A place where there are answers to the most important questions about our city has now opened in the new Old Town. You want to know where to find the best bike routes in Frankfurt? Which exhibition is currently running in the Städel and where you can find out about waste disposal in Frankfurt? Then the Citizens' Advice Bureau is the right place for you. The motto here is "there are no stupid questions". Because the Citizens' Advice Bureau wants to be THE central point of contact for all Frankfurt residents who have a question mark hanging over their heads - on whatever municipal topic. Even those who are new to the Main metropolis can get the best overview here with a special offer.
The fact that the right answer can be provided here to every question is due to the fact that the employees are real Frankfurt experts. They have made it their business to bring their knowledge about the city to the woman and the man. "Not every question is equally clear. The trick is to classify them correctly in conversation," explains Brigitte Schammler, head of the Citizens' Advice Bureau, who pulls the strings in the background and coordinates the work of her three-person team, consisting of Denise Scharrer, Hagen Blatt and Ursula Kullmann. "We see ourselves as a kind of pilot for the city administration."
A journey through time: the history of citizen advice
It all begins on 26 August 1969 with the Römertelefon: on tape, citizens can leave all questions about the city administration. Within a period of ten days, the callback or written information is provided. The service for forwarding citizens' enquiries to offices and departments within the city administration is, in this form, one of the first in the whole of Germany.
From 1972 onwards, communication with direct personal contact is also possible: located directly on the Römerberg and equipped in the style of a space ship with fancy glass wing doors, the "Römer Information Centre" opens its doors. An arrow in the shop window of the service point flashes from the outside to indicate when a call arrives at the citizens' service.
In 1995, the Frankfurt Forum is launched, in which the citizens' advice service and workshop shop, a cooperation of the Praunheimer Werkstätten and the Frankfurt Verein für Soziale Heimstätten, share the rooms at Römerberg. In 2014, the citizens' advice bureau hands over the Römertelefon to the public authority number 115 and moves organizationally from the then Press and Information Office to the Citizens' Advice Bureau, Statistics and Elections.
Due to an expiring lease, the citizens' advice bureau has to leave Römerberg two years later after 44 years and finds a temporary location in the central citizens' advice bureau on the Zeil. On March 7, 2019, the time has come: After intensive preliminary planning, the Citizens' Advice Bureau is back in the heart of Frankfurt, more precisely in the "Golden Lämmchen" in the new Old Town.
"In the overabundance of information, we also take on a filtering function"
Even in times of digitalization, when answers on the net often seem just a mouse click away, many Frankfurt residents and visitors to the city prefer personal interaction. "Especially when it comes to finding out about exhibitions or events in the cultural programme, people like to hold up-to-date flyers or brochures in their hands, which they are guaranteed to find with us," assures Schammler. "Against the backdrop of the oversupply of information that prevails online, we also take on a filtering function. That alone continues to make us sought-after contacts."
In addition to direct contact, citizens can also mail their concerns to the Citizens Advice mailbox. "Topic-specific questions we cannot always answer directly. We then pass them on to the experts from the specialist departments or refer citizens straight to the appropriate address," explains employee Denise Scharrer. Brigitte Schammler and her three Frankfurt experts are well informed about Frankfurt's daily events: "We prepare ourselves every morning with a press evaluation, thus gather background knowledge and consider which questions might come up on a daily basis."
Of course, the three of them have come across the craziest requests in the course of their work: "It has already happened that a Berliner visiting Frankfurt has asked us for a certain type of beer from his hometown," recalls Ursula Kullmann. "Such questions, which seem absurd at first glance, always arouse our curiosity and are a real research challenge," adds Hagen Blatt, who has been working at the Citizens' Advice Bureau since 2014.
Big crowd expected at new place of work
In the new rooms in the "Golden Lamb" you can feel the anticipation and spirit of optimism that the move to the new old town spreads. The many brochures, information flyers and brochures are carefully sorted by topic. A cosy seating area invites you to browse in peace and quiet and to engage in lively conversation with the staff. On the red walls there are flat screens showing the history of the Citizens' Advice Bureau in pictures and text. The interactive multimedia guide is also brand new: visitors can discover all kinds of interesting facts about Frankfurt on a touch screen. Among other things, visitors can expect a 360-degree panoramic tour of the Römer, Paulskirche and Bolongaro Palace.
They feel comfortable in the small but fine premises: "Of course, we are hoping for a large crowd. Here in the new old town, we have our finger on the pulse, so to speak, and are much better at getting into conversation with people," says Schammler, looking confidently to the future.
