15 Distinctively German Things to Buy in Frankfurt

The ‘bad’ in Bad Homburg, eight miles from downtown Frankfurt, indicates this is a community that authorities deemed wholesome enough to grant it a spa status. It was the healthy climate that drew the Prince of Wales, future King Edward VII, to Bad Homburg in 1882. While there, he bought a hat that he, and subsequently the rest of the world, would thenceforth refer to as Homburg. A Homburg is a stiff hat made of wool or fur felt with a crease running the length of the crown. The edge of the brim is turned up sharply all the way around, and often topped with trim of the same material as the hatband. The style was rediscovered by hip-hop artists in the 1990s, who gave a ‘bad’ Homburg a whole new meaning. Despite its notoriety, the hat is not widely available.

The original Homburger Hutsalon can be found in Bad Homburg. Homburg hat prices start at €129 ($178).

A Bembel is a stoneware pitcher used to serve apple wine, and not incidentally, to keep it cool during the warm summer months. Frankfurt is known for its apple wine locales and their owners keep several sizes on hand to serve the needs of small and large groups. When served, the pitcher is left at the table, usually with a bottle of sparkling water, and the clientele mix their own drinks. A Bembel is generally grey in color with a simple blue design behind the glaze. Some depict city landmarks. As a gift intended for someone who does not drink apple wine, these pitchers can serve as rustic bric-a-brac; they also make very good flower pots.

Toepferei Maurer is a family operation that makes and sells Bembels and related pottery. Their Bembels are priced between 12 and 30 euros and the shop is in the middle of the Sachsenhausen apple wine district.

Frankfurt is one of the few German municipalities deeply involved in wine business. The city has had its own vineyard at Lohrberg, a modest hill on the northern border of the city, since 1803. Another source of wine is found outside the city limits in nearby Hochheim. The Lohrberg vineyard produces about 10,000 bottles a year. These wines and those from Hochheim can be bought at a wine shop located in an archway on the left side of the City Hall at Roemerberg.

Prices range from 5 to 82 euros a bottle, the latter being for a 2003 Hochheimer Riesling from grapes selected late in the harvest. Sparkling wines are also available. The bottles make nice Frankfurt gifts because they bear distinctive labels with the city seal and landmarks.

Frankfurt is known as a banking center with more skyscrapers than anywhere else in Germany. The very first of them, however, wasn’t a bank but a building belonging to a soap and scent factory. The Mousonturm still carries the name of the soap works, but now is a performing arts center. Die Seifenmanufaktur, located in the north of Frankfurt, carries on the soap tradition as a wholesaler of a wide range of hand-made soaps found at shops around the city. Natural ingredients are prevalent and the soaps come in many different colors, shapes and scents. These soaps can be found at the Hessen Shops in the Sachsenhausen district. Soaps are priced from several euros up to 35 euros or more for gift arrangements.

Adam Opel AG began building cars in 1899 at a factory near Frankfurt in Ruesselsheim. General Motors first took a stake in the German car company in 1929 and Opel still remains a GM subsidiary. Classics from more than 110 years of car making are available at the Opel store in the form of scale models, generally on a scale of 1:43 or 1:67. One possibility is to combine shopping with a tour of the plant, but it’s not necessary. Subways S8 and S9 run every 10 to 15 minutes from downtown Frankfurt. The journey takes 14 to 20 minutes, depending on where you get on. Get off Ruesselsheim main station. The Opel shop is in the big red factory building on the left when you come out of the station. Prices: Smaller models cost several euros; top range products are more than 30 euros.

Eintracht Frankfurt is a sports club with about 16,000 members that is best known for its professional soccer team. Because the season is long, running from July till May, fan-wear is almost always available. The eagle and crown of the official city seal is also found on the Eintracht Frankfurt club logo. Both, the logo and the words Eintracht Frankfurt are found on most fan scarves, thus making it a good and somewhat offbeat souvenir. A trip to the stadium without a scarf is something no true fan would consider, be it winter or summer. The scarves cost about 13 euros and can be found almost anywhere sporting goods are sold.

Leather-making was an important industry through the middle of the 20th Century in Frankfurt and the surrounding region. The center of the industry was just east of the city limits, in the town of Offenbach. However, by year 2000, there were less than 20 companies left making leather goods in and around Offenbach. One of those companies is Picard, founded in 1928 and located in Obertshausen about 7.5 miles from Frankfurt. Picard makes leatherwear for men and women that has a reputation for quality and durability. Its products are found in many Frankfurt leather shops.

Gabler, located downtown at Toengesgasse 33, 60311 Frankfurt, is a good venue. Gabler predates Picard by about 50 years and is located one block away from Zeil, the pedestrian zone that is the heart of the Frankfurt shopping district. The ladies handbags shown here range in size and are priced from 119 to 199 euros.

Frankfurt is the home of the European Central Bank. On the ground floor of the current building, on the Kaiserstrasse side, is a glass-walled facility called Infoshop in the ECB. Infoshop is not part of the central bank. It primarily sells coins, books and there is a small coffee shop. Among the souvenirs on offer here are coffee mugs in true-to-life colors and designs of the euro notes. Whatever the denomination: 5, 10, 50 or 500 euros, the price for a mug is the same 5.90 euros.

