I am in Frankfurt that I am walking on a street that kings and emperors walked on. This is the so-called coronation path between the Cathedral Saint-Patholimieux behind me and a Homaberg Square, the central square of Frankfurt's historic centre. This place was symbolically very important to the Holy Roman Empire for centuries. The German kings were elected over there in the cathedral, then they were crowned and then they walked along this street in a huge procession over to the square. Where the celebration took place. I am simplifying here because the ceremony took a couple of days, not every king was crowned right after reselection. Some of the monarchs were kings, but not empress. These were two separate titles and the story is complicated, but we know of 16 coronation ceremonies that took place here between the 14th and the 18th century. And apart from that, this is the very call of the city. The first settlements were here. The remains of Roman buildings have been found in the 70s. They were even the building for the royal court, probably as early as the 7th century. This used to be the oldest part of Frankfurt, and it has kept as medieval and early modern look for a long time. narrow alleys, small squares, timber frame houses, and so on. Now we're really lucky that all this is still here today, right? Is it? No. As of now, summer 2020, this, this two years old. You see, well what to happen? Germany did some terrible, terrible stuff. The cities were bombed and all this was gone. Some cities have reconstructed their historic center after the war. Hortonburg, Opter, Tobels, famous for the reconstructions, which mostly were true to the original. Back kind of reconstructed some of the historic center and so did Münster, Freiburg, Augsburg, and a few others. While the big cities, Kologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt, they mostly tore down everything that was left, which wasn't much anyway, and rebuilt the city and the sober style of the 50s and 60s. Munich, by the way, is a bit of an exception here. Of course, even in those cities, some historic buildings were repaired and reconstructed. Mostly those of symbolic value, the cathedrals, town halls, birthplaces, or famous people and so on. But the post-war ideal of urban planning was the car-friendly city. And when you want to have four lane roads running through the city, a medieval historic center doesn't come in very handy. In the 50s and 60s, this place used to be a parking lot. And after that, what have they built in Frankfurt here on this place? Before all this was here, this. This was called the Tichnische Zratos, the technical townhold, opened in 1974, and the Frankfurters never really liked it. It wasn't very beautiful. It kind of spoiled the skyline when you looked at it from the other side of the river, and it wasn't a place where people liked to spend their time. There was a cafe and a souvenir shop on the ground floor, yes. But why should you sit among all this great concrete when you had the banks of the river mind just around the corner? In 1994, the city sold that building to a real estate company and rented it back. The lease expired in 2006, and when that day dronear, everybody knew something had to be done. But one thing was clear. The city council, as well as the citizens, wanted neither this building nor another huge one. They wanted small scale buildings and the design that followed the historic layout with the old alleys and little squares. There was a lot of discussion about the exact plan. There were several architectural competitions. There were designs that were agreed upon and later rejected, and there was a lot of civil engagement. But in the end, in 2018, when this whole area was opened to the public, there were 35 new buildings, 15 of which were more or less reconstructions of the original buildings, or as they put it, creative replicas. All the buildings had to meet certain requirements. They had to have steep gable roofs. The façade and the ground floor had to be made of red sandstone and material, which was typical for the region, and each building had to have its own individual character. As a result, these buildings look like modern versions of their destroyed predecessors. So after the opening in May 2018, some people said, this is a simulation. This is fake architecture. You cannot turn back the wheel of time and you cannot recreate history. And for now, they are right. Most of these buildings are concrete buildings. There's not a single true to the original one-to-one copy here, because this would have been impossible. Because today, we have modern regulations for building materials, for fire protection, for emergency exits, all of which cannot be ignored. Other said, we're not recreating history here. We are interpreting the history of Frankfurt and giving it a modern shape. And at the same time, we are demonstrating what architecture and city planning can do in the 21st century, when it's not all about building cheap houses that all look the same and selling them for high prices. Some said, yeah, great. But we have spent 200 million euros and all we got are 80 expensive new apartments, while the rented prices in Frankfurt are exploding. This new historic center has done nothing for the locals, and the contrary, it has made things worse. Some said, this is not a real place. This is a puppet house, a fairy tale, a Disney world with the only purpose to serve as a backdrop for tourists with selfie sticks. And in a way, that's true. Because what am I doing here right now? See? But other said, we can be sure that this place will not be spoiled by tourism because we took care of that. International chains are forbidden here. You won't find McDonald's or Starbucks here. Vending machines are forbidden. Billboard advertising is forbidden. Even antennas are forbidden. So finally, we have a beautiful place in the middle of the city where we can sit outside during the summer months and sip cider. Isn't that better than a massive concrete building full of bureaucrats? Some said, when you're reconstructing an old historic city center, basically what you're doing is pretending that the war, the Nazi time, and all the crimes Germany has committed never happened. Again, I'm simplifying here, the debate was extensive. I won't give you my personal opinion on this, you'll have to come and see for yourself. But one thing is for sure. As always, with cities in new urban quarters, only time will tell. It took centuries for this area to become what it used to be before the war. If it takes a couple of decades now to see if all this has been worth it, we're lucky. Thank you very much for watching. There are more videos to come in the next few weeks, unique places in Germany as well as more videos on the German accent. If you like this one, please subscribe to my channel and if you liked it and you are rich, please consider supporting me on Patreon. There's a link in the description.