Frankfurt am Main is an international city, with around 180 nations living together peacefully. This should also be reflected on the city's website. With the online translation tool Conword, the Frankfurt.de website can now be translated into eight languages - English, French, Turkish, Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and Slovenian - with just one click of the mouse. The interface appears in the same layout, only the language changes. Current news can therefore reach broad sections of the population more quickly.
Mayor Mike Josef emphasizes: "The multilingual portal is an important and often first point of contact for all citizens of our city - and beyond. Information can now be accessed here in different languages. This is particularly important and a necessary step for our Frankfurt, the most international city in Germany."
Eileen O'Sullivan, the department head responsible for Citizens, Digital and International Affairs, says: "With Conword, we have found the perfect solution for translating the German language into other languages that are very common in Frankfurt in a way that is easy to understand. The software is now very sophisticated and has already proven its worth in Cologne and Dortmund." The translation tool is therefore a real benefit for the city, as it allows citizens to be offered a modern service and access to the city with relatively little effort for the city itself. In addition, multilingualism increases the opportunity to participate in social life, according to the department head.
Department of Public Order Annette Rinn adds: "The translation into many of the common languages was particularly important for the work of the foreigners authority in order to be able to help applicants quickly with as little bureaucratic effort as possible after the processing of residence issues was switched to digital in order to shorten processing times. I am therefore very grateful that we were able to take this important step."
Mayors and city councillors call the integration of Conword into Frankfurt.de a successful example of digitalization and interdepartmental cooperation within the city. They would like to thank the Press and Information Office and the Office for Information and Communication Technology for the rapid implementation.
Conword is a so-called widget for translations that uses AI-supported neural networks from the translation tool DeepL in the background to translate texts in real time. Conword was developed with and for organizations in the EU and is currently the only GDPR-compliant provider.
On its city portal Frankfurt.de, the city administration offers applications and forms, current news and information about its offices as well as lots of interesting facts about the city and politics. With the expansion of its language offering, the city of Frankfurt enables both international citizens and a global audience to easily switch between the available languages by using the selection at the top of the website.
