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the chaRM oF the bavaRIan loweR MaInhigh tech and quality oF liFe away FroM the big-city hustle and bustleA castle forms the skyline, in the valley global market leaders produce their goods, a princess enthuses about wind turbines and for the music scene aschaffenburg is a major city. a journey of discovery

By BARBARA HOFMANN AND MARTIN ORTH, PHOTOS: JONAS RATERMANN

> The Bavarian Lower Main is a real insider tip. Numerous national and

international studies have shown that the region offers top quality of life, opportunities for the future and development potential. Innovation and tradition go hand in hand on the border be­tween Hessen and Bavaria, home to around 370,000 people. Aschaffenburg, with around 70,000 inhabitants from 130 countries the “capi­tal” of the Bavarian Lower Main region, boasts Germany’s first traffic intersection outfitted with laser scanners and cameras used to conduct re­search into accident prevention strategies. A few kilometers along the Main, in Miltenberg, Ger­many’s oldest inn is still serving guests. Travelers passing through have been stopping at the “Riesen”, a grand old half­timbered house in the middle of the picturesque old town, since the 12th century. And culturally too, the Bavarians

FRM SeRieS

baVaRian loWeR Main

Aschaffenburg

Miltenberg

Alzenau

Obernburg

Erlenbach

Großwallstadt

Kleinheubach

Mömbris

Elsenfeld

are the frontrunners in FrankfurtRhineMain: Germany’s first music school was established in Aschaffenburg in 1810.

The Bavarians in FrankfurtRhineMain do not experience the greatest amount of acceptance from their fellow statesmen in the south of the Free State: The Bavarian Lower Main is for them too close to neighboring Hessen. Furthermore they speak in the Hessian rather than the Bavarian dialect, press applewine and distill schnapps. A quarter­liter jug of Franconian wine is ordered more often than a nice, smooth liter of beer. The north Bavarians enjoy views of the Frankfurt skyline, not Alpine peaks. They hold their own wine festivals rather than that famous ode to beer, the Oktoberfest. All this is not particularly surprising, given that they only became part of Bavaria just under 200

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during the afternoon some of the band members head upstairs to the performers’ dressing room, while the others prepare the sound check. Quite casually, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, claus berninger sits in his office on the 1st story above the concert hall and tells us about his job. he has been manag-ing the club for 27 years. 25 events take place here each month – from Rock, Pop and Jazz to heavy Metal and hip hop. For him that means a 70 to 80-hour week, starting at 6 a.m. every day. This has nothing in common with the classic sex, drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll cliché. it is rather a matter of professionalism, passion and responsibility – for the now eleven permanent employees. “i trained as a social worker,” says ber-ninger. “it gives you a different out-look on things.” his aim was never to hit the financial big-time, which one most certainly can do in this field if willing to take certain risks. he wanted nothing more than good music – regardless of the particular direction. So the amateur musician set about establishing the colos-Saal’s position in the top ten German clubs – and that in a town with just 70,000 inhabitants.www.colos-saal.de

Bavaria in FRM The bavarian lower Main region forms the bavarian part of FrankfurtRhineMain. The Main River links the Spessart and odenwald, aschaffenburg and Miltenberg. around 370,000 people live in the region, 70,000 of them in aschaffenburg. They profit from the economic strength of the region and value the high quality of life there

years ago. Around 800 years as part of the former Electorate and Archbishopric of Mainz have left lasting marks on the area.

Aschaffenburg was the second residence of the Mainz bishops and prince­electors who had the castle Schloss Johannisburg built be­tween 1605 and 1619. Citizens of Aschaffenburg have the Archbishop and Prince­Elector of Mainz Fried rich Carl Joseph von Erthal to thank for creating one of the earliest land­scaped gardens to grace southern Germany. From 1775, the former electoral game preserve was redesigned into an English­style park. With its artificial lake, watercourses mean­dering through meadows and small forests, mazes, a Temple of Friendship, Palace and Philosopher’s House, Schönbusch Park has been a popular attraction for the citizens of

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Aschaffenburg and their guests even since. On balmy summer evenings in the Hessian­Bavar­ian border region the famous white­and­blue joie de vivre surfaces in the large beer garden there.

