European School: The ECB prefers the Mainwasen for new buildings

The fact that the Frankfurt magistrate is investigating whether the fairground would be suitable for the new building of the European School is causing a stir among the showmen and organizers of the Dippemess.

And the news is also heard with interest in the European Central Bank (ECB): “We are happy and grateful that the city is moving.

Anything that leads to a quick solution is good, ”says the former planning department head Martin Wentz, who supports the ECB in its efforts to improve the conditions for the pupils of the European School.

He would be happy if the city involved the federal government and the ECB in the search.

Rainer Schulze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Daniel Meuren

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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At least that is the official reading.

However, it is now also clear that the ECB has a different dream site: It prefers a new school building on the Mainwasen on the Sachsenhausen riverside.

A new building could be built there on a sports facility, provided the clubs would move to a new site in Oberrad and a road would be relocated.

The clubs would be quite ready for this, but the SPD - curiously Wentz's party - takes a stand.

In the old coalition, on the other hand, the CDU and the Greens supported the plan, although the Mainwasen is located in the protected green belt.

European school sees more space required

Then came the local elections. At the end of April, the central bank gave the new Roman alliance a “memorandum” on the future of the European School for the coalition negotiations. The paper, signed by Michael Diemer, Chief Services Officer of the Central Bank, and headmaster Ferdinand Patscheider, summarizes the situation: The school, which opened in Niederursel in 2002, was designed for a maximum of 900 pupils, 1,600 are now being taught, 500 attend the after-school care center.

The school community continues to grow rapidly: In 2025, 2,250 pupils are expected to attend school, 750 of them in the after-school care center. If there is little capacity, the school, which offers mother tongue lessons in all 22 official EU languages, can only accept children of employees of European institutions in Frankfurt. However, it is the educational policy goal of the school not to isolate itself, it says in the paper, but to open up to school and social life in its spatial environment.

For ten years now, the sponsors of the school have been looking for a five-hectare site for a new building. The city is obliged to offer a plot of land, the federal government pays the construction costs. The ECB considers the Mainwasen in Sachsenhausen to be “excellently suited”. They are not far from the headquarters of the ECB in Ostend and are well developed, as the memorandum says: The "Education and Sports Campus Mainwasen" would not only be a commitment by the European city of Frankfurt, this upgrading of the banks of the Main for the city population could also be for the Realize the city at no cost. The ECB, however, rejects the Kaiserlei, which was favored by the SPD before the local elections: The area there is too small and unsuitable for a school, among other things for noise protection reasons.

The SPD continues to make no secret of the fact that it is against the Mainwasen.

Rumor has it that behind it is a return coach belonging to the SPD education director, Sylvia Weber, because the former coalition partners have denied their urban schools in the green belt.

As Weber's spokesman explains, the Mainwasen are also among the locations that are being examined by the administration for a new school building - as is the fairground on Bornheimer Hang.

However, it would only be big enough for the school if around 60 neighboring allotment gardens were included.

Showman open to change

This raises the question of the future of the fairground. Thomas Feda, Managing Director of Tourismus und Congress Frankfurt (TCF), said that the considerations had been known to him for some time by planning department head Josef. He emphasizes that the TCF can “work with the existing fairground”. The 3.7 hectare site is used 70 to 80 percent of the year, in addition to the Dippemess there are circus guest performances and events such as the bicycle fair or product presentations. If the fairground is unused for the European School, a city like Frankfurt needs a new fairground that is easily accessible by local transport, which can then cover 50 to 60 hectares if you look in cities like Stuttgart, Hamburg or Munich to see where the corresponding areas are be three times as big.For the existing fairground, Feda points out that modernization work will be necessary in the coming years.

Thomas Roie also knew about fundamental considerations, but was now surprised that they had become more specific. “We made it clear from the start that we are ready to talk about changes. We adapt to new conditions from week to week and from city to city, then we would be able to do the same with a new site, ”said Roie. “A new fairground just has to meet certain conditions and be clearly identified as a festival area.” If the worst comes to the worst, Roie suggests testing a possible new location for one to two years before the city finally decides.

Roie does not fear a fundamental discussion about whether the city needs a festival area or even about the usefulness of the Dippemess, not only because of the centuries-old tradition of the folk festival.

“On the one hand, there is a stipulation of the Dippemess site as a fairground.

So there will be no discussion about it, ”says Roie.

"The success of the Dippemess Park in the past two weeks has also shown that we are part of the basic needs of a society." From Roies' point of view, 186,734 visitors anticipated a vote with their feet before the plans for the festival area became known .