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Manfred Koehler - Wikipedia

Head of the Rhein-Main editorial department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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where to put the Städtische Bühnen in Frankfurt? People have been talking about it for many years, because the current building on Willy-Brandt-Platz is dilapidated and the demolition has been decided. Now Frankfurt's head of cultural affairs, Ina Hartwig (SPD), has made a recommendation: either a new building should be built on the same site, or, and she prefers this solution, a playhouse should be built on the other side of the square and the new opera house should be built where the double facility for both divisions now stands. On Thursday she gave a big press conference, and an interview in the F.AZ./Rhein-Main-Redaktion. Hartwig wishes that there would now be a decision of the city council before the summer break. Nobody has to order tickets for the opening gala in the two new buildings yet, with a completion is expected for the mid-thirties.

Oh, it would be so nice if something could be achieved in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. The Frankfurt Society for Trade, Industry and Science had come up with the nice idea that the city should award a European Paulskirche Prize for Democracy, and it was often said that this award should then be equal to the highly regarded Charlemagne Prize. But now it has come to a scandal: The Frankfurt CDU chairman Nils Kößler announced on Thursday that he was no longer available for the Board of Trustees, which is to decide on the awarding of the prize, because the fractions of the Roman coalition had filled the jury almost exclusively with their own people in order to secure "access" to the award. The fact that the small diamond rules in the occupation had recently been read in the F.A.Z. in a commentary by my colleague Matthias Trautsch. In the end, you may be happy if someone accepts the prize at all.

But everything will be better in March. Then Frankfurt finally has a city leader again, and what a leader. In any case, the shortlisted candidates do not lack diligence. Naive minds may associate political Ash Wednesday solely with Bavaria or even only with the CSU there, but in fact this day is also one of the highlights of political life in Frankfurt. The Greens had even called up the father of their party, Joschka Fischer, Lars Klingbeil had moved in to support the SPD candidate Mike Josef. Well, it may be that it is not quite as hearty as with the neighbors in the south. But surely afterwards all visitors to all events went home in the certainty that they were definitely on the right side.

And in addition, thousands of Ukrainians who have fled are looking for work in Hesse – but there are hurdles, as Patricia Andreae writes +++ Theresa Weiß portrays a married couple who fled Ukraine a year ago and now live in Flörsheim +++ the Chagall exhibition at the Schirn in Frankfurt ended with a record number of visitors.

We wish you a pleasant evening

Your Manfred Köhler

You can also read the latest news from the region in the Skyline-Blick, our news liveblog for the Rhine-Main region, and on the website of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

The tip for the weekend

Where the burger restaurant "Bareburger" used to sell reasonably sophisticated fast food on Schweizer Platz in Sachsenhausen, the "Estela" now serves elegant, small dishes with and without meat and good wines. For the culinary upgrade of its offer, the operator has hired a chef who previously worked at the "Mon Amie Maxi". Together with his team, he brings a constantly changing, colourful, international mixture to the plates, from moules frites and shrimp gyoza to duck breast taco and croque monsieur to entrecote with sauce bearnaise.

"Estela", Schweizer Platz 56, Frankfurt, Phone 0 69/60 60 79 51, Internet www.estelaffm.de.

The weather for Friday

Mostly dense clouds, only locally temporary loosening, in the course of the day intermittent rain. Maximum temperatures around 10 degrees.

It's your birthday

on Friday

Udo Passavant, Honorary President of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce (102); Klaus Schatz, Jesuit, Professor Emeritus of Church History, Frankfurt (85); Rainer Hamm, lawyer, former Hessian data protection officer, Frankfurt (80); Michael Kibler, writer living in Darmstadt (60); Thilo Söhngen, former chairman of the Wiesbaden regional division in the Hesse-South Trade Association (60); Moses Pelham, rapper and music producer, bearer of the Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt (52);

on Saturday

Michel Friedman, publicist and moderator, Managing Director of the Center for Applied European Studies, Frankfurt from 2016 to March 2022 (67); Annette Reschke, Chairwoman of the Frankfurter Autorenstiftung (59); Thorsten Muntermann, Managing Director of the design and household goods manufacturer Koziol, Erbach (53); Christian Mühlhäuser, Managing Director Central Europe at tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, Bad Homburg (49); Sandra Ciesek, Director of the Institute of Medical Virology at Frankfurt University Hospital (45);

on Sunday

Udo Corts (CDU), Chairman of the University Council of Goethe University Frankfurt, former Hessian Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Arts (68); Klaus Cichutek, President of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Langen (67); Heribert Lenz, cartoonist living in Aschaffenburg (65); Axel Dornis, Chief Financial Officer of Arbeiterwohlfahrt Frankfurt (58); Oliver Quilling (CDU), District Administrator of the district of Offenbach (58); Stephan Siegler (CDU), honorary city councillor, former head of the Frankfurt city council (58); Kjell Schmidt, Managing Director of Regionalpark Ballungsraum Rhein-Main gGmbH, Flörsheim (42); Sven Axt, Commercial Director of Helios-Kliniken Wiesbaden-Taunus (37).

Information on events can be found online.