Willy-Brandt-Platz
Willy-Brandt-Platz is in the banking district adjacent to the ramparts of Frankfurt. The ramparts form a ring-like park around the inner city of Frankfurt am Main. They were created at the beginning of the 19th century on the grounds of Frankfurt’s former city fortifications. The Frankfurt ring runs around the ramparts. The ramparts are divided into seven sections, most of which bear the names of the former city gates. These are the Untermain, the Gallus, the Taunus, the Bockenheimer, the Eschenheimer, the Friedberger and the Obermain sections.
Willy-Brandt-Platz and the Städtische Bühnen theatres are located along the Untermain section.
Städtische Bühnen
The Städtische Bühnen theatres are on the left-hand side of Willy-Brandt-Platz, previously known as Theaterplatz. This new building was constructed between 1951 and 1963. The Städtische Bühnen house Frankfurt’s municipal theatre companies, which are the largest in the state of Hessen. They are divided into the opera house, which seats 1,400, the 710-seat theatre and the 200-seat playhouse.
The Frankfurt opera was named opera house of the year in 1995 and 2003 by the magazine Opernwelt.
Frankfurt's fairy-tale fountain
In front of the Städtische Bühnen theatres is the Märchenbrunnen (fairy-tale fountain), an art nouveau fountain designed by Ernst Friedrich Hausmann that was completed in 1910. The bronze figures at the base of the eight-metre-high fountain were melted down during World War II and only reconstructed in 2006 using photographs from the 1920s.