City power with Ida Todisco: discover the city with eMobile summer tours

The Offenbach-based author has already published several books about her adopted home town and can tell you a lot about what actually happens between the bad reputation, prejudices, start-up scene and creative culture. Four times this year, she will be taking interested parties on a pedelec tour of the city. Some people fall in love with the ease of electrically powered and environmentally friendly transportation.

Being on tour with Ida Todisco feels like being on the road with friends. The well-connected Offenbach native first welcomes the participants and then the hosts at the individual stops. The distances are short (even shorter by pedelec), Offenbach is manageable, people are connected, there is always someone who knows someone. And yet influences from all over the world come together here. After a brief introduction to the operation of the electrically powered two-wheelers, the group is ready to go.

Passing Wilhelmsplatz, where Offenbach's weekly market is currently enchanting the square and visitors in keeping with its reputation, Ida Todisco and the eMobil team send the group a little further south-west. The Artefakt bike store is located behind the Starkenburgring. The most beautiful bikes are on display outside the door, attracting customers. The interior is currently being renovated. Anja Bamberger and Jürgen Blümmel are creating space for new ideas. The couple have plenty of them: "This is a special place for me. A warm place," says Ida Todisco. In addition to helmets, saddles, bikes and lubricating oil, culture also has a permanent place in the Artefakt. Films are shown here regularly. "There's so much more behind the bike store," says the author. "Tell us about the kiosk project," she asks, and the pedelecs and cyclists are already parked a few meters away at Friedrichsweiher. Here, Blümmel and other volunteers run a small kiosk as a self-help workshop. Anyone who wants to can repair their bike here free of charge and get help if they need it. The concept is successful and enriches the neighborhood.

A few pedal strokes further on, past the former MAN plant, the group reaches Marlon Navarro. He has moved to the Main from Cuba. He recently opened his own studio on the site of the former Hassia factory. We ride our bikes between the old houses to what is probably the most labyrinthine corner of the factory site. You can only get here if you know where you want to go. Past green, overgrown brick facades to an almost magical place. The air is filled with the warm and heavy scent of leather. You can feel the passion in every corner. Between colorful yarns, sewing machines, exhibits and leather cuttings, Navarro works on unique pieces, prototypes, ordered small series and current collections. He is currently working on an order from Thuringia. The tour participants can hardly get enough of the bags, belts, aprons and cases. "At last, leather in Offenbach again," one visitor exclaims. But then Ida Todisco politely urges them to move on. In the large inner courtyard, she explains the history of the company: High-quality shoes were produced here until the late eighties. The leather goods from Offenbach made it far into the world. In the twenties, for example, Persian riding ladies wore the boots.

Today, the lofts, studios and rooms are used in a variety of ways: creative professionals and agencies, young start-ups, dance schools and the nationally renowned fetish club "Grande Opera".

Todisco also reveals that the current Frankfurt Tatort detective has her TV apartment here, in the heart of the Senefelder Quartier.

The author has many a secret to tell, so that Offenbach newcomers, visitors from Frankfurt or the district as well as long-established residents listen with interest and learn something new.

The tour continues at a brisk pace along the cycle path back to the city center. Since the relocation of the Kappus factory, Luisenstraße no longer smells of soap. As in many other places, the city is changing its face here too.
The pedelecs are parked on Domstraße, the small gateway to Nordend. Eva Kirchhoff warmly welcomes the curious guests to the "Etagerie". What began as an idea now has a permanent place in Offenbach. Between cards, accessories, jewelry, stationery, bags and fabrics, guests sit and knit. The space is cozy, colorful and full of creative atmosphere. If you like, you can dip fresh bread in lime-spice oil, which Kirchhoff discovered in northern Hesse and now sells. In addition to sewing courses and the sale of a wide range of accessories, fashion and small goods, she also serves lunch every day. Culinary delights also have their place in this location between old town alleyways, big city neighborhoods and gentrification.

Back on the bikes, the route leads through Taunusstraße into the harbor. Between Marina Gardens and the harbor school, the route leads directly to the Blue Crane. The harbor basin welcomes cyclists with sparkling river water and a vacation atmosphere. But there is no time to linger at the harbor steps. The route leads back along the Main. Passing the restaurant ship "Backschaft", Isenburg Castle and the Hochschule für Gestaltung, the group returns to the eMobil station on the market square. Hairstyles are tousled by the wind or crushed by helmets. But the excursionists smile with satisfaction at everything they have discovered and shared.

At the end of the day, they head to the "informal café tipo madrid" in Salzgässchen. Over a cool drink and conversation, the cyclists reflect on their impressions.

The responsible city councillor and head of the mobility department, Sabine Groß, is delighted with the successful tour premiere this year: "The new tours are an opportunity to get to know the city and our eMobil service at the same time. eMobil is a flexible rental system for electric cars and pedelecs. The rented vehicles can be returned to any station. This is a component of our local transport offering and a contribution to air pollution control and climate protection."