It was in 1982, legend has it, that an employee in a record store below Frankfurt’s main train station decided to categorize disparate electronic music bands, such as Germany’s Kraftwerk and the English group Depeche Mode, under one label. Because "technology" was too long a word, the label was shortened to techno, and Frankfurt was on its way to becoming the German capital for developing the music whose roots are in the U.S.

A legendary cavernous disco at Frankfurt airport was an early stage for mixes by DJs who remain mainstays of the scene; Talla 2XLC and Sven Vaeth are two. Both sell product on their websites. Recordings also are available in the few remaining CD shops. CDs from better known DJs, like Vaeth, are available on the top floor of Saturn in the MyZeil shopping mall, 106 Zeil, 60313 Frankfurt. A CD will cost about 17 euros.

Given the importance of the apple wine culture in Frankfurt, it should come as no surprise that there is a drinking glass made for and used only to drink apple wine. The glasses have a distinctive ribbed diamond pattern and most display the logo of an apple-wine maker. Those logos are what make the glasses an attractive souvenir, because they often feature Frankfurt motifs with the city name printed on the glass. Standard sizes are one-quarter liter or a half-liter, and they can be found everywhere apple wine is served. The glasses are readily available at shops, but finding one with a commercial brand is a little bit more difficult. One location is KaufhausHessen, in the cafe district of Bornheim.

Mustard is known all over the world and mustard seeds are grown in many places far away from Frankfurt. Great Britain is a mustard-seed producer and English mustards are renowned. Frankfurt lays claim to the frankfurter, which is one reason the city has a reputation for good mustards. Writing in 1805, the German academic Carl Philipp Funke said, “The English mustard is preferred. In Germany, the best mustard comes from Frankfurt am Mayn (sic).” Today, the spelling of the river is different but the city mustard culture flourishes. Ingredients in specialty mustards can include the seven herbs found in the traditional Frankfurt ‘green sauce,’ apple wine and pumpkin.

There are mustards that go well with cheese and, of course, a hot dog. KaufhausHessen offers a variety of mustards with labels identifying the product as coming from Frankfurt am Main. Price: 5 to 7 euros.

Some people claim the city of Frankfurt is the heart of the apple wine culture, while others say the center is where you are sitting when sampling this regional favorite. Apple wine is fermented without sugar and its alcoholic content at 5.5 per cent is about half that found in wine made from grapes. Apple wine normally is served in a stoneware pitcher with a separate bottle of mineral water. Consumer are invited to mix their drink themselves. The combination is a refreshing, low-cal treat with a punch.

Big commercial brands, like the Possman varieties, are found anywhere alcoholic beverages are sold, including the supermarket in the basement of Karstadt department store. The Zeil is a pedestrian zone that is the city’s central shopping district. Kaufhaus Hessen offers a connoisseur’s selection. Possmann Original costs about €1.60 ($2.20) for a 1 liter bottle. Specialty brands cost more, but still not expensive.

Jack Wolfskin was founded in Frankfurt in 1981 and is one of Germany’s most successful manufacturers of outdoor gear. Today, the company is based near Frankfurt, in Idstein. Jack Wolfskin products are sold in more than 4,000 stores across Europe and Asia. The clothing is generally light weight and comes in bright colors stamped with the company’s yellow-paw trademark. A feature with their jackets is the separable jackets and inner liners that can be worn separately and are interchangeable. This means the customers can select a liner to go with their jacket and vice versa. Because the jackets also ‘breathe,’ they are popular with skiers and hikers. A basic winter jacket is available for 130 euros and top of the line combinations cost 400 euros.

Frankfurt lends its name to a pork sausage, known around the world as the frankfurter. Although it tastes best fresh, at least one butcher has come up with an idea of a canned product suitable as an edible city souvenir that can be transported long distances. The history of Gref-Völsings goes back to 1894 when the butchery by the same name was founded. Gref-Völsings products are found all over town, at supermarkets, gas stations, restaurants and butcher shops. For canned products, the company uses traditional design cans to pack their sausages. Frankfurters are long and slender, and a half-dozen will fit into a can that sells for about 6 euros.

Suggestions for both fresh and canned Frankfurters are butchers’ Metzgerei Ullmann or Schoen in the city market at Kleinmarkthalle. The canned variety is available at Kulturothek. Hessen Shop outlets and KaufhausHessen also sell the product.

Struwwelpeter is one of the world’s best-selling books for children with 30 million copies sold in Germany alone since it was first published in 1845. Author, Heinrich Hoffmann, was born in Frankfurt; his book was born there too, out of frustration. Hoffmann wrote and illustrated a series of tales, each with a moral, after having failed to find a suitable children’s book for his three-year-old daughter. The book remains controversial to this day. A common criticism is that it is too gruesome for children.

The American author Mark Twain was not among the critics. Twain “freely” translated the book for his daughter while on a trip to Germany in 1891, using the title ‘Slovenly Peter.’ His translation is available at the Struwwelpeter Museum. Many other translations, in Thai, Chinese and Yiddish, for example, are also available there. The books range in price from about 10 euros to 25.