Archive for category: Frankfurt Life

Where in Frankfurt and the surrounding areas is carnival being celebrated? On which parades and floats should we not miss out on? We have asked ourselves these questions and compiled a list of tips for the carnival season.

After doing some research, one thing is certain: The Financial Centre Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main area have a lot to offer when it comes to celebrating the foolish season to the fullest extent before Lent begins leading up to Easter. In many places, Fools take control over the cities from Weiberfastnacht on Thursday, 28. February, to Ash Wednesday, 6. March.

Financial Centre Frankfurt

Carnival is a grand festival– no one celebrates it like we do is the motto of this year’s Frankfurt carnival parade 2019: “As in previous years, the parade on Shrove Sunday will inspire both Frankfurters and visitors”, writes Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann in his welcoming address in the current carnival brochure of the Council of Carnival Associations Frankfurt am Main e.V. Where to celebrate after the great parade, which ceremonial sessions are worth experiencing and which balls are particularly traditional can be looked up on FRANKFURT.de. You will surely enjoy a visit to the carnival metropolis Mainz, should the events happening at the Financial Centre not be enough for you.

Mainz

The carnival stronghold Mainz is known throughout Germany for its large and colourful carnival parade. Political topics are often comedically addressed – but also in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt and surrounding areas people dance, laugh and throw confetti until Ash Wednesday.

Wiesbaden

In the Hessian state capital Wiesbaden, the young Fools take the centre stage on Saturday. The popular children’s festival begins at 10.00 a.m, of which the popular children’s parade starting at 14.11 p.m. is a major part. On Shrive Sunday, the infamous Sunday Parade starts at 13.11 p.m. at the Elsässer Platz and moves through the streets of the state capital. “On Ash Wednesday, 6 March 2019, the festive season comes to an end, and the Fools return the key to town hall to Lord Mayor Sven Gerich,” it says on the city’s website.

Darmstadt

In the neighbouring city of Darmstadt and the surrounding areas, the foolish season is widely celebrated. Since 1902, the Carnival Association AHOI cultivates the tradition of carnival in its hometown Gräfenhausen and is convinced that once again, visitors will be satisfied with the carnival festivities happening this year.  In Griesheim, South Hesse, and in proximity to Gräfenhausen, the largest Weiberfastnachtsparty will take place. In Weiterstadt the carnival club Weiterstadt invites visitors to a colorful mixture of carnival festivities, having something to offer for everyone’s taste: children’s session, Kräppelkaffee, Rosenmontagsball, and rag-ball. More carnival celebrations in Darmstadt and surroundings can be found here.

Discover first traces of the Brexit in Frankfurt? Or how about taking a tour of the musical specialties ranging from Mozart to The Doors? Would you like to discover the Main Metropolis from the perspective of a former homeless man? Or would you rather discover the Frankfurt city forest in the context of an Irish Roadbowling experience? What about discovering gossip and love stories, Indian spots, graffiti and street art, espionage and secret societies or the most popular watering holes of Frankfurt?

All of the aforementioned is a mere tiny excerpt of the meanwhile 250 different events offering you, since 2009, a glimpse into Frankfurt organized by the Journal Frankfurt magazine in cooperation with the renowned city guide Christian Setzepfandt. The core question of the program is the following: We’re traveling to foreign countries and far away cities and yet we should ask ourselves what we ourselves really know about our own hometown located at the main? The goal of the extensive program is thus supplying Frankfurt locals with a new perspective on their city and in this context immerse into unknown but appealing locations and ways of living, traditions and the cities culture and take a glimpse behind the curtains of cultural institutions, popular buildings and popular spots of Frankfurt. For tourists and recently settled citizens, the organizers would like to take a focus on crushing persistent preconceptions about Frankfurt as a lifeless commuter town, the red light district and crime by showcasing the multifaceted nature of Frankfurt and offering a close experience of the various neighborhoods, the history, the unexpected, curiosities, scary elements of the city, the fascinating, the romantic and lost treasures.

Aside from the multitude of originally themed city tours in the categories architecture and extraordinary buildings, secret locations, parks and nature, children, families and the elderly, culture, art and city history, parties and red light as well as streets and neighborhoods, the program also includes various workshops taking a special focus on Frankfurt, it’s vicinity and beyond. The program ranges from rather ordinary courses of photography in Frankfurt, acquiring sport techniques and cooking classes of special dishes to extraordinary workshops on Apfelwein (apple cider), airline pilots in the flight simulator, film animation or a course for adults on making your own soap bubbles.

The program by Journal Frankfurt is not limited on the Main Metropolis, however, but rather invites you to discover the surroundings of Frankfurt as well: Starting from touring Offenbach with the topics ranging from weather, industrial change, the Offenbach harbor or migration in Offenbach bringing to light desires as well as existential fears, to a champagne tasting along the mountain route, a meeting with the city beekeeper of Kassel up to workshops on the creative rural cuisine of the Odenwald or a culinary tour of local dishes through the Wetterau.

Early planning of your participation will pay off. Some especially exceptional tours and workshops only take place a few times per year. The price range starts at being free of charge to a participation fee of 89 euro; the average participation fee is about 20 euro per person. An increasing part of the city tours will also be offered in English. You will find an overview of the Journal Frankfurt program right here.

Jil Sander is one of the most influential contemporary fashion designers. The simple and timeless elegance of her designs, together with the high-quality materials and sophisticated cuts gave her the title “Queen of Less.” After all, it’s the restraint and clarity that make Jil Sander’s fashion spectacular. An exhibition of the Frankfurt Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) entitled “Jil Sander. Present Tense” is now dedicated to the elegancy of the designer in her fashion and beyond and conveys this to the visitor through multimedia elements.

Down to the smallest detail, the fashion designer herself, in close collaboration with the museum and especially with the museum director Matthias Wagner K, co-designed and implemented the world’s first solo exhibition on her versatile oeuvre in a museum.

On three floors and over 3,000 square meters of exhibition space, almost the entire museum area of the MAK, the visitor is not chronologically guided by the life and work of the fashion designer, but thematically. The exhibition is not a retrospective of Sanders career and the history of the company, neither a retrospective of her collections – time details are completely missing from the exhibits and thus underline the timelessness of Sanders designs. On the contrary, the visitor explores the artist’s complete works, going through rooms on the topics of fashion collections, accessories, cosmetics, fashion photography and campaigns, but also on architecture and garden art. A catwalk, Sanders Atelier and a flagship store were modelled for the exhibition.

Sanders choice for the first exhibition of her work came down to the MAK not without reason. The building by Richard Meier, with its rectilinear and transparent architecture, reflects the clear and reduced aspects of Sanders fashion and forms an ideal setting for the exhibition. Because of the architecture of the MAK and the convincing concept of the museum director Matthias Wagner K, the exhibition came first to Frankfurt and did not go to London, New York or a classical fashion metropolis.

The overall experience “Jil Sander. Present Tense” is musically ‘covered’ by the sound designer Frédéric Sanchez, who already provided the music to Sanders fashion shows, and its restrained, electronic sound. The exhibition is much more than a retrospective of Sander’s fashion; it is a multimedia overall experience, an interplay of architecture, light, film, music, text, photography, fashion and art that brings to visitors the simple elegance of the designer.

The “Jil Sander. Present Tense” exhibition runs until May 6, 2018 in the Frankfurt Museum of Applied Arts.

The Frankfurt Christmas market has a long tradition and is one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany. Up to the year 1393 it can be proven that markets took place in Frankfurt on Christmas. The traditional centerpiece of the market is the Römerberg, which with its historic half-timbered houses provides the backdrop for one of the country’s most beautiful and largest Christmas markets. The approximately three million visitors can enjoy the festive atmosphere between the city center and Römerberg from November 22 to December 22, 2017.

This year, the Christmas market goes under the slogan Music City Frankfurt. Similarly, this year’s Christmas market cup is provided with the text of a Christmas song – with which visitors can find out from the opening day. The highlight of the opening ceremony on November 27 will be the performance of the pop singer Michelle. And until  December 22, the musical offer ranges from the performance of international Christmas carols, the playing of the tower musicians of the Old St Nicholas Church to the big ringing of the city with the simultaneous ringing of 50 bells.

Over 200 Christmas stalls attract visitors with lovely products and treats. In addition to the classic roasted almonds, mulled wine and sausages, you can enjoy typical Frankfurt Christmas specialties such as Bethmännchen (“a little Bethmann”), hot cider and Quetenkännchen. Furthermore, you can taste some traditional regional dishes cooked in an unusual way, such as green sauce crêpes with ox breast or Handkäs (“hand cheese”) fondue. In addition to the culinary diversity, visitors can expect classic Christmas market decoration and folk art articles, as well as modern handicrafts and typical Frankfurt goods such as ‘dippe’ (ceramic pot) and earthenware products. On the adjoining craft market in the Roman halls and the St. Paul’s Church, there is also the opportunity to search for an extraordinary Christmas present.

On Advent weekends, the Christmas market tour “Glühwein, Geschichten & Gebäck” (Mulled wine, stories and pastries) will be offered in many languages as well as for the blind and visually impaired and the Frankfurt Christmas market specialties will be presented. Also stories about the historic and modern Frankfurt, the Christmas market and famous Frankfurt personalities are part of the tour, which is completed with a visit to the roof gallery of the Old St Nicholas Church and the spectacular view of the sea of lights from the Christmas market and skyline.

At the Frankfurt Hauptwache (Main Guard) there are more Christmas market stalls, which extend the classic Christmas market area up to the shopping street Zeil and thus form a passage to Christmas shopping. On Friedrich-Stolze-Platz there is also the so-called “Rosa Weihnacht”, which is organized by the gay community of the Rhine-Main region and creates a special atmosphere with its colorful lights, unusual decoration and design. In addition to this contiguous Christmas market area also Frankfurt-Höchst and Sachsenhausen invite you to visit small district Christmas markets. At the gates of the city there are also a variety of romantic Christmas markets in Odenwald, Rheingau, Taunus and Wetterau.