Bankfurt
Bankfurt is a dysphemism that arose in the 1970s for the city of Frankfurt am Main .
Concept emergence
Frankfurt am Main has been an important financial center since the Middle Ages . After the destruction of the medieval old town by the air raids on Frankfurt am Main in the Second World War , a completely new cityscape was created during the reconstruction in the 1950s and 1960s, which was characterized by numerous high-rise buildings . From the very beginning, the main focus was on the administration buildings of the major banks in the densely populated banking district .
The nickname Bankfurt came about at the time of the house-to-house war in Frankfurt in the early 1970s. Like the terms Mainhattan and Krankfurt , which emerged at the same time , it was used as a swear word in the political debate to attack the ruthless capitalism for which the banks and their skyscrapers stood. The result is the deliberate destruction of grown districts and the unbridled pursuit of profit to the detriment of the long-established population. The city's reputation also suffered from frequent street battles between demonstrators and police. Organized crime , such as drug trafficking , was particularly evident in the Frankfurt red light district , which is right next to the banking district. At the time, Frankfurt was considered ugly and “ungovernable”.
In 1979 the Frankfurt rock band Strassenjungs released the title Bankfurt with the refrain :
"Bankfurt, Bankfort, I want every bank to be gone, so many of you are going away sick, soon punk will sweep away all that crap."
Since the 1980s, the Frankfurt skyline has become the city's landmark and a symbol of prosperity and future orientation. The population increasingly identified with its high-rise buildings, which have been the city's new landmarks since the beginning of the 21st century .
Since the 1990s the term Bankfurt has been used less often. It has largely lost its negative connotation with regard to Frankfurt, without, however, like Mainhattan becoming a positive symbolic term for the city.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard Herding, Destruction of living space, squatting, ecological change and skyline: public learning process in Frankfurt am Main ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Campus-Verlag, Berlin 2000
- ↑ "The ungovernable city" was an attribute often related to Frankfurt in the 1970s, cf. e.g. CDU Frankfurt: FrankfurtMagazin 3/2005 (PDF; 1.2 MB), page 17.
- ↑ Dieter Bartetzko , Frankfurts Hohe Häuser , Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001. ISBN 3-458-34353-9
- ↑ See the Google N-gram statistics 1960–2008 for the terms Mainhattan and Bankfurt .