Erthal’s successor, the last Archbishop and Prince­Elector of Mainz Carl Theodor von Dalberg, supported the construction of the mu­nicipal theater, which will celebrate its 200th birthday in late October. On the occasion of its anniversary, the Classicist building will be pre­sented in new splendor following more than three years of renovation work totaling €8.4 million. The new theater season will offer audiences both guest performances by renowned companies as well as events by the Aschaffen­burg­based Kleinkunstbühne Hofgarten and the music club Colos­Saal. In recent years Hof­

Uli Wolf arrives at the Sportpark on his motorcycle. he opens the TV Grosswallstadt office. The cabinets are a reminder of its great past. Since the founding of the German handball bundesliga in 1977, Gross-wallstadt has maintained its position in the highest professional handball league. in the late 1970s/early 1980s, TVG dominated the league along with Gummersbach and es-sen. in 1980 the white-blues even took all titles in that year – they were bundesliga champions and winners of the cup, Supercup and european champions cup. “The reality is now somewhat different,” says Wolf. Uli Wolf started out as a player himself, was then made team captain and later became TV Grosswallstadt’s co-coach. Today he is Sports direc-tor and in times of financial difficulty places great emphasis on the pro-motion of the youth teams. The ba-varian lower Main is a handball stronghold. young talent from all over the region comes to TVG to play. This is also beneficial for teams in the lower leagues – obernburg, Kirchzell, Kleinostheim and Gross-Umstadt. “i am setting myself a new challenge,” says Uli Wolf with a flash of his winning smile.www.tvgrosswallstadt.de

Thomas Richter glances out of the window of his office on the 1st floor of Schloss Johannisburg in aschaffenburg, lost in thoughts of his most current and largest project, the “aschaffenburg Museum Mile”. it is set to run from Schlossmuseum to Stiftmuseum. There are plans for a “museum district” on the site of the former Jesuit monastery located between the two poles, which is soon to be freed up. “We are already thinking about the opening exhibi-tion for the first stage of construc-tion in 2014,” says Richter. a project of the century for aschaffenburg. This way, the city of culture can present its treasures in a fitting manner. These include works by lucas cranach and Matthias Grüne-wald, as well as ernst ludwig Kirch-ner, who was born in aschaffenburg, and christian Schad, who lived in the surrounding area. Plans incorpo-rate an area specifically dedicated to Modern and emerging art from aschaffenburg. but first of all, in early 2012 the exhibition “Reiselust und Sinnesfreude: corinth – liebermann – Slevogt” (Wanderlust and sensual pleasures: corinth – liebermann – Slevogt) is to open at Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche. www.museen-aschaffenburg.de

AschaffenburgThe magnificent red-golden sandstone Schloss Johannisburg roosts high above the city. From here you can also walk to the Pompejanum, a perfect replica of a Roman residential villa

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garten Director Urban Priol has made the region a key location of the cabaret scene with a string of prominent guests.

The kirchner-Haus opposite the new As­chaffenburg Main Station is also of suprare­gional significance. The Expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born there in 1880. As a young boy he would observe the hustle and bustle on the street from his first­story apartment. “As a boy I always sat at the win­dow and drew what I saw; women with baby carriages, trees, railway trains…” wrote Kirch­ner in a letter in 1916. The new “Kirchner­Haus Aschaffenburg” association remembers the cultural city’s famous son. Some fans of the artist in Aschaffenburg want to set up a room documenting Kirchner’s childhood in the house in which he was born.

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Stephanie zu löwenstein strides through the tall wild grass at Schloss löwenstein, telling us about a hunt-ing lodge in the forest and enthusing about wind turbines as she goes. “That is the future.” is this what you imagine when you think of a princess? although she comes from a West-phalian noble family herself, Steph-anie zu löwenstein is more the manager type. Well-educated but by no means snobby. elegant but not extravagant. The trained pedia-trician and mother of four considers it her role to prepare the almost 1,000-year-old palace for the future. The forest – just under 8,000 hec-tares – is to be sustainably managed. Together with her father-in-law, alois K. Prince zu löwenstein, she also aspires to secure hotel Schloss löwenstein a place in the top rank-ings. The wine estate – with fine wine from the famous homburg Kallmuth vineyard at the heart of Franconia and from the Grand cru vineyards in hallgarten am Rhein – has already moved to the Schloss-park Kleinheubauch. her husband carl Friedrich Prince zu löwenstein had already begun preparations for the project when he died in 2010 in a race on the nürburgring. www.loewenstein.de

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Manfred bauer walks through the factory halls and into the showroom. he comes from a family of metal-workers. “nowadays, i find the smell of metal more pleasant than that of wood,” he admits. but he has built up his business with wood. When, at the age of 22, bauer had to take over responsibility for the business fol-lowing the death of Reinhold Keller, he was left standing there with bundles of talent and nowhere to channel it. So what now? after furnishing the first Mcdonalds in aschaffenburg, he recognized the business potential there. bauer applied to Mcdonald’s German headquarters in Munich. That proved to be a decisive step. Today Reinhold Keller is one of the leading furnishers in the european catering industry – a true hidden champion. The medium-sized busi-ness has since outfitted more than 3,000 restaurants; most of them Mcdonalds, but others include Mövenpick, Vapiano and Mosch-Mosch, from the Faeroe islands to casablanca, Paris to Riyadh. Manfred bauer expects further growth thanks to a new company invention, which enables photos to be printed directly onto wood. “This is going to change the industry yet again.” www.reinhold-keller.de

