Frankfurt, the cultural Metropolis: Museums, Theatre, Opera, Variety

Frankfurt/Main (tcf). Frankfurt’s cultural scene is spectacularly diverse, offering variation and entertainment in equal measure. The city’s museum landscape alone is made up of some 60 museums and exhibition venues, many of which are scenically set along the magnificent museum embankment, one of Europe’s premier locations of culture and the arts. Here, visitors will find a series of world-class museums set side by side like pearls on a string. Moreover, the museum embankment also provides an excellent backdrop for a leisurely stroll along the River Main. Frankfurt’s many cultural events perfectly supplement its more permanent attractions. Two of the most popular of these are “Museum Night” and the “Museum Embankment Festival”, which further highlight the city’s cultural landscape.

The German Film Museum, the first of its kind in all of Germany, puts on display a highly informative permanent exhibition as well as exciting changing exhibitions focusing on directors, actors and film history. The cinema at the German Film Museum supports these exhibitions with special theme-related film series.

MUSEUM GIERSCH is dedicated to the history of art in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region. Exhibitions feature works by 19^th and 20^th-century artists whose lives and work were vitally linked to the region.

The Liebieghaus, a museum of ancient sculptures, presents its collection within a beautiful former mansion and its adjoining parklands. The exhibition includes an extensive collection of sculptures from the Age of Antiquity as well as more recent times.

The Städel Museum presents works by European artists from the 13^th to the 20^th century and includes masterpieces by old masters such as Dürer, Rembrandt, Botticelli and Picasso. In 2012, the museum opened its new exhibition hall beneath the museum gardens with a comprehensively renewed collection of contemporary art. In the same year, the Städel Museum was voted “Museum of the Year 2012” by the German Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

The Museum of Communication offers visitors a comprehensive overview of the history of communication. The museum’s art and communication department is particularly interesting, as is the children’s workshop with its many interactive offers. The permanent exhibition enables visitors to experience the history of communication first hand, covering everything from jungle drums and the stagecoach to telephones and the Internet.

The German Architecture Museum presents a comprehensive collection of 19^th and 20^th-century blueprints, drawings, sketches, designs and models, as well as the famous “house inside of a house”.

Insights into exotic cultures may be gained at the Museum of World Cultures, which has been incorporated into three historical villas. The museum provides an extraordinary collection of 67,000 works from Africa, Southeast Asia, North, Latin and South America and Oceania. An image archive featuring some 120,000 historical and contemporary ethnographic films and photographs further supplements the collection. With its vast theme-based exhibitions, the museum serves to illustrate the diversity and dissimilarities of foreign peoples and their cultures and religions while simultaneously drawing attention to the problems of today’s world.

Tucked away at the back of a beautiful park, one finds the so-called House of Bible. Here, visitors have the chance to head off on an expedition through the highly interesting world of the “book of books” and become better acquainted with its long and storied past. Four special exhibits help visitors to experience various aspects of the bible. They include the Old Testament, New Testament, the Source of the Bible and Dissemination of the Bible.

The Museum of Applied Arts, one of the most significant international exhibition venues of its kind, is home to a collection spanning 5,000 years of cultural history. It features European and Far-Eastern handcraft ranging from the 12^th to 21^st centuries. One of many interesting attractions is the Japanese teahouse, which introduces visitors to the fine art of the Japanese tea ceremony and its many rituals and traditions.

The Icon Museum concludes the cultural experience along the southern bank of the River Main. Here, visitors will find a complete range of Christian-Orthodox art on display. The exhibition features icons from the 15^th to the 20^th century while also looking more closely at the cult and culture of icons in general. The pieces on show also provide insight into the Orthodox faith as practised everywhere from northern Russia and the Middle East to Ethiopia.

Crossing the River Main by way of the Alte Brücke, one passes by the New Portikus, situated on a small Main islet. Today, this building serves as the Städel Art School’s exhibition hall for contemporary art.

Frankfurt’s city history is vividly demonstrated at the historical museum frankfurt. Pictures, photos, prints, furniture, fabrics, household items and trade tools show how the people lived from mediaeval times to present day.

