Bahnhof Quarter Story

 Last night for the HR (public TV for Hessen)....the regional news covered for about ten minutes....a fest underway in the Bahnhof quarter of Frankfurt.

If you were ever stationed around the Frankfurt region in  the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s....the Bahnhof quarter was generally famous for strip clubs, bordello operations, and a few fast-food operations.  

You'd walk out the front-door of the train station.....ahead of you for about three blocks was the Bahnhof quarter.  At one point, McDonalds, Burger King and even Wendys were operating there (Wendys came and went).

I would imagine for stripper joints/bars....there were probably twenty in the quarter, and at some peak in the 1980s....there might have been thirty bordello 'units'.  

What came in the 1990s (probably even five to eight years prior).....was a druggie/junkie district.  At that point, from the Bahnhof quarter to the downtown 'Wall-street' area....there were probably over 1,500 wandering junkies hanging out.  

Some clean-up campaign occurred....marginally working.

Since 2000?  Around the junkie-mile (what they refer to it).....you probably have in the range of 1,000 junkies hanging out, and an smaller assortment of strip clubs and bordello units still operating.

I walked through the area last around 2017....mid-morning, and noted probably forty guys/gals laying on the sidewalk....in some drugged-up daze, from a brief 20-minute walk through the 'zone'.  It's an area that I don't recommend.....day or night.  

Locals?  Peeved.  They want the city council to resolve this mess.....clean up the junkie stuff, dissolve the drug trade, and end the sex business.  Personal opinion, I think the city council is in fear if you challenged all of this.....they'd move, and there's no idea where in town that this would all end up. 

So what the city council has approached?  A fest.  It's an open-air thing.....get Frankfurt people convinced that it's safe....it's a great place to drink beer and cocktails.  In a way, they are sending a message.....if regular people start hanging out....the stripper clubs and bordello operations will lose business.  It's a wild idea....even I will admit.

Frankfurt was the first real German city that I got accustomed to (1978-1980).  It was upscale....it was 'seedy'.  The better place to drink was across the river (southside) in the Sachsenhausen quarter.  You could walk out of the quarter in a matter of two minutes....find the subway or tram, and be 100-percent safe (even today).

This remarketing effort?  It's just odd....selling on a district where the legend was from the 1920s  to recent years.....was boozing up, drugs and sex.  

The trend?  I can view the fest idea and this general idea of downsizing the bad-boy image.  Telling me that 2030 will arrive and no stripper shows or bordello operations will be there?  I'd be amazed. Getting rid of the junkies?  Yeah, that would be an impossible task.