (FNO)
, align=left, Muhsin Senol
, 57,626
, 2.7
, 0.2
, 2
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Pirate Party Germany
The Pirate Party Germany (), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society; it is part of the i ...
(Piraten)
, align=left, Gregory Engels
, 46,459
, 2.2
, 0.5
, 2
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Die PARTEI
(''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine ...
(PARTEI)
, align=left, Daniel Pfeiffer
, 34,957
, 1.6
, 1.1
, 1
, 1
, -
,
, align=left, Young Offenbach (JO)
, align=left, Dominik Imeraj
, 28,525
, 1.3
, 0.0
, 1
, ±0
, -
,
, align=left, Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG)
, align=left, Fikri Türet
, 27,574
, 1.3
, New
, 1
, New
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 32,424
! 96.1
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 1,308
! 3.9
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 33,732
! 100.0
!
! 71
! ±0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 94,827
! 35.6
! 2.7
!
!
, -
, colspan=8, Source
Statistics Hesse
Twin towns – sister cities
Offenbach am Main is
twinned with:
*
Puteaux
Puteaux () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department, from the centre of Paris.
La Défense, Paris's business district hosting the tallest buildings in the metropolitan ...
, France (1955)
*
Esch-sur-Alzette
Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...
, Luxembourg (1956)
*
Mödling
Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian Mödling (district), district of the same name located approximately 15 km south of Vienna.
Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises ...
, Austria (1956)
*
Saint-Gilles, Belgium (1956)
*
Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough in London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of ...
, England, United Kingdom (1956)
*
Zemun (Belgrade), Serbia (1956)
*
Velletri
Velletri (; ; ) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring communes are Rocca di Papa, Lar ...
, Italy (1957)
*
Rivas, Nicaragua (1986)
*
Kawagoe, Japan (1983)
*
Oryol
Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...
, Russia (1988)
*
Yangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...
, China (1997)
Demographics
Offenbach has a large non-German population. In 2016, foreign nationals made up 37% of the population. The largest communities are, in that order, from Turkey, Greece, Romania, Poland and Italy.
As of 2019, residents with a
migration background
In the Germanosphere, ''migration background'' () is a term used to describe people on the basis of Identity politics, identity and ancestry. Migration background is a variably defined Social structure, socio-demographic characteristic that desc ...
enumerated 88,608, or 63.4% of the population, while Germans without a migration background enumerated 51,241 residents.
Nearly one-in-three, 29.5%, of foreign residents originate from Europe, particularly from countries like
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
,
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
,
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
and
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
According to census data, Offenbach
and
Duisburg
Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...
had the highest share of
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
migrants of all German districts in 2011. Muslims were between 14% and 17% of the city's population as of 2011.
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...
made up 11% of the city's population in 2019.
Population history
Until the end of the 17th century, Offenbach remained a small town with less than a thousand inhabitants. With the coming into power of the count
Johann Philipp in 1685, the city began to develop and the population rose steadily. In the 19th century the city became industrialized and the population increased even tenfold.
Offenbach is one of the German cities where Germans without migrant background make up a minority of the population. As of 31 December 2012, approx. 44.3% of residents or 55,047 people had no foreign background. In contrast to that, there were 55.7% or 69,214 people with at least one non-German grandparent. The largest of those groups are:
Economy

Until the early 1970s, Offenbach was dominated by the machine-building and leather industries. The city hosts the
German Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies to this day. The
Deutscher Wetterdienst
The () or DWD for short, is the German Meteorological Service, based in Offenbach am Main, Germany, which monitors weather and meteorological conditions over Germany and provides weather services for the general public and for nautical, avi ...
, commonly abbreviated as DWD, (translated from German as German Meteorological Service), residing in the Westend district.
Offenbach was also the European center of
typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
, with
Gebr. Klingspor and
Linotype (inventors of
Optima
Optima is a Humanist sans-serif, humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany in 1958.
Though classified as a sans-serif, Optima has a subtle swelling at the terminals s ...
or
Palatino
Palatino is an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, initially released in 1949 by the Stempel foundry and later by other companies, most notably the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Palatino is optimised for legibility with open ...
