KAlmost three months after the German Football Association opened the DFB Academy in the southern part of the former racetrack area and put it into operation, the new green area in the northern part of the area can now be opened to the public this Saturday. Planning took five years and construction took a year. Now the environmental department head Rosemarie Heilig (Die Grünen) invites you to the official opening at 12 noon. Afterwards, a program with guided tours on the history of the site, on flora and fauna and an environmental rally for families will be offered until 5 p.m. under the motto “City-Nature-Adventure-Day”. Athletes demonstrate what body control makes possible on the new, competition-ready calisthenics facility. For the first time, children can try out the large playground and the new football field. The vantage points with a view over the nine-hectare site, including the lake and the skyline, are also open.
City Councilor Heilig is convinced that the city of Frankfurt can use the new racetrack park to show how green spaces must be designed in the future so that they offer the population relaxation and retreat in hot summers. According to Heilig, cities like Frankfurt must also “set an example in dealing with the consequences of the climate crisis and the loss of biological diversity”. Above all, almost 1000 Frankfurt citizens were involved in the planning and brought in their ideas and wishes. This also makes the racetrack park something special. This park in the south of Frankfurt serves as a blueprint in many ways.
Harbor Park as a model
City Councilor Mike Josef (SPD), who was involved in the planning as head of the sports department, also considers the racetrack park to be a “successful mixture” of protection and preservation of biodiversity as well as leisure, sports and fitness facilities. Not only does Josef know from experience that such offers are increasingly in demand, but this is particularly evident in the success of the Hafenpark on the northern bank of the Main with its basketball courts and the two skate parks that have now been installed.
Right from the start, the people of Frankfurt had a clear idea of what the new green area should look like on the former racecourse site. No party area, no barbecue areas. Instead, they wanted a quiet park where families and athletes can find activities, hang out and all experience nature together. “Just having a place to go for a walk in a beautiful, green environment” was one of the demands at the time. So rather Huthpark than Mainufer. This is how the citizens summarized their wishes in the workshops to which the Green Spaces Office had invited in 2015 and 2016.
Overlooking the skyline
And something else was quickly determined: The basic structure of the site with the oval of the course of the former racecourse was to be preserved, as well as the lake and the modeled site, including the ecologically modeled site, used by golfers who used to try to put balls in the middle of the facility on days without betting valuable sandy nutrient-poor grassland with the protected sandgrass pink that thrives there. The lake has now received a flattened shore zone, so that you can go straight to the water. At the same time, elevated points were created, such as the so-called Rennbahn Tower, from which one has an overview of the now generously designed park, including the equally large area of Bannwald, which is immediately adjacent. The special feature of the area has always been the view of the Frankfurt skyline: this should also be possible from a special vantage point.
The entrance to the park is now in the very north on Rennbahnstrasse, at the corner of Niederräder Landstrasse.
