Inside Frankfurt’s ‘Zombie Zone’ forward of England Euros conflict

A comatose man lies slumped across an entrance to Frankfurt’s main railway station, while a few feet away a woman openly snorts class A drugs – as groups of England fans walk past them on their way to the Euros.

Just along from this pair, two others whose faces bear the ravages of years of drug abuse have keeled over like zombies – and one has wet herself without apparently even noticing.

Her friend, who MailOnline witnesses taking a hit of Fentanyl on the train station concrete windowsill, gathers up the slumped woman’s personal items for safekeeping. Soon she too will be ‘lost to the world’ as her own hit of the synthetic opiate takes effect and sends her into her own stupor.

Welcome to Bahnhofsviertel Frankfurt’s so-called ‘Zombie Zone’, the traditional red light district of the central German city on the River Main which has more recently fallen in the grip of appalling drug problems.

This is the Germany that the organisers of Euro 2024 have not been promoting – but it is one that is going to be witnessed by thousands of England fans flocking to the city for today’s match against Denmark.

Within just a few streets in the city centre, there are now an estimated 5,000 drug addicts who have made the city centre streets of Frankfurt their home and whose habits are fed by around 300 pushers.

And despite the sex trade having lately been eclipsed by drugs, many women addicts still ply their trade as prostitutes to fund their habits on the streets of the Bahnhofsviertel, which is directly en route from the main city station to the Euro 24 fan zone on the city’s Main River between the Holbeinsteg and Friedensbrücke bridges.

Others turn to petty crime to pay for their drugs so the area is also rife with muggings, bag and phone stashes – and worse.

Police statistics show 10,000 criminal offences are reported every year, including 1,100 assaults, 900 pick-pocketing incidents, and 250 street robberies. Indeed, half of Frankfurt’s street robberies occur here where Mailonline visited.

Despite increased patrols, police struggle to control the chaos, with recent efforts resulting in 418 criminal charges, 86 misdemeanours, 78 arrests, and the implementation of a night-time no-weapons zone.

When MailOnline visited ahead of England’s second group game we spoke to Ali, a 32-year-old Moroccan, whose eyelids hang heavy as he inhales superstrong skunk.

Indicating the fentanyl taker who has now collapsed just along from him, he tells us: ‘This lady here may wake up in three days, who knows or who cares if she doesn’t?’

The self-confessed addict who speaks good English added: ‘I have seen people die right here because of the drugs. The doctors or the government cannot help us.

‘I have had my identification details stolen and I cannot get any state benefit or help. A very bad situation.’

Crack pipes and meth needles litter the pavements. Many addicts, with wizened skin and missing teeth, puff away on their crack pipes, while others huddle at shop entrances or lie in drug-induced stupors in the middle of the pavement.

Squatting between parked cars, some snort from tin foil wraps and even inject chemicals directly into their veins.

Across the street from Frankfurt Main Hauptbahnhof, lines of drug dealers, with their wares concealed in back packs zone in on football fans who cannot resist a quick hit.

A Danish fan exchanges a 50 Euro note for what appears to be crack cocaine in silver foil and walks happily away with his purchase.

Other dealers hang on street corners and wait for fans to approach them occasionally muttering ‘Cocaine, weed, crack.’

Lines of armed police officers look on as the dealers and their customers do business. The officers are keener on not being filmed and checking journalist credentials and recording their personal details.

Our photographer is punched in the face resulting in a wobbly tooth as he is seen taking long lens pictures by lookouts who also try unsuccessfully to steal his cell phone.

Ali says the hopelessness of the place will be lost on visiting football fans and officials because the tournament is ‘all people care for.’

He said: ‘Football fans will be here for a month and then gone. If we survive, we will still be here. . . or even dead.

‘We need help with medicine and homes. But nobody can help now. It is too late.’

Despite the torrential rain, the woman slumped over with her head in her knees with her pink anorak unfastened has not stirred for more than 30 minutes.

Behind the station, dozens of other addicts, many on meth and crack, have gathered and are oblivious to the streams of chanting football fans passing by them. The dealers walk through the crowds offering visitors weed, which is not illegal in Germany.

Not far away is Frankfurt’s red-light district where helpless women, many reliant on drugs themselves, are forced into prostitution in seedy hotels and brothels.

