A sigh of relief goes through the industry.

Last Saturday the coffers of many business people were better filled than expected. Andrea Poul, Center Manager at the My Zeil shopping center, spoke of a “bombshell” start, even if the level of 2019 was not reached.

Customers not only looked, but also bought.

"It was a good start," confirms Sven Rohde, General Manager of the Hesse Trade Association, especially for downtown Frankfurt.

"The frequencies are right."

Petra Kirchhoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Discount campaigns around Black Friday probably played a part, but also picture-perfect weather with dry streets and sunshine, which invited people to take a walk in the city.

There was a good atmosphere everywhere in the shopping streets.

And at the Christmas market, which traditionally also attracts visitors from further away and after two measly editions during Corona, it is now unfolding its full splendor again, anyway.

But also in the shops, in a dense crowd, one saw more happy faces than one has seen in the city for a long time, and there were also enough salespeople.

Apparently the dealers had taken precautions.

Only in the side streets, where the traffic was jammed, as was to be expected, was the honking of annoyed drivers a nuisance.

Even the loud chimes of the Frankfurt city bell didn't manage to drown them out, but provided the usual festive note in the Christmas hustle and bustle.

The fact that the war in Ukraine and the high energy prices mean that Christmas is in crisis mode again, and retailers are expecting negative business, cannot be overlooked in the city.

Many shops are empty on the Zeil, and the facades of the large branches are only modestly decorated, if at all.

Since Monday evening, LED snakes and balls in the trees of the Zeil have provided a little sparkle of light.

This year, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, who temporarily took over the post of mayor from Peter Feldmann, was allowed to switch on the chain of lights.

Many people were worried about impending energy shortages and rising prices.

"That's why I think it's important that we set signs of hope," said the Green Mayor.

This also includes the atmospheric lighting of the Zeil.

The city bears the costs for hanging up and taking down

There have been repeated discussions about this in recent years.

The ostentatious curtains of light that flickered over the city's main pedestrian street for a number of years had proved too prone to failure.

There was no lighting at all for two years, the Neue Zeil trade association is only running on the back burner and has little money.

It was only thanks to a strong financial injection from the city, which in recent years has also provided financial support to the trade associations in the districts with the purchase of decorative lights, that it was possible to set up a stock for the Zeil that is less susceptible to repairs: light snakes and light balls hanging around the branches wrapped around the plane trees and hung up on them.

This year, too, the city will bear the costs for installing the lighting, which will cost 35,000 euros.

City marketing and business development each split the cost in half.

For reasons of economy, the lighting elements will be hung up over a shorter distance this time, only from the Hauptwache to the Konstablerwache, and switched off earlier in the evening, namely at 10 p.m.

Due to the late date, one week after the opening of the Frankfurt Christmas market, the duration is reduced accordingly.

This is probably more symbolic politics, LED technology is very economical.

The chain of lights on Berger Straße, at two kilometers the longest in the city, was not left in the basement this year because of the energy costs, as Kaweh Nemati, chairman of the Untere Berger Straße trade association says, but because the hanging and hanging of the Chain with the LED lights would have been too expensive.

Visitors skating on the roof of the Skyline Plaza shopping mall over the next few weeks needn't feel bad.

The track, which opened on Monday evening, is made of synthetic panels made of plastic - ecological and CO2-neutral, as the announcement says.

Energy for heating is not needed in this case.

The field measures ten by twenty meters.

That's big enough to do a lap and "pick up speed" at the same time, says center manager Oliver Kindt.