The platforms and the forecourt with the food stalls at Frankfurt Central Station are packed on Saturday morning.
People with suitcases and backpacks disembark from a train and squeeze through the crowds either to the platform where their connecting train departs or towards the exit.
It's loud, the air stuffy.
The combination of the newly introduced 9-euro ticket and the holiday weekend will bring the Frankfurt train station and the trains to the limits of their capacities.
Steffen Geers knows that too.
The 49-year-old graduate physicist actually works in the product management department at Deutsche Bahn.
Today and over the next few weekends, he and a few colleagues, dressed in an orange vest, stand on the busiest platforms and relieve the train crew.
He provides information and shows passengers where there might still be a little space on the train.
“The trick is to always walk to the end of the train at this terminus.
It's often the emptiest there," says Geers.
Next, he helps travelers board a train to Bamberg.
When it departs, it has a standing time of just three minutes.
Geers goes to his colleague and they shake hands: "It went well!"
Although Deutsche Bahn had tried to counteract the high passenger load, says Geers, "the best models cannot anticipate this." He points through the window of a train that will be heading towards Kassel.
People stand close together.
A man who has his bike with him no longer fits in and has to wait for the next one.
“Carrying bicycles in particular will become a real problem,” says Michael Kullmann, who commutes from Niederweimar to Frankfurt to work during the week.
In Hesse, taking your bike with you is included in the 9-euro ticket.
With a waiting time of often one to two minutes, which is factored into the timetable of many trains at each station, a train on the route can be significantly delayed simply by slowly boarding and alighting, he says.
Often not all bicycles would fit on the train.
Nevertheless, Kullmann is happy about the new ticket because he saves money.
"I normally pay 120 euros a month for the job ticket, and my employer already subsidizes that." He works for a large bank in Frankfurt.
He doesn't want to say which ones.
At midday, the Regionalexpress 30 in the direction of Kassel is particularly full.
Already on the platform it is clear that some passengers will no longer fit on.
It's hot in the carriage and the air is so stuffy that the inside of the windows are already fogging up.
In addition to many others in the regional express, there are Pascal, Samuel, Sandro and Fabi from Stuttgart.
The four friends each have a large backpack and a bag with them.
In 14 hours from Stuttgart to Westerland
The people of Stuttgart are all between the ages of 18 and 20 and are either just starting their apprenticeship or are about to graduate from high school next year.
You have decided to travel across Germany because of the 9-euro ticket.
They have been on the road since 06:31.
At this time her train went from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe.
Then they took the S-Bahn to Heidelberg.
From there you can take the regional train to Frankfurt.
And now with the regional express to Kassel.
After their change in Kassel, they will change trains four more times until they arrive at their destination: Westerland on Sylt.
If all goes well, they should reach their destination around 10:35 p.m.
After 14 hours drive.
And because they all have to either work or go to school, they want to be back in Stuttgart by Monday evening.
The boys take it easy:
"The drive is also exciting." Although they all have a driver's license and could have organized a car for the trip, the current fuel prices are not affordable for students or trainees like them.
They are much more concerned with "the adventure," they say.
Shortly after the train has left Frankfurt, the train driver makes an announcement.
You should now occupy every free seat, and the first class may now also be used.
The four young men run toward first class.
They are in a good tactical position and are already in the immediate vicinity.
This enables them to snag a seat for four.
They are finally sitting comfortably.
"It's been crazy crowded since Heidelberg," says Fabi, taking a sip from his water bottle.
You sweat without moving.
The moisture that collects under the mask is uncomfortable.
Every two minutes someone squeezed past them and the other passengers standing in the aisle.
In principle, the four think it's a good thing that the 9-euro ticket has been introduced.
This saves three of you money – except for Samuel.
He loses.
"Before, my employer paid me a flat rate of 100 euros for the travel costs," says the 19-year-old landscape gardener trainee.
Because the student subscription ticket for the vocational school he attends only costs 62.50 euros, he would otherwise have had almost 40 euros at his disposal.
money, which he now lacks.
"Now, of course, they only transfer me the nine euros a month."
Between Frankfurt and Friedberg, the train comes to an unscheduled standstill for the first time.
"It could be tight," says Sandro.
In Kassel they would only have twelve minutes to change trains.
Up to Marburg, this cushion melts down to five minutes.
But it hardly annoys the young men.
"If we miss that one, we'll just take the next one.
We don't have to go to Sylt today.
We'll just see how far we can get."
And with this basic attitude, the four sit quietly on the train until Fabi thinks: "I could open my first beer right away."