Ostend (the east end)

About 29,000 people live in the Ostend on roughly 2.5 square miles, densely enough that housing is a permanent political problem here. The district has no separate history of its own; its story is Frankfurt's. What it does have is the sharpest transformation of any part of the city. In the 19th century the eastern outskirts became the workers' quarter, especially between the Osthafen docks and the Großmarkthalle wholesale hall, where incomes lagged far behind the Nordend and the Westend.

The European Central Bank building went up on the Großmarkthalle site, which the ECB secured in 2002 and took over three years later, and the district has been rising ever since. New rental and owner-occupied apartments cluster around the Ostbahnhof, and the residential area by the Ostpark has become genuinely desirable. Old industrial land in the eastern half is still being rezoned, which keeps the neighborhood in a productive state of half-finish.

The Hafenpark opened in the shadow of the ECB in 2012. Critics called it a jungle of concrete; skaters and BMX riders disagreed, and the park has been busy since day one. Basketball and multipurpose courts followed six months after opening, along with fitness equipment aimed at adults and older residents, a large play area and a climbing course. The Wiesenband meadow strip at the southern end is the place to lie down afterward, and the terrace of the Oosten by the old harbor crane has the view.

The Ostpark is the other green anchor, 79 acres of it, which makes it one of the largest parks in the city. At its center is a ten-acre pond formed from a cut-off arm of the Main, ringed by open lawns that fill with joggers and sunbathers. Frankfurt Zoo, one of the oldest in Germany, also sits in this district.