Back to Cultural Keepsakes Back to Cultural Correspondence E-mail Nina here

Frankfurt, Germany by Nina

I live in a nice town next to Frankfurt. Frankfurt is Germanys financial centre, every bank has its headquarter here. During the last years they build several skyscrapers in the city which can really keep up with the American ones. During the usual business hours you can find hundreds of business people in the streets. There is also a large pedestrian zone called "Zeil", where you find hundreds of shops and restaurants. Sometimes street-musicians do their best to entertain the people while they go shopping. If you leave the "Zeil" and walk in the direction of the river Main, you come across the place "Römerplatz". It is one of Frankfurts most famous tourist attraction. The "Römer" is an old house at the marketplace, where the famous poet Johann-Wolfgang Goethe was born. Today it is a kind of city hall. Here you find a lot of cultural and traditional buildings nearby. The fascinating fact about Germany is that it combines old and modern. In most of the big cities you have skyscrapers, industry and large shopping miles, but also old town areas with a lot of frame-work houses and old cultural buldings. One of the best examples for that is Frankfurt. Some of Germanys biggest tourist attractions are for example the "Kölner Dom", a big old cathedral in Cologne, the "Brandenburger Tor" in Berlin, which was closed for the time Germany was divides into two parts and is now open again since 1989, and the "Schloss Neuschwanstein", a beautiful castle in Bavaria. Other famous places are along the river Rhine, where you can do several boot trips. From there you can view the beautiful castles along the banks. Also in that area many of Germany's famous wines grow there. Especially in summer many wine cellars arrange events where everybody can test the wines for a small fee.

We have the same religious holidays like other Christian countries (Easter, Christmas, Whitsun..). Additionally we celebrate the May 1st, as Day of Work. This day is free and in the rural regions people undertake trips with tractors, have barbecues and set up a large decorated tree at the market places of the small villages. Another holiday is the October 3rd, the Day of the German Reunion. In 1989 Germany became one country again with East Germany, after our country had been seperated after World War II. Other things that are typical for Germany: you can buy "bratwurst" (sausages - but you cannot compare them with hotdogs - they are much better) in rolls at every corner of cities. They are mostly sold in small stalls and you eat them either with moustache or curry-ketchup. Sauerkrauts on the other hand is not as popular as people from out of Germany may think. Actually an average German meal consists of a piece of meat, potatoes/rice/fries and vegetables/salad. Our most popular sport is SOCCER!! In every village - from small one-horse towns to big cities - every village has an own soccer team. They play in different leagues and when there is a game of the first league on TV they even change the whole TV programm (most of the time the women are not very amused about that, hehe)

When it comes to other's perception of Germany, I believe they either think of the Second World War or Sauerkrauts. In fact you don't find more nazis here anymore than in any other country on the world. This time is gone and 90% of the people who live today have had nothing to do with those cruel things which happend in the past. On the other hand many people think we wear traditional clothes, do silly dances, drink only beer and eat sauerkrauts and sausages in heaps. Actually we don't differ much from other European countries like England, France or Italy. Germany is a industrial country with a lot of business and fashion today. It makes me proud that my country never gave up. After World War II the people worked hard to rebuilt our economy and our strength. Today we can compete with Economy States like USA and Japan.