Time and time again, polls show that Frankfurt is said to be one of the rudest cities in Germany and even Europe. but is it really true?
Frankfurt – Inconsiderate, unpleasantly loud and generally quite reserved: the people of Frankfurt seem to enjoy some prejudices in terms of behavior throughout Germany. At least that’s the result of a survey that language learning platform Preply commissioned from opinion research institute Censuswide. 1,500 city dwellers were asked about the behavior of their fellow humans. And behind Essen and Dresden, Germany’s fifth largest city comes in as the third worst.
Notable: that Frankfurt is highlighted relatively frequently in polls regarding hostilities, it occurs over and over again. Also in a US travel magazine ranking Travel+Leisure the city on the Main finished a few years ago in 17th place as the only German city among 30 cities with a rather dubious reputation, but is Frankfurt really as bad as its reputation? Or did Offenbach’s participants simply falsify the results, or did the survey institute instinctively ask only people who regularly order sweets from the city’s apple wine taverns?
Frankfurt in the city ranking – this is how the city on the Main performs in terms of courtesy
Participants from 19 large German cities, from B for Bochum to S for Stuttgart, between Hamburg in the north and Munich in the south, were asked about the different behaviors of their fellow humans. Is there a lot to look at your smartphone in the city instead of smiling at other people? Do you behave recklessly towards others or hinder pedestrians while driving? Do you tip enough or do you loudly harass the service staff in the restaurant instead? On a scale of 1 (rarely) to 10 (often), Frankfurt performed significantly worse than the national average in many of these questions and thus fell far behind.
In particular, ignoring strangers, closed body language, and loudness in public are where Frankfurters performed significantly worse in the survey than the German average. Phone calls over loudspeakers and the loud playback of cell phone videos in the room annoy study participants in Frankfurt more than in other German cities. The results of the leading cities, Bochum, Bremen and Hanover, are significantly different, having fared better in many respects.
| Frankfurt | average of Germany | |
| Using cell phones in public | 7.44 | 7.46 |
| don’t let people pass | 5.76 | 5.65 |
| Do not brake near pedestrians | 5.71 | 5.51 |
| noise in public | 6.24 | 5.99 |
| pay no attention to strangers | 6.72 | 6.47 |
| Watch videos in public | 6.24 | 5.99 |
| Call with the loudspeaker | 5.75 | 5.51 |
| Closed body language | 6.18 | 5.85 |
| Not respecting personal space | 5.54 | 5.66 |
| Rude to the service staff | 5.54 | 5.46 |
| Don’t tip | 5.54 | 5.27 |
| Queue skip | 5.38 | 5.22 |
Germany’s Most Educated Cities: Why Frankfurt Is Better Than Its Reputation
The fact that the results should be treated with caution is shown not only by the extremely low number of participants, which makes the result anything but representative. Oddly enough, Essen and Bochum, two neighboring cities that are just 15 kilometers apart, also landed at either end of the table. Also, Frankfurt was from the economic newspaper Economist just last year as one of the ten most livable cities in the world. on Seventh place in the annual ranking is Frankfurt also the only German city in the top 10.
So maybe everything is half wild and Frankfurt is actually just misunderstood many times. There are several counter-evidences to the prejudices common in Frankfurt. Friendly conversations with strangers, sharing a table with you in one of the many cider taverns, lively neighborhood initiatives, locals available when tourists ask for directions or the right subway connection, and countless social parties between Berger Strassenfest, Museumsuferfest and Forest Day .
Added to this is the opening of an international city, which is one of the most diverse in Europe in terms of culture and cuisine, and therefore really worth living there. For counter-evidence to all the studies that claim otherwise, just get close enough. (Sandra Kate)