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...
) moving to nearby
Eschborn
Eschborn () is a town in the Main-Taunus district, Hesse, Germany. It is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and has a population of 21,488 (2018). Eschborn is home to numerous corporations due to it ...
in the 1970s and
MAN Roland printing machines still a major employer today. Typography and design still remain important with a cluster of graphic design and industrial design companies, as well as the university level
Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main
The Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Offenbach am Main (English: ''Offenbach am Main College of Design'') is a German art and design university located in Offenbach am Main, in the German state of Hesse. It was given university status in 1970, a ...
(HfG) design school and the
Klingspor Museum
The Klingspor-Museum is a museum in Offenbach, Germany, specializing in the art of modern book production, typography and type. It includes a collection of fine art books from Karl Klingspor, one of the owners of Klingspor Type Foundry in Off ...
.
In recent years Offenbach has become a popular location for a wide array of services, especially from the transport sectors. Offenbach is the host to the European headquarters of
Honda
commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...
,
Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motor Company, often referred to as Hyundai Motors, ( ) and commonly known as Hyundai (), is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, which was founded in 1967. Currently, the company ow ...
and
Kumho Tires
Kumho Tire (formerly known as Samyang Tire) is a South Korean tire manufacturer. Kumho Tire was previously operated as a business unit of the Kumho Asiana Group. Since 2018, it is a subsidiary of Chinese tire conglomerate Doublestar.
Operation ...
.
Omega-haus01.JPG, An office building in Offenbach-Kaiserlei
Zeitungsrollenoffsetdruck-COLORMAN.jpg, A printing machine produced by Manroland
Manroland AG manufactures newspaper web offset presses, commercial web offset presses, and sheetfed offset presses for commercial, publications and packaging printing.
The company has production facilities in Offenbach am Main and Augsburg. M ...
Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept.jpg, Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept developed in Offenbach
Sheraton-offenbach.jpg, The Sheraton Offenbach
01 Ring Center shopping mall, Offenbach am Main, Germany.jpg, Einkaufszentrum Ring Center
Arts and culture
Attractions

In Offenbach there is no specific Old Town, but there are several buildings which survived bombing during the war and have been restored. One of them is the
Neo-baroque Neo-Baroque may refer to:
* Neo-Baroque music
* Neo-Baroque painting, a painting style used by Christo Coetzee and others
*Baroque Revival architecture
* Neo-Baroque film
*the Organ reform movement
The Organ Reform Movement or ''Orgelbewegung'' ...
palace ''Büsingpalais'' with the Büsingpark, reconstructed in the 1980s. Today it is used as a congress center close to the Sheraton hotel. Between the shopping area and the Main, is the ''Lilipark'' and the ''Lilitemple'', named after
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
's fiancée Lili Schönemann. The most important building is the ' (Isenburg Palace), a
renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
palace from 1576. It is today used by the
Offenbach Design University which is next to it. There is also a
neoclassic palace in the borough Rumpenheim, the ''Rumpenheimer Schloss'' it now serves exclusively as domestic dwellings but the park is public.
*''Isenburger Schloss'', a Renaissance building, now used by the
Offenbach Design University
*''Büsingpalais'' with Büsingpark
*''Wilhelmsplatz'' a square with coffee houses and three times a week a market.
*Buildings of the French Protestant Church and the French Protestant Community.
*Rumpenheim Palace.
*Former Synagogue "Capitol" (now a concert hall next to the new Synagogue).
*The Westend Quarter (19th century).
*Several
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
apartment houses.
*Buildings by early 20th century architect
Hugo Eberhardt
Hugo Eberhardt (2 May 1874, Furtwangen im Schwarzwald − 8 April 1959) was a German architect.
Biography
Eberhardt started his career as a ship interior architect for Norddeutscher Lloyd, After working in Kos as an archeologist for a German ...
: "Heyne" Factory, main building of the
Design University, AOK Insurance building.
