A look at some further-out Frankfurt suburbs.  This first area used to be really backwoods.  As late as the 1970s they were building weekend houses up in the hills around here as places to get away from the city.  But it is now one of the fastest growing areas in the Frankfurt metro area…growth rates of 15% to 20%

 

 

This is one of those merged municipalities I mentioned earlier, where a collection of villages where combined into a new commune.  This one includes Anspach (the “old “ Anspach), Rod am Berg (to the left of the pix) and Hausen.

 

 

 

 

A view from the ground, over some new development (including a little high rise) toward Rod am Berg, which itself is growing outward

 

 

 

To give you some scale, I noted the original village cores in yellow, so you can seen the impressive growth of this area.  What looks like a new single family housing area is in the big yellow circle

 

 

A close-up, showing how the Germans mix use and housing types.  This development appears to be single family, with little cul-de-sacs at the end of the streets, but the cul-de-sacs open onto what appears to be a pedestrian or bikeway path system.  And there is apparently attempt to reserve open space for greenways.

 

 

Suburban living in Neu-Anspach…..

 

 

Here is an example of a duplex in the Neu-Anspach area.  I really love those nice big windows the Germans have.  A bit of lawn and some decorative landscaping sets it all off

 

 

 

And an example of a single family home,  being offered by a local real estate agent (you buy, they build).  This place is around 9085 SF,  asking $522,596 USD, which includes lot.  This place does seem small by US standards.

 

 

 

The floor plans are in German, but I think you can figure them out

 

 

Shovel-ready lot at the edge of town

 

 

But I think multifamily is pretty common there too…these rowhouses are probably big inside, but pretty dismal outside

 

 

An old pix of the train station (probably the 50s or early 60s).  Note the “Schienenbus”, or rail-bus, waiting on the siding.  This was the German Federal Railroads old local passenger/commuter equipment for rural areas .

 

 

Modern commuter service, which runs into downtown Frankfurt only during the rush hour (this is somewhere to the south of Neu Anspach: Frankfurt’s more intensely developed suburbia is beyond the hill, which are a nature preserve of sorts)

 

 

 

A look at the two industrial/commercial districts…they use inventor and industrialist names for the streets…Bosch, Diesel, etc, and one is located close to a train station (stations have park and ride lots, too).

 

 

And, again, some good land use planning, reserving environmentally sensitive corridors for greenways, provision of a path system, and also, in this case, and keeping open space between villages as routes for new highways.

 

 

 

@@@@@@@@@

 

 

And another quick example, showing how a rural village grows to accommodate increasing population, in this case multifamily, but also lots of green space, too.  This is Steinfurth,  probably 20-30 KM north of Frankfurt, outside of the commuter rail net.  I think it still has minimal local rail service, and for sure it has have bus service.  I have actually visited this place a few times, visiting some family friends, and for their big rose show.

 

 

…the red outlined area is the prewar village core, with new (postwar) development climbing the hills behind town, and to the south.  This is a pretty typical growth pattern at this edge of the Frankfurt commuting area, with villages growing larger and large, but not the massive increases yet, like in Neu-Anspach or what we saw in that other thread.

 

 

 

(rose covered cottages as this town is a big rose-growing center)

 

And Steinfurth’s most famous American visitor…Elvis Presley doing some civil works stuff on a war memorial

 

 

 

Fascinating.  Thanks!

Not too bad still...I think if we want to see some bad Euro-sprawl, then we should probably head to Sweden (I've heard that its quite horrendous there).

^^^Really... so much for socialism stopping sprawl.

I was going to say, it that's an sample of euro-sprawl, I'll take it over Ameri-sprawl any day.

Yeah, the Germans really do seem to get it right when it comes to suburban development....ironically using planning principles pioneered in the United States, like from Radburn or the 1930s greenbelt communities.

 

What I think is interesting is that they manage to do what I consider somewhat sustainable, environmentally sensitive and transit -freindly development, but not necessarily following "new urbanist"  styling. 

Very nice thread~!