Selling sex is not illegal in Germany and football fans looking for sex can even download an app which helps link them to prostitutes.

It has helped force women off street corners and into safer surroundings and means they can be monitored and even qualify for state unemployment benefits and health care.

But not all women are accounted for as some still walk the streets of the Bahnhofsviertel district.

One woman with dyed blond hair, clearly worse for wear through drugs, asks for money and shouts in German. A passer-by translates and says she is offering sex for money.

The crime-ridden drug hit area, known locally as the ‘Bahnhofsviertel’ or train station district’, is a 53-hectare zone where 300 drug dealers primarily from north Africa, Albania, and Bulgaria operate and is regarded as so dangerous that US companies have warned staff to stay away.

Speaking to MailOnline, Peter Postleb, 75, a local security expert and former advisor to the Lord Mayor of Frankfurt, said: ‘Crack is playing an increasingly important role. A tenth of a gram today costs €10-€15. And of course, crack is very dangerous because it makes people aggressive and people are really crazy.’

‘The crack users who take crack for a long time all have some kind of damage in their psyche and are very aggressive and need crack again and again, because the effect doesn’t last long.

‘In the past, the heroin users were rather passive. But the crack addicts are very aggressive. So that’s one point that has contributed to the deterioration of the area.’

Mr Postleb says the situation has been worsened by the Covid pandemic.

‘Corona has meant that many local shops and businesses have closed in the Bahnhofsviertel and the rooms are still empty today and as soon as there are empty rooms in the station district, the ground floor is immediately used as a squatting and drugs storage area for junkies.

‘There’s no one coming out now and clearing them out. Now the shop is closed and the pavement in front of the shop is already besieged by junkies who lie down there, consume drugs and pass out.’

When a police car drives past, the hooded figures simply ignore them, openly selling class A drugs on many corners and right outside shops, pubs, cheap hotels, and strip clubs with.

‘It’s very serious, and robberies have increased a lot recently. In other words, passers-by walking through the Bahnhofsviertel have been robbed and threatened, and not just at night, but even in broad daylight. So there has been an extreme increase recently.

‘There are relatively few really reputable hotels or accommodation in the railway station district, which has also deteriorated in safety due to corona.

‘So many of the hotels are therefore reluctant to recommend staying in the station district. There are other hotels, large chains, that are close to the city centre and are reputable.’

Mr Postleb added: ‘The problems have also been exacerbated by the wave of refugees. It’s clear that young refugees who are suddenly in a foreign country without a family are naturally particularly susceptible to drugs, which means alcohol or other things, in the countries where people come from, they are somehow integrated into the family and the family exerts social control.

‘They are suddenly here in a foreign country and are in groups with other people of the same age, and of course this intensifies everything.

‘I know people who run pubs in the station district who say that whole groups of refugees come and roam around the pubs and react aggressively when they are somehow told to behave themselves and so on.

‘So from that point of view, the whole security problem and the drug problem have not got any better with the wave of refugees, on the contrary, I have never understood why, for example, the city of Frankfurt has housed refugees, young refugees, in empty hotels in the railway station district, where people come out of the hotel and are immediately confronted with the scene and see, ah, you can earn money this way quickly.’

Among those trying to run a business in the area are brothers James and David Ardinast, who grew up in the city and have been visiting the Bahnhofsviertel since they were children.

They opened their stylish restaurant, The Stanley on Ottostrasse, very close to the station in 2015. And although it thrived for some years its setting posed challenges they could never overcome and they finally closed two years ago.

James Ardinast explained the decision to close in 2022, saying: ‘Seeing people who need help, who can no longer help themselves, who are gradually becoming destitute on the streets – that’s tough stuff that you have to deal with. You also hear more and more guests saying: ‘I’ll think twice about coming to the district.’

‘But you also see more and more people in need of help who live on the streets here. Especially in summer, they often come to the tables. It is even worse for our colleagues on Kaiserstrasse. People come to the table there and steal food.’

Frankfurt police say they are working to improve the situation – and insisted: ‘We have this city under control.’

Police Commissioner Stefan Müller added: ‘We remain in close dialogue with our security partners. The sometimes inhumane conditions in public spaces can only be eliminated with holistic strategies to combat them. This important neighborhood requires special attention and a special approach to security.

Although police insist they have the city centre under control, they still advise England and other fans to proceed with ‘extreme caution.’