Schirn Kunsthalle is one of Germany’s most renowned exhibition venues. The museum presents changing exhibitions featuring works by renowned artists from various countries and periods. Exhibitions are dedicated to great artists like Henri Matisse, Yves Klein, Jeff Koons, Edvard Munch, Yoko Ono and Théodore Géricault.

The caricatura museum frankfurt – Museum of Comical Art is home to an impressive collection, featuring works by Germany’s most popular satirists and political cartoonists. The collection includes more than 7,000 originals by artists likeF. W. Bernstein, Robert Gernhardt, Chlodwig Poth and Hans Traxler.

The MMKMuseum of Modern Art is one of the most important museums of contemporary art worldwide. Here, a superb variety is on display on some 5,000 square metres of exhibition space, featuring 4,500 works from the 1960s to present times. The museum consists of three separate locations –MMK 1 in the main building, MMK 2 in the TaunusTurm and MMK 3 opposite of the main building.

Not far from the River Main, one finds the Carmelite Monastery. This ensemble of the old and the new is today home to both the Institute of City History and the Archaeological Museum, located in the new annexe. A near-complete collection of archaeological finds from the provincial Roman city of Nida (now the northern Frankfurt suburb of Heddernheim) is just one of the highlights. The permanent exhibition shows prehistoric evidence from the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region dating back to the Neolithic period as well as items from the early Middle Ages.

There are many further museums of all kinds spread out over the city, all of which are well worth visiting. The most notable would have to be the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History, one of Germany’s largest science museums, which presents the variety and evolution of all living beings as well as the change of our planet during the last millions of years. Its collection of dinosaurs and great whales is regarded as most significant.

Naturally, Frankfurt also pays a tribute to its favourite son, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Goethe-House is his birthplace and provides insights into the day-to-day life and times of the Goethe family, a typical 18^th-century middle-class family. The Goethe Museum, located in the annexe, exhibits documents of Goethe and his contemporaries.

Another well-known Frankfurt native, the psychiatrist Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, author and illustrator of the famous children’s book, “Struwwelpeter”, is remembered by the Struwwelpeter Museum. Here, children of all ages are able to relive the story of “Shock-haired Peter”, a cautionary children’s book published in 1847, while grown-ups are informed on the author’s life and his work. The museum also presents rare “Struwwelpeter” editions and parodies from over 150 years.

Performing arts are equally well represented in the metropolis upon the Main and have an excellent reputation. Among the city’s biggest visitor magnets   are the Municipal Stages, which were founded over a century ago. They are allocated approximately half of the city’s culture budget, ensuring a consistently high level of quality.

Schauspiel Frankfurt, the city’s popular playhouse, is the Rhine-Main region’s largest theatre of the spoken word. Here, renowned directors present stage classics and more modern pieces as well as countless premieres. Famous throughout Germany, Schauspiel Frankfurt puts a different play on show every day, drawing from its current selection of some 30 productions.

Oper Frankfurt ranks amongst Europe’s premier opera houses. “Opernwelt”, a leading German-language opera magazine, voted it “Opera of the Year” in 1995, 1996 and 2003. Its show programme consists of a mixture of premieres and popular classics. Mozart, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner are firm components of the annual repertoire, supplemented by operatic rarities and contemporary works.

Visitors of Alte Oper Frankfurt, meanwhile, have a colourful programme of classical and contemporary music to look forward to. Presenting time-honoured classics, jazz and internationally renowned musicals during summer and Christmastime, Alte Oper regularly attracts the world’s leading conductors, soloists, ensembles and orchestras to its stage.

The English Theatre Frankfurt is the continent’s largest English-language theatre. Its colourful programme consists of comedies, thrillers and crime stories, drama and highly entertaining musicals.

The Tigerpalast in Frankfurt’s city centre is known around the world for its first-class variety shows. Guests come from near and far to enjoy performances of artists hailing from the four corners of the globe. Presenting two shows on most evenings throughout the year, the Tigerpalast presents the very best of international variety entertainment.

Contact:

Frankfurt Tourist+Congress Board
Elena Holschier-Rupprecht
Kaiserstraße 56
60329 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: +49 (0) 69 / 21 23 31 20
rupprecht@infofrankfurt.de