101 Women's Places in Frankfurt

After the great success of the three "Unorte" books, the decision was quickly made to continue the popular series with specific topics. In addition to the "101 Money Places in Frankfurt" recently published, further books were also to present special women's and men's places in the city. While we still have to wait a little for the "101 Men's Places", Sabine Börchers, after almost a year of research, has compiled "101 Women's Places", which she now presents in her extremely entertaining and in places very surprising book. Whereas the former local editor and society reporter for the FNP herself had initially thought that it would be very difficult to find 101 women's places in Frankfurt, in the end there were even more - and the list will then be published in future on the website accompanying the book http://frauenorte-frankfurt.en/.

The book is structured in the tried-and-tested "Unorte" manner: The left half of each double-page spread is graced by a picture, while the right side has a brief but informative text to offer about the place in question. So far, so familiar. But as far as the content is concerned, this book has plenty of surprises to offer, even for long-established Frankfurt residents. For example, we learn here that in 1927 the racing driver Clärenore Stinnes was the first person ever to circumnavigate the world in a series-produced passenger car from Frankfurt. We visit the grave of the first Frankfurt woman, a 4-year-old Merovingian girl from the year 700 - 730, which was only discovered in 1992. It also introduces the Steinerne Haus as a women's place, as the first German women's football team was founded here in 1930. Kätchen Paulus, the pioneer of the parachute, came from Frankfurt, as did Germany's first female chief physician at the Bürgerhospital.

In addition to many historical women and very well-known names, however, the book is also devoted to some unknown women and those who today shape the cityscape in a very special way. Mrs. Schreiber from the Kleinmarkthalle may not be missing there of course as well as Gisela Paul with her Green Sauce. Very well-known and obvious places like Justitia on the Römerberg or the Frau Rauscher fountain in Sachsenhausen are mentioned. But it also introduces many completely unknown institutions like the Archiv Frau und Musik, the most extensive international archive of female composers worldwide, or important women like Eilke Brigitte Helm, who treated the first AIDS patients throughout Germany in Niederrad in the early 1980s and thus laid the foundation for German HIV medicine.

This creates a truly colorful mix of the known and the unknown, the interesting and the curious, the historical and the current. Sabine Börchers, who has already written books about the Gesellschaftshaus im Palmengarten and the Tigerpalast, manages very well to make even well-known places appear in a completely new light. Anyone who has read the book about the windows in the Old Nikolai Church, the naked women's sculpture on the Westend Campus or the Madonna Jutta at the Stone House on the Römerberg will pass these places with more open eyes and a different view in future. Apart from the fact that the book makes you want to see the places presented here for yourself (again), it is also a lot of fun to read. And for that we give it a clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp