Flying into Frankfurt felt vaguely familiar. Part of this was the fact that my friend Steve and I had transited through the airport two weeks earlier on our way to Istanbul. Frankfurt is hard to avoid if you are flying into Central Europe. The airport is Europe’s second largest behind London Heathrow. Business travelers, bankers, and finance gurus are among the top clientele. Besides Brussels, there is no other city more important to the European Union than Frankfurt. The city is Europe’s financial nerve center. As home of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt is to finance, what Brussels is to bureaucracy.
Despite French protestations to the contrary, Germany is the closest thing the European Union had to a superpower. As the EU’s largest economy, Germany holds the power of the purse over Europe and Frankfurt is the epicenter of that power. When economic issues are at the forefront of the EU, Frankfurt trumps Brussels. German fiscal policy has ripple effects felt across the rest of Europe. Money is power, and Frankfurt has plenty of it.
Inside out – At Frankfurt Airport (Credit: David Wong)
Disconcerting Silence – A Quiet Place
Arriving in Frankfurt was like landing on another planet. Two weeks in Turkey was filled with sensory overload. Frankfurt was a return to the buttoned up, business culture of the western world. When stepping off the plane and into the airport, the first thing I noticed was that it felt like all the energy had been sucked out of the place. If Istanbul was the equivalent of crystal meth, Frankfurt was an overdose of valium. The airport was clean, clinical, and disconcertingly quiet. Sure, there was noise, but after Istanbul I did not really hear it. The theme song of Frankfurt Airport could have been “Enjoy the Silence” but that would have been much too loud for this low-fi environment. While there was activity in the airport, none of it was frenetic. The Germans had organized the emotion out of everything. The idea of spontaneity did not seem to exist.
I was nursing a hangover from the adrenaline rush of Turkey. Germany came as a complete shock to my system. It only took a few minutes for me to feel disappointed. In my imagination, Germany promised so much more. Its most notable modern historical figures for better, worse, and awful were famous enough to be known by a single name. Bismarck, the Kaiser, and Hitler. These men were respectively conniving, vile, and evil. They were also fascinating. The sedative administered by the aesthetics of Frankfurt Airport was an antidote to all that was interesting in Germany. I found it hard to believe all the history that happened in Germany had anything to do with what I felt at this airport. I could have used a good dose of antidepressants to get through my initial shock. I had entered a highly organized environment that reflected an entire nation.
Enjoy the silence – Frankfurt Airport (Credit: Robot8A)
Culture Shock – A Turkish Tale
Like all airports in major cities, Frankfurt’s was well outside the city center. None of the taxi drivers were complaining. They could make a good living by whisking business types to and from the city center. Steve and I had a choice. We could take a taxi or ride the rail line to our hotel in central Frankfurt. The taxi was five times more expensive, but our time in Frankfurt was limited. We wanted to make the most of it. A taxi would take us right to the door of our hotel in the shortest amount of time. We could have saved some Euros by booking a night at one of the hotels close to Frankfurt Airport, but we had enough time on our hands that spending one night in the city made sense. After experiencing the antiseptic nature of the airport, I was glad to avoid a night spent in any of the nearby hotels which I imagine would have been just as soulless.
The culture shock continued when Steve and I went to hail a taxi. The anything goes, everything is open to negotiation aspect of Turkish taxis was missing. At Frankfurt Airport, the taxi drivers were ready and waiting in an orderly succession of vehicles. The taxis looked like they had just come off the showroom floor of an auto dealership. The only thing these taxis had in common with the ones we had taken in Turkey was that the drivers were Turkish. This was not much of a surprise considering the history of Germany over the last fifty years, Upper estimates of the number of ethnic Turks living in Germany hover around seven million. This is a direct result of two historical events, a major economic boom in postwar West Germany and the Berlin Wall being built. What could be more redolent of modern Germany than those two things?
The Berlin Wall was constructed by the East German government in 1961 to stem the flow of its citizens westward in search of better economic prospects. West Germany was in the throes of an economic boom. To keep their economy churning along after the wall went up, the West German government made a deal with Turkey to bring in guest workers. In a twelve-year period beginning in 1961, 650,000 Turkish guest workers arrived in West Germany to provide a much-needed labor supply. Most of these economic migrants ended up staying, despite efforts by the German government to have them move back to Turkey. Many of the guest workers later had family members join them as well. Germany’s ethnically Turkish population is predominantly found in west-central and southwestern Germany. Relations between Turks and ethnic Germans have been marked by friction. Ethnic Turks are not well integrated into German society. Nonetheless, few cared then or now to return to their roots in rural parts of Turkey.
City break – Frankfurt at night (Credit: Andreas Trojak)
Foreign Affairs – A Strange Land
Our taxi ride to the hotel only took twenty minutes. The exorbitant cost turned out to be worth it because we now had time for an evening walk around the city center. It was Saturday night, and the restaurants were packed. Pedestrians strolled about, quietly conversing among themselves. Dissolute youth rode skateboards and drank beer from large bottles. This was nothing like Turkey. We were once again strangers in a strange land.
Click here for: Going Both Ways – A Hypocrite In Frankfurt (Istanbul & Every After #64)
Europe Between East And West 