*Prefabricated houses by
Egon Eiermann
Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 19 July 1970) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at Technische Hochschule Kar ...
in
Lauterborn
Events
There are several festivals in Offenbach, some of these are:
* ''Lichterfest im Büsing-Park'' (festival of lights in the park of the Büsing palais)
* ''Nacht der Museen'' (with Frankfurt)
* ''Mainuferfest''
* ''Cross Media Night''
Museums
*
German Leather Museum
The German Leather Museum (''Deutsches Ledermuseum''), located in Offenbach am Main
Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt an ...
* ''
Klingspor Museum
The Klingspor-Museum is a museum in Offenbach, Germany, specializing in the art of modern book production, typography and type. It includes a collection of fine art books from Karl Klingspor, one of the owners of Klingspor Type Foundry in Off ...
'', museum of
typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
and
calligraphy
Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
* ''Haus der Stadtgeschichte'', municipal historical museum
* ''Rosenheim-Museum'' for the painter Bernd Rosenheim
Sports
Kickers Offenbach
Offenbacher Fussball-Club Kickers, commonly known as Kickers Offenbach, is a German association football club in Offenbach am Main, Hesse. The club was founded on 27 May 1901 in the Rheinischer Hof restaurant by footballers who had left establis ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club was founded in 1901.
Transport
Roads
The streets of central Offenbach are usually congested with cars during the rush hour. Some areas, especially around the shopping streets, are pedestrian-only streets. There are numerous car parks located throughout the city. The Offenbacher Kreuz is an Autobahn interchange where the Autobahnen
A 3 (
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
-
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...
) and
A 661 meet. The A661 crosses the
A 3 (
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
-
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...
) and
A 5 (
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
-
Hannover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
).
Public transport
The city is connected by a major line of the
S-Bahn railway system to Frankfurt. The station in the city center is ''Marktplatz''. In general, six stations are located in Offenbach: ''Offenbach-Kaiserlei'', ''Offenbach-Ledermuseum'', ''Offenbach-Marktplatz'', ''
Offenbach-Ost'', ''Offenbach-Bieber'', ''Offenbach-Waldhof''. Trains run every 5–10 minutes between Offenbach and Frankfurt. A 24 hours Service between both cities was introduced in 2013. The journey from Offenbach Marktplatz to Frankfurt Main Station takes 15 minutes, Frankfurt Airport can be reached within 26 minutes.
Suburban trains run underground in downtown Offenbach. The city tunnel was opened in 1996. Services split up at Offenbach-Ost Station to Hanau (S8 and S9 trains), Rödermark (S1) and Dietzenbach (S2).
An often-addressed problem is that there is no direct interchange between regional and suburban trains in Offenbach, since the lines were separated when the tunnel was built. Therefore, residents and city officials have proposed several times that platforms for regional trains should be added to the Offenbach-Ost Station.
The city's municipal public transportation services are operated by the "Offenbacher Verkehrsbetriebe" (OVB) and its subcontractors.
Nine routes (numbered 101–108 and 120) connect all boroughs with the major train stations at Marktplatz, Offenbach-Ost and Kaiserlei as well as the Central Station. The bus network has very good coverage and frequency of service. All routes except for number 102 and number 107 busses stop at Marktplatz station, making it the most important transit hub in the city. Buses usually run with a 15-minute headway on working days and a 30-minute headway on Sundays, public holidays and after 8:00 pm.
Exemptions are routes 103, 107 and 120 which run every 30 minutes. Number 103 and 120 buses share most of their route, creating a 15-minute headway on the shared section in downtown Offenbach. Those two routes also connect the city of Offenbach with its surrounding towns, Frankfurt am Main, Mühlheim am Main and Obertshausen.
Out of all municipal bus services the number 101 bus is the most frequented route. It runs every 7 or 8 minutes Mondays through Fridays. Service on the other most frequented routes (104 and 105) is also increased to a 7/8-minute headway during rush hours.
In addition to the municipal bus services there are regional buses that serve the city. Two express bus routes connect Offenbach to the city of Langen (route X83) and Bad Vilbel (X97). Other services are the number OF-30 bus to Heusenstamm, the 41 bus to Fechenheim as well as the 551 to Gravenbruch, Enkheim and Bad Vilbel.
