"University -- New Westend Campus" Top 5 Page for this destination Frankfurt am Main Things to Do Tip by Nemorino

The Johann Wolfgang Goethe University's new Westend Campus is a pleasant place to walk or cycle around if you are in Frankfurt on a nice day and want to get out of the city center for a while.

It is in a grassy area that was off limits for fifty years because it was the headquarters of the US Army's V Corps. After that phase of history was over, the state of Hessen acquired the property and turned it over to the university.

So far there are only three buildings up here, the big IG Farben or Poelzig building (see next tip) and the smaller annex and casino buildings, all three of which came with the property, so to speak. The university has held an architects' competition and recently started preparations to construct some more buildings here in the next few years.

This is going to be their Humanities campus, and they have already moved the departments of Art and Music, Philosophy and History, Classical Philosophy, Modern Languages and the Center for North American Studies up here -- have I forgotten any? These are departments that were previously housed in rented properties near the Bockenheim campus or in the Westend district.

The local transit authority RMV has instituted a new bus line, number 75, which goes around in a circle from the Bockenheim Campus to the Westend Campus and back again. The buses run every ten minutes on days when university classes are being held.

(By the way, I have put the Bockenheim Campus and the Riedberg Campus under "Off the Beaten Path" since they are not so remarkable that every tourist has to go and see them necessarily.)

Address: Grüneburgplatz 1, Frankfurt am Main (Westend)
Directions: The Westend Campus is only about ten blocks from the Alte Oper. From there, go up Reuter Weg or one of the parallel streets like Oberlindau in the Westend District.
Phone: %s4(0 69) - 798 - 0

• Updated Apr 4, 2011
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