Life by the river: the banks of the Main are an ideal leisure destination
For over a thousand years, the people of Offenbach have lived from and with the Main. Once the main traffic artery and transshipment point for goods such as timber and mineral oil products, people have reclaimed the Main as a living space. In recent years, the riverbank has developed into a unique recreational landscape in the region, where new attractive residential and economic areas are being created on the waterfront.
Transhipment point for goods and economic backbone
In the 18th century, the waves of the Main lapped up to Isenburg Castle. Herrnstrasse ended at stately gardens on the Main that reached down to the riverbank. The young Goethe, freshly in love with Lili Schönemann, described the river with fascination as a gently flowing, lively world of rafts, barges and ships. Whether fishermen, dyers or tanners, lime or brick burners: they all lived off the Main for centuries. Its water was used for production and transportation. The river was the lifeline of the city and its economic backbone. People still bathed on its banks or stopped for a bite to eat in a garden pub. For many years, the "Mainquai" was an important goods transshipment point. And until well into the 20th century, large tanneries and chemical plants met their water needs from the river. The Main was a shipping route and national border, its water a means of life and production as well as a destructive flood that reached the city center. The construction of dykes at the end of the 19th century offered protection for the first time. The new Carl Ulrich Bridge connected Offenbach in Hesse with Fechenheim in Prussia. And the canalization completed at the beginning of the 20th century turned the Main into a modern waterway. The Offenbach harbor was opened at the same time.
Transformation into an urban recreation area
But the idyll of the green riverside landscape had disappeared. Isenburg Castle and Metzler's bathing temple ("Lili Temple") had now moved far away from the riverbank cliffs. Behind the high dyke and the new Mainstrasse road, the river faded from public view. It was not until the end of the 20th century that the city returned to its Main, recognizing the high development potential of the riverbank and its importance for the urban quality of life. Many industrial companies had already closed down by this time and the port, whose storage tanks had dominated the western bank of the Main for decades, lay fallow. At this low point of economic structural crisis and social upheaval, the city of Offenbach and its Stadtwerke group of companies begin to bring the river back into the urban space and thus into the public consciousness. The development of the previously inaccessible industrial port into a new urban district is the most important impetus for this. Directly on the waterfront, the Offenbach harbor combines living and working, culture, education and local recreation.
The banks of the Main and the edge of the basin are open to the public. The first attractive open spaces, such as the harbor steps, together with restaurants, invite people to linger. Others will soon follow. The new harbour district will also give new impetus to the neighboring Nordend district. Together with the planned new building for the Hochschule für Gestaltung, a new center for artists and designers is developing at the interface between the harbor and the Wilhelminian style district.
The port thus marks a turning point in the city's development towards a service center and creative city. This also applies to the entire Main riverbank. Industrial use is a thing of the past. Now it's all about living, working and relaxing by the river. Local recreation and quality of life are becoming important factors in the rapidly growing residential and commercial location of Offenbach.
One of the most beautiful river landscapes in the region
The river landscape between the Frankfurt city limits at Kaiserlei and the Bürgel-Rumpenheimer Mainbogen, which has already been redesigned in many sections, is now one of the most beautiful in the region. The Main has become the calling card of the new Offenbach.
This green backbone of the city is at its most beautiful east of the new Carl Ulrich Bridge. Near the city center, the area in front of the Main provides space for culture, games and sports. Here, in the Mainuferpark, where the harbor railroad used to run, Offenbach shows its most beautiful side: close to nature and yet urban, lively, multicultural and yet a little introverted. Now also a tourist destination, easily accessible via the well-developed Main cycle path. Just a short distance upstream, in the bend of the Main near Bürgel and Rumpenheim, the riverbank widens out into a floodplain landscape that would be hard to find in a densely populated urban area. In the middle of this local recreation area is the Schultheisweiher pond with its rich variety of flora and fauna. The popular bathing lake is a refuge for people and animals alike.
"Offenbach Main at home",
28.07.2016
