Frankfurt's financial district, the Westend , developed as home to the commercial class during the nineteenth century. Until the Nazis came to power, many of the wealthier members of Frankfurt's Jewish community (the second largest in Germany) lived here - for example huge swathes of land between Bockenheimer Landstrasse and Reuterweg were owned by the Rothschild family until the city bought them out in 1938, for a "bargain" price. In the 1960s the property speculators moved in, forcing people out of their homes so the old buildings could be converted into offices or the sites used for skyscrapers. A rash of house occupations and squattings ensued, but caused only temporary delays to the process of redevelopment. The most impressive of the high-rise buildings which now dominate the Frankfurt skyline are the sleek Deutsche Bank , a little to the west of the Alte Oper, and the graceful Messeturm by the German-American Helmut Jahn, which provides a suitably dominant landmark for the vast complex of trade fair buildings north of the Hauptbahnhof.

 

Westend has its own stretch of greenery along its northern fringe. Starting from the east, there's the Grüneburgpark , a nineteenth-century English-style park which these days is popular with joggers and weekend footballers. Next is the Botanischer Garten , a good place to go for a walk as it has a sort of cultivated wildness to it. At the western end of the green belt is the wonderful Palmengarten (daily: March & Oct 9am-5pm; April-Sept 9am-6pm; Nov-Feb 9am-4pm; DM7/¬3.50), where it's easy enough to while away several hours. The subtropical palms which give the garden its name can be seen in the majestic Palmenhaus, which was erected in 1869, while a host of tropical plants are grouped according to region in the Tropicarum, a complex of interconnected greenhouses. However, the attractions are by no means all indoors: there are separate manicured gardens for roses, rhododendrons, summer flowers, hardy perennials, cacti, rock plants, heath plants and meadow plants. The water garden, with its colourful whirling jets, adds a welcome lighter note.

Bockenheimer Landstrasse, once Frankfurt's millionaires' row, leads from Westend to Bockenheim , a predominantly working-class district which since the 1960s has been turned into the centre of Frankfurt's alternative scene by a big influx of students and arty types. The area also has a large Gastarbeiter population and is best thought of as a Frankfurt version of Berlin's Kreuzberg. Leipziger Strasse is the main shopping drag (on U-Bahn line #6 and #7) and there are plenty of good bars and restaurants around.

The university complex is at the southeastern edge of Bockenheim, which partly accounts for its popularity with students. In the vicinity, at Senckenberganlage 25, is the Senckenbergmuseum (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 9am-5pm, Wed 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-6pm; www.senckenberg.uni-frankfurt.de ; DM7/¬3.50), one of the most important natural history museums in Europe. On the ground floor is a remarkable paleontology collection with an awe-inspiring array of dinosaur skeletons, including the only reasonably complete example of the Edmontosaurus yet discovered. One room is devoted to some of the spectacular fossils discovered at the shale pit of Messel, whose excavation is in the hands of scientists from the museum's research institute. Another shows skeletons of animals, such as elephants, sabre-toothed tigers, hippopotamuses and rhinorceroses, which inhabited the Rhine-Main region half a million years ago. The section on human evolution features the oldest and best-preserved skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis , a proto-human which still has many characteristics of an ape. On the upstairs floors, compendious collections of stuffed animals, birds, fishes and insects can be seen.