Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, usually shortened to Frankfurt, is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 778,589 inhabitants as of 2025 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake river Main, the city forms a continuous conurbation with Offenbach am Main; its urban area has a population of more than 2.7 million. Frankfurt is the heart of the larger Rhine-Main metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.8 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region. Home to the European Central Bank, the city serves as one of the four institutional seats of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg). Frankfurt is classified by the GaWC as an Alpha-rated world city.
Typical weather
1981–presentCity Rhythm
measuredOpening hours, by kind of place
median across mapped venuesVital absurdities
measured · the Anti-AwardsSame time system
by rhythmWhat to do each season
2winter
mild to cool, frequent overcast; mean 0.0-14.1 °C across the range; small possibility of snow especially in January; longer growing season than rest of Germany — spring arrives early, trees leafing out by end of March
- indoor cultural season: Museumsufer (30+ museums), the Alte Oper concert hall, the Schirn Kunsthalle
- the Christmas market on the Römerberg activates the old-town core
- the financial district (Bankenviertel) and the ECB keep the visitor flow steady through winter
summer
warm; mean 15.6-20.4 °C, July mean max 26.1 °C; modest precipitation well-distributed across the year (2 mm/day average)
- the Main riverbank activates — the Museumsuferfest (3M visitors over 3 days, end of August), the Main embankment beer gardens
- the city forest (Frankfurt City Forest, Germany's largest) becomes usable
- the Römerberg old town and the Kleinmarkthalle fill with visitors
- open-air nightlife shifts from Sachsenhausen cider taverns to the riverbank
What it is known for
Important moments in a year
Museumsuferfest
- 3M visitors over 3 days on the Main riverbank
- 20 museums open far into the night
Dippemess
- Frankfurt's oldest folk festival — originally a stoneware fair, now an amusement park
Luminale
- citywide 'festival of light', many buildings specially lit
Frankfurt Book Fair
- Frankfurter Buchmesse — world's largest book fair, ~280k visitors
- publishing-industry takeover
Christmas Market
- Römerberg market in the reconstructed old town
On the record
source-trackedHome to the European Central Bank, the city serves as one of the four institutional seats of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg).
Frankfurt is classified by the GaWC as an Alpha-rated world city.
With more than 30 museums, Frankfurt has one of the largest variety of museums in Europe.
The southern part of the city contains the Frankfurt City Forest, Germany's largest city forest.
It [Frankfurt Airport] ranks among the world's busiest airports by passenger traffic and is the busiest airport by cargo traffic in Europe.
The airport has four runways and serves 265 nonstop destinations.
Museumsuferfest – Museums Riverbank Festival is one of Germany's biggest cultural festivals, attracting more than 3 million visitors over three days at the end of August along the Main riverbank downtown.
In electronic music, Frankfurt was a pioneering city in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with renowned DJs including Sven Väth, Marc Trauner, Scot Project and Kai Tracid.
Until 1945, Frankfurt's city centre, with its 3,000 half-timbered houses, was one of the largest half-timbered old towns in Europe.
Frankfurt has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb, Trewartha: Dobk).
The city is one of the warmest in Germany in winter.
The growing season is longer when compared to the rest of Germany, thus resulting in an early arrival of springtime in the region, with trees typically leafing out already toward the end of March.
The method behind this atlas — 196 pp. Not published yet.