Regional trains stop at the Offenbach Central Station in the city's center. The station is on the Frankfurt-Hanau main line which is one of railway with the most traffic in Germany. Mostly hourly service for Wächsersbach, Fulda, Würzburg and Erbach call at the Offenbach Central Station.
There is no long-distance train service at central station, although many high-speed trains pass through on their way from Frankfurt to Munich, Berlin or Hamburg.
The station lost most of its importance when the suburban trains were re-routed through the newly build tunnel beneath Berliner Straße. Nonetheless a train ride from Offenbach Central Station to Frankfurt Central Station takes only ten minutes.
Frankfurt Airport
The city is accessed from around the world via the
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...
, (Flughafen Frankfurt am Main) which is located from Offenbach. The airport can be reached by car or bus and has two train stations, one for regional and one for long-distance traffic. The S-Bahn lines S8 and S9 (direction "Offenbach Ost or "Hanau"), departing from the regional traffic station, take 25 minutes from the airport to get to Offenbach.
Notable people

*
Johann André (1741–1799), founder of the music publishing firm named after him
*
Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach (1796–1857), jurist
*
Salomon Formstecher (1808–1889), rabbi and philosopher
*
Philipp Mainländer
Philipp Mainländer (; 5 October 1841 – 1 April 1876) was a German philosopher and poet. Born Philipp Batz, he later changed his name to "Mainländer" in homage to his hometown, Offenbach am Main.
In his central work, (''The Philosophy of Re ...
(1841–1876), poet and philosopher
*
Siegfried Guggenheim (1873–1961), lawyer, notary and art collector
*
Richard Heyne (1882–1961), member of Landtag and producer
*
Christian Dell (1882–1974), industrial designer, factory designer on
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
*
Hans Halberstadt (1885–1966), American fencer
*
Prince Philipp of Hesse (1896–1980), prince and governor
*
Bernard von Brentano
Bernard von Brentano (15 October 1901, in Offenbach am Main – 29 December 1964, in Wiesbaden) was a German writer, poet, playwright, storyteller, novelist, essayist and journalist.
Life
Brentano was born on 15 October 1901, a son of the Hess ...
(1901–1964), writer, essayist and journalist
*
Heinrich von Brentano
Heinrich Joseph Maximilian Johann Maria von Brentano di Tremezzo (20 June 1904 – 14 November 1964), known professionally as Heinrich von Brentano, was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Federal Ministe ...
(1904–1964), conservative politician
*
Berthold Wolpe
Berthold Ludwig Wolpe (29 October 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after t ...
(1905–1989), typographer and
type designer
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
*
Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter (19 January 19096 December 2003) was a German operatic bass-baritone. He stood and his appearance was striking. His voice and diction were equally recognisable.
Early life and career
Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Hotter studied ...
(1909–2003), opera singer
*
Helene Mayer
Helene Julie Mayer (20 December 1910 – 10 October 1953) was a German-born fencer who won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, and the silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. She competed for Nazi Germany in Berlin, despit ...
(1910–1953), fencer, Olympic champion
*
Edith Schloss
Edith Schloss (July 20, 1919 – December 21, 2011) was a German-born American artist, art critic and author, primarily known for abstract paintings and Assemblage (art), assemblages. She received art training first in her native Offenbach am Main ...
(1919–2011), artist, writer
*
Gottfried Böhm
Gottfried Böhm (; 23 January 1920 – 9 June 2021) was a German architect and sculptor. His reputation is based on creating highly sculptural buildings made of concrete, steel, and glass. Böhm's first independent building was the Cologne ...
(1920–2021), architect who won the
Pritzker Architecture Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consisten ...
in 1986
*
Hermann Nuber (1935–2022), footballer
*
Ray Bumatai (1952–2005), musician, actor and singer
*
Jimmy Hartwig (born 1954), football player, manager and actor
*
Olli Dittrich (born 1956), actor and comedian
*
Smudo (born 1968), musician and rapper
*
Sven Beckert
Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, where he teaches the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, and global history. With Christine A. Desan, he is the co-director of the Program on the Study o ...