The two HeubachsThanks to its SMes, Kleinheubach is considered one of bavaria’s wealthiest municipalities. The wine industry is a key feature of Großheubach. The “bischofsberg” greets visitors like Germany’s answer to the hollywood hills

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For the purposes of tourism advertising, the region between the hills of the Odenwald and Spessart and along the River Main now de­scribes itself as “Churfranken”. Churfranken, or Churfranconia, encompasses 20 small towns and villages, including the wine­producing towns of Klingenberg, Miltenberg, Bürgstadt and the handball stronghold Grosswallstadt, which all attract tourists with their palaces, castles, vineyards, half­timbered houses and hiking trails. With the new name, the region is calling to mind its historical connection to Mainz. Churfranconia is a wine­producing country: The Franconian Red Wine Trail invites guests to explore the vineyards. The famous Pinot Noir, with which vintners such as Paul Fürst and his son Sebastian from Bürgstadt have achieved international renown, thrives on the steep red sandstone terraces.

The castles of Churfranconia offer more than just beautiful views of the Main Valley. In the summer months they serve as the backdrop for a number of festivals and concerts. Visitors from all over FrankfurtRhineMain attend the annual Clingenburg­Festspiele in Klingenberg. This summer “Museum.Burg.Miltenberg” opened at the Mildenburg. The Medieval castle, which was closed to visitors for three decades, has been re­stored at a cost of 2.8 million euros and now, as opposed to the old, clattering suits of armor one may expect, houses icons and Modern art from the 20th and 21st centuries.

yet it is not only art from the 21st century that can be found in the region, but modern compa­nies and market leaders, too. The Lower Main is a hub for the automobile supplier industry; the airbag was developed here 30 years ago. Along­

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arno dirker takes a deep breath. delightful. For him delivering the fruit is one of the best moments. “The smell of the ripe fruit. Just marve-lous. This aroma should be preserved forever,” says the distiller. dirker took up this career path out of necessity. by the mid-1980s there was little money to be earned with fruit-grow-ing alone. That is when he came up with the idea of distilling the fruit. he obviously had a good nose for it. in 1995, he was voted the inter-national “Schnapps distiller of the year” and since then his business has been growing at a double-digit rate. With twelve employees he today produces over 25,000 schnapps, liquors and spirits for 16,000 clients and 1,800 businesses in the gastronomy industry – this also includes a number of starred restaurants such as the “Traube Tonbach”. of the now more than 70 kinds of schnapps, “damson Plum” is their bestseller. dirker is especially proud of his patented “hazelnut Spirit”. The whole range is available to sample every year on the last Sunday in october at the festival “der Kahlgrund brennt”, where local distillers present their products.www.dirker.de

side the automotive, logistics, IT and automa­tion sectors, companies specializing in medical and optical technologies and renewable ener­gies have also established themselves here. A further focal point is research, since 1995 in the context of cooperative projects between compa­nies and Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences, and in the near future in the new Fraunhofer project group in Alzenau, whereby scientists are seeking to develop new recycling methods.

As of this year, the Lower Main has been covered by the Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sci­ences Research Initiative Center (KO­FAS), which focuses on the development of new intel­ligent sensor technology. Here, cars are equipped with sensors, which are to warn drivers of potential dangers ahead of time. 25 million euros

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Ralf dingeldein is consulting with a group of colleagues from the quality control department at the plant in the nilkhelm district of aschaffen-burg. he is in charge of global sales of new vehicles at linde Material handling. The smooth delivery of the fork-lift trucks is a prerequisite for the company’s success. dingeldein has been working for linde since 2008 and knows the fundamentals of the business inside out. The company, founded in 1904, has been operating in aschaffenburg since 1907. Today, 30,000 fork-lift trucks are shipped from the plant each year. no one is exactly the same as another. each vehicle is configured to suit the specific needs of the client. linde is the european market leader, holds the second spot glo-bally and claims to be the market leader in terms of technology. how innovative the company is, is empha-sized by the fact that linde brought the first electric forklift onto the market 40 years ago. now, electric vehicles are the focus of the entire transport industry. www.linde-mh.de

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have been made available to the project for accident prevention. Research is taking place, amongst other destinations, at the busy Aschaffenburg interchange.

The research being conducted in the Bavarian Lower Main is not just restricted to enterprises and universities. The region regularly takes the top places in “Jugend forscht” competitions. This year, two students became national winners with their “magic formula” against bad breath. The research duo from the Hanns­Seidel school will be going to Helsinki at the end of September to take part in the European round organized by the European Commission, where they will present their “No Bad Breath” magic formula to a jury. Whether the boys will describe themselves as Bavarian or as coming from FrankfurtRhine­Main? Who knows? \\

AschaffenburgTradition and modernity shape day-to-day life in aschaffenburg. Schönbusch Park (r.) is a popular excursion destination. it is one of the oldest and largest parks in Germany, designed in the style of an english landscaped garden.