InterNations co-founder Malte Zeeck paid a visit to our Frankfurt Community last week – here are some of his impressions from his short trip:

It’s only a three hour train ride from Munich, but Frankfurt – the financial and international hub of Germany – is completely different from the larger, yet more laid-back city near the Alps. Skyscrapers made of steel and glass and the international airport (Germany’s biggest employer and one of the ten busiest airports in the world) shape the European banking metropolis today. People from almost 180 nations are currently living in the multi-national city on the river Main – almost every third resident of Frankfurt doesn’t have a German passport.

With more than 4,200 members, the Frankfurt InterNations Community ranks #15 on a global scale, behind others of our German communities, i.e. those in Munich and Berlin. Nonetheless, Frankfurt is one of the most active communities when it comes to events and our members’ involvement. Within a mere several months, our Ambassador trio – consisting of Andreas Wiedow, Steven Dierckx and Monica Castellano – have managed to increase the attendance of their monthly events to almost 300 participants. Moreover, there is a fairly active group landscape, too. Be it the Wine Lovers in the Frankfurt Area, the Alice’s Restaurant Brunches & Dinners or the Monday Café Crawl organized by Marie-Francoise Marques, members meet up on a very regular basis.

More than 300 members from some 50+ nationalities have signed up for the January InterNations Event at the Sky Club (formerly the well known Galleria bar, which used to be the nightlife hotspot for Frankfurt’s bankers, brokers and beauties). There is a special reason for members to join this monthly get-together: two Ambassadors will be saying good-bye after bringing the Frankfurt InterNations Community to life over the last two years. Fortunately, both will not be lost to InterNations. Andreas, who was the first Ambassador in Frankfurt, is going to focus on organizing regular business networking events with different speakers on expat-relevant topics in the context of his InterNations Professional Networking Group in Frankfurt. Steven, one of the most sociable Italians living in Frankfurt, is about to movie to Milan. He will continue to be a member and might even get more involved in our Milan Community.

However, Monica will team up with Henri Maurer, a charismatic Belgian banker, to lead the Frankfurt InterNations Community in the future. They will make sure to keep the great momentum going by organizing our monthly events in more fascinating venues.

At night, the SkyClub is packed with members from Finland, the USA, Spain, Italy, China, and many other nationalities. Around the buffet, members are mingling and getting to know each other: the colourful flags on their nametags make many first conversations a lot easier. When it’s time for our two departing Ambassadors to say their farewells, they receive a well-deserved applause from the guests. But then, after 10pm, there’s no more time for melancholy and nostalgia: the music kicks in, and the general socializing turns into a rousing party. Unfortunately, it’s a Thursday, and I thus have to be back at the InterNations office the next morning, or I’d have stayed much longer to see if the Frankfurt crowd has the same stamina as the one in Munich when it comes to dancing the night away…

(Photos by Steven Dierckx. Thank you!)

The Frankfurt Community met last Saturday at the Pure Basement for their monthly disco evening. Special thanks to our Local Ambassador Steven Dierckx for taking the photos.To see more pictures of this event, please visit the InterNations photo album.

The Pure Hotel Lounge Bar became, on Friday’s Internations event, a real intercontinental meeting point. Newcomers and habitués of the Frankfurt Community enjoyed the evening, sipping cocktails, a glass of wine or a beer until 1 o’clock. Looking forward to the next gathering to welcome new and old friends.

Special thanks to our Local Ambassador Steven Dierckx for taking the photos.
To see more pictures of this event, please visit the InterNations photo album.

Thanks to Alice Wiedow for her photos!

Many thanks to both our Frankfurt Ambassadors Steven Dierckx and Andreas Wiedow (as well as Andreas’s wife Alice) for providing us with all these photos!

At the most recent event in Frankfurt, our new Co-Ambassador Steven Diercx bid a warm welcome to members from about ten different nations. The relaxed, almost ‘homey’ ambience of the lounge at Gault Millau-decorated Bistro Zarges provided a great opportunity for a casual chat over a few drinks or a French cuisine-style snack. The last guests — including Steven himself — lingered on until well after midnight.

(A few more snapshots can be found here.)

Last night, the Frankfurt InterNations Community had the great chance to experience an authentic hot pot meal at Sichuan China Restaurant. Ambassador Andreas Wiedow and his wife Alice (who was actually born in the Southwestern region of China) invited their guests from India, the US, Russia, Britain, Finland, France, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries to share this popular dish with its spicy sauce of flower pepper. The company learned quickly how to savour the hot pot in the true Chinese fashion: At first, everyone waited patiently for each single ingredient to be cooked and boiled individually; but when their tastebuds and appetites had been whetted, they started flinging everything into the pot together, much to Alice’s amusement…

Since the venue for the most recent event of the InterNations Frankfurt Community had to be changed on short notice, due to organizational reasons, Ambassador Andreas Wiedow and his guests eventually met up at Living XXL. This location is one of the largest restaurants in Europe and one of the trendiest night clubs in town. During the early stages of the after-work party, the expats from China, Poland, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Russia, the US, Great Britain, Hungary, and Italy were thus able to enjoy a huge buffet with pasta and other Italian specialties. After such a generous dinner and a drink, there was the opportunity to stay a little longer and to burn off some of the calories on the spacious dance floor; after all, several among the attendants are also quite fond of the venue’s funky Salsa Thursdays.

Last Thursday, the Frankfurt InterNations Community had the chance to accompany Ambassador Andreas Wiedow on an Asian-Hessian-themed night inspired by Juto Izumi’s fabulous movie Tampopo. In search of the perfect ramen recipe, expats from Italy, China, Mexico, Romania, and Hungary tasted some wonderful noodle soup at a small Asian snackbar before they decided to dedicate themselves to exploring local vintages. So, they concluded the evening at the Bockenheimer Weinkontor, a veritable Frankfurt institution with a long tradition of serving good German wines.

An Italian-themed ‘netwalk’ (i.e. a leisurely stroll through town, complete with food, drinks, chatting and networking) was the motto of the latest InterNations event hosted by our Frankfurt Ambassador Andreas Wiedow. Members from China, the USA, Colombia, Belgium, the UK, Germany, and, yes indeed, Italy, gathered to have a pizza at Olbia in Frankfurt’s Northend. A little after-dinner walk took them for ice-cream and espresso at a nearby parlour before they had at last the opportunity to explore one of the most charming wine bars in the city.