(born 1969), history professor at Harvard, winner of 2015 Bancroft Prize for Empire of Cotton
*
Helma Wennemers (born 1969), German organic chemist and professor
*
Christian Lammert (born 1969), political scientist
*
Christian Sievers
Christian Sievers (born 1969 in Offenbach am Main) is a German journalist and evening news anchor.
Career
After graduating secondary school with his ''Abitur'' in 1989, Sievers studied law in Berlin and Freiburg. During his studies, he also wor ...
(born 1969), journalist
*
Tarek Al-Wazir (born 1971), politician, Deputy of the Hessian Minister-President
*
Aykut Anhan (born 1985), musician and rapper
Notable residents
*
Jacob Frank
Jacob Joseph Frank (; Yiddish: יעקבֿ פֿראַנק; ; born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – 10 December 1791) was a Polish-Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) ...
(1726–1791), Jewish religious leader
*
Abraham Bing (1752–1841), rabbi
*
Rudolf Koch
Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German type designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely ...
(1876–1934), typeface designer, calligrapher and university professor
*
Friedrich Kellner
August Friedrich Kellner (1 February 1885 – 4 November 1970) was a German mid-level official and diarist who worked as a justice inspector in Laubach from 1933 to 1945.
Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment during the First Wor ...
(1885–1970), official and justice inspector, attended Goethschule here
*
Heinrich Kaminski (1886–1946), composer, worked here
*
Ignatz Wiemeler
Ignatz Wiemeler (1895–1952) was a German bookbinder and educator, internationally known and exhibited. He was part of the ''Offenbach School'' movement, alongside Rudolf Koch and the painter Karl Friedrich Lippmann.
Biography
Wiemeler was born ...
(1895–1952),
bookbinder
Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...
and university professor
*
Fritz Kredel (1900–1973), German-American artist and graphic designer, studied here
*
Regina Jonas
Regina Jonas (; German: ''Regine Jonas'';As documented by ''Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Laufendenummer 892'' which reads: "''In front of the signed registrar appeared today... Wolff Jonas... ...
(1902–1944), first female Rabbi, ordained in Offenbach
*
Karlgeorg Hoefer
Karlgeorg Hoefer (6 February 1914 – 8 October 2000) was a German calligrapher and typographer.
Hoefer was born in Schlesisch-Drehnow (now Drzonów) in Silesia. He taught typography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach (until 1970 ...
(1914–2000),
calligrapher
Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...
and
typographer
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
*
Cornelia Hanisch
Cornelia Hanisch (; born 12 June 1952) is a retired German fencer. She won a gold medal in the team foil and a silver in the individual foil at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Between 1977 and 1985, she won ten medals in the foil at world championshi ...
(born 1952), fencer, Olympic winner
*
Dieter Müller
Dieter Müller (né Kaster; 1 April 1954) is a German former professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward. He achieved his greatest success playing for 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga in th ...
(born 1954), footballer
*
Rudi Völler
Rudolf "Rudi" Völler (; born 13 April 1960) is a German professional football manager and former player, who is currently the director of the Germany national team. In Germany, he is nicknamed "Tante Käthe" ("Aunt Kathy"), a name bestowed upon ...
(born 1960), football player and manager
*
Götz Otto (born 1967), actor
*
Anthony Rother (born 1972), electronic musician
Gallery
Offenbach Isenburger Schloss c.jpg, ''Isenburger Schloss''
Büsing Palais d.jpg, ''Büsingpalais''
Offenbach Rumpenheimer Schloss a.jpg, ''Rumpenheimer Schloss''
OFwochenmarkt.jpg, The market on Wilhelmsplatz
Hfg-offenbach-germany.jpg, Detail at the building of the HfG, designed by Hugo Eberhardt
Darmstädter-straße.jpg, A typical street in Offenbach
Klinikum-offenbach-2010.JPG, The municipal hospital
Buchrainweg29.jpg, The house where Rudolf Koch lived, one of the art deco houses in the southwestern part of the town
Offenbach Hills.jpg, Offenbach hills
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Offenbach Am Main
Cities in Hesse
Populated places on the Main basin
Populated riverside places in Germany
Historic Jewish communities
Urban districts of Hesse
Darmstadt (region)