The division into a northern and a southern part is mostly for administrative purposes as the Westend (German: [ˈvɛstʔˈɛnt] ⓘ) is generally considered an entity.

The Westend with its Wilhelminian style buildings is a beloved residential quarter and has the highest real estate prices in Frankfurt.

Among them were the Gontardsche garden house and the Villa Leonhardi designed by the architect Nicolas Alexandre Salins de Montfort, as well as the Rothschildpalais of Friedrich Rumpf.

The narrow, built-up Frankfurter Neustadt was bursting at the seams and so people were continuously moving to the outer western town.

In the northern part was the newly laid Palmengarten, the Grüneburgweg with its emerging Grüneburgpark as well as the Irrenanstalt (the so-called Irrenschloß, a psychiatric hospital) founded by Heinrich Hoffmann on the Affenstein.

Around the well-contained development Mayor Franz Adickes had the Alleenring built at the beginning of the twentieth century, which at the same time bound all the new boroughs of the city together.

In 1938 Frankfurt came upon the chance to purchase a 58 hectare area between Bockenheimer Landstraße, Unterlindau, Staufenstraße and Reuterweg at a very reasonable price, which had previously belonged to the well-established Jewish Rothschild family, land which the Nazi government had put into probation.

After this, approval of the construction of a multi-storey development on the Rothschild's returned land was received (they sold it to Schweizer Zürich-Versicherung and Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft) and office towers were established directly opposite the old opera house.

After the abolishment of control of living space in 1960, Hans Kampffmeyer, the head of the social democratic planning department developed the concept of decentralising the inner city.

From this came a wave of property speculation, numerous nineteenth century building were demolished in the following years, their long established tenants driven out by rough methods.

The AGW put together a land register of monuments and buildings worthy of preservation and by 1970 obtained a modification ban for Westend.

At the same time the Frankfurter Häuserkampf (house squatting) developed, which was mainly driven by students at the University situated in the Westend.

The City-Hochhaus at Platz der Republik, in those days the highest skyscraper in Germany (and burned down in 1973 to the jubilation of several students) was however finished later.

Normally the people of Frankfurt say Westend is hemmed in by Reuterweg, the Bockenheimer Anlage at the Opernplatz, the Taunusanlage, Mainzer Landstraße up to Platz der Republik, Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, Senckenberganlage, a small piece of Zeppelinallee, then from the southern boundary of the Palmengarten, Siesmayerstraße, Grüneburgweg up to its bend in the south east and Fürstenbergerstraße to the corner of Reuterweg.

According to these the whole Messe (fair) grounds, except in the west border area of Bockenheim and in the east of the district up to Eschersheimer Landstraße, also belongs to Westend.

The skyscrapers which are located in the Westend line up from the Bockenheimer Anlage via the Taunusanlage and Mainzer Landstraße to Platz der Republik.

Initially these streets are Eschersheimer Landstraße, the Anlagenring and the Alleenring, which carry a majority of the rush-hour and Messe traffic.

Despite the high population density and the good traffic infrastructure the Westend has no hospitals, fire departments or police stations.

The full, representative facade, which captivates through the building of wings for the Physical Association and the Senckenberg library in the form of open arcades, is worth seeing.

The building, (known as "Haus der Völkerