Interesting new chart: Total population of the city of Frankfurt (not including the vicinity): 541,047 of which 485,195 are of German ethnicity. 13,402 Italians are in town and prefer the burb of Griesheim. 2,778 Americans live in Frankfurt and prefer to reside in Sachsenhausen-Nord (Southern short of the river), where also the 2,531 British citizens and the 261 holders of Australian passports reside. Interestingly, the 75 citizens from New Zealand prefer to live in Dornbusch (where I live, too). The 159 Mexican citizens made Bockenheim, the students quarter, their new home. And in Gallus, one of the most diverse quarters of Frankfurt, there are 164 North Koreans...
Posted by
Taylor, TX, USA
416 posts
Hmmm, Bockenheim sounds interesting. I wonder what the German version of Mexican food is like? Probably not as spicy as I am used to. ;-) I remember the first time I encountered a black man with German-accented English as a naive 18 year old on my first trip to Europe. It hadn't occurred to me that people of color in other countries would either not speak English or if they did, would speak it with other than a Southern US accent. For that matter, it hadn't occurred to me that immigrants didn't just flow to the US. World travel truly educates in ways you don't always expect.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9222 posts
Andreas, can you post the link with those statistics? I was just reading the Frankfurt website stats yesterday and those numbers are completely different from what I read. What area is it covering? Maybe that is quite different from the stats I had.
What I had read said for 2009 - 675,000, with 40% having immigration backgrounds of some kind and that 25% of us hold foreign passports, so all of this makes Frankfurt one of the most international cities around. Every third marriage here is with at least one foreigner taking part. The whole Rhein Main area was about 5 million. I had read figures that said 2% were native English speakers, but that covers a lot of different countries.
As to Americans living here, the Consulate community is North end, so that is a big chunk. I think the rest of us live here in Bornheim, or maybe Sachsenhausen (the cool neighborhoods.)
This all works out well for those tourists who want to blend. So many foreigners make it easy, and English can be used pretty often.
Posted by
OP
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2779 posts
Jo, you know that daily paper with the big letters, plenty of color photos... ? ;-) It's in the Frankfurt issue today:http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/frankfurt/aktuell/2010/06/10/wir-sind-fussball-hauptstadt/in-frankfurt-daheim-bei-der-wm-zuhause.html
Posted by
Wannavacation
19 posts
When I was growing up as a military brat in Germany, we lived off base...that might be where sme are.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
"I wonder what the German version of Mexican food is like? Probably not as spicy as I am used to. ;-)" I had the German take on Mexican food in Kaiserslautern once. Although I don't normally like very spicy food, even I thought it was too weak.
This is an often overlooked facet of travel to Europe- seeing how the various countries adapt foreign cuisine to local tastes.
Posted by
Taylor, TX, USA
416 posts
Tom,
That is exactly why I try to include at least one visit to a restaurant that serves one of my favorite ethnic foods on each trip to Europe. Chinese food off the Ku-Damm in Berlin, Thai food in Paris, Mexican food somewhere between Dijon and Besancon. It is interesting to see how it DOES get altered to fit local tastes. A lot of my co-workers are Mexican and the ones who got here more recently enjoy much hotter peppers than the ones who are 3rd or higher generation. Sadly, the more assimilated people are, the more generic they seem to become.
Posted by
Clarksville, TN, USA
959 posts
The American base in Frankfurt closed over 10 years ago, so that shouldn't really have anything to do with the American population there...
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9222 posts
Lots of soldiers married Germans and they often stayed after they got out. There are large numbers of retired military here too. The base in Wiesbaden caters to their medical needs.
Most of the Americans that live here are studying at the Goethe University, working for one of the multi-national companies, or with a bank. P&G has a huge office in Darmstadt, American airlines have tons of employees here too. Then there are lots of expats like me, who just enjoy living here. Many of us have our own businesses, were or are married to Germans, our kids go to German schools, and we like being able to travel easily. Frankfurt is an ideal city for us.