GRP 2012 | Time zone CET (UTC+1) | |
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Nominal €172/ $222 billion (6th in EU) Similar Rhine, Taunus, Großer Feldberg, Theodor Heuss Bridge, Odenwald | ||
The Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: Frankfurt/Rhein-Main. abbreviated FRM) is the third largest metropolitan region in Germany (after Ruhr and Berlin), with a total population exceeding 5.8 million. The metropolitan region is located in the central western part of Germany, and stretches over parts of three federal states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria, as well as the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Mainz, Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg.
Contents
- Map of Frankfurt Metropolitan Area Germany
- Subdivisions
- Metropolitan region and larger urban zones
- Traffic
- Education
- References
Map of Frankfurt Metropolitan Area, Germany
The polycentric region is named after its core city Frankfurt am Main and the two rivers Rhine and Main. The Frankfurt Rhine-Main area is officially designated as a European Metropolitan region by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and covers an area of roughly 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 sq mi).
Subdivisions
Rhine-Main is a polycentric metropolitan region, but the economic size and political weight of the city of Frankfurt sets it into a very monocentric relation with her commuter belt. Since the early 1970s the Frankfurt am Main metropolitan area (German: Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main) is defined as an area encompassing the cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach and their directly neighboring districts.
The Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt of the state of Hesse could be seen as the next administrative division, as it lies entirely within the metropolitan region and further includes the cities of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden and a number of larger districts. Only on a level further, the metropolitan region also includes the cities and districts of Mainz and Aschaffenburg in the two adjoining federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria.
Metropolitan region and larger urban zones
Eurostat's Urban Audit splits the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region into four Larger Urban Zones (LUZ). These zones do exclude a number of districts in the metropolitan area.
Traffic
The growth of the area is chiefly to be traced to the favorable communications, that promoted an early industrialization. Today however, the importance of industrial concerns has to a great extent been replaced by banking, trade and logistics. Frankfurt lies within the populous Blue Banana region of Europe, which here runs along the Rhine valley, and the city is also a stepping stone from and to various parts of Switzerland and Southern Germany. The Rhine-Ruhr is accessible via a one-hour trip on the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, and the air route Frankfurt-Berlin is the busiest in German domestic air travel.
Frankfurt Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany and one of the three busiest airports in Europe. Thereby, along with a strong railway connection, the area also serves as a major transportation hub.
Education
The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region is home to five universities and over 20 partly postgraduate colleges, with a total of over 200,000 students. The largest university is the Goethe University Frankfurt and the oldest is the University of Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), founded in 1477 AD. Other universities include:
Notable colleges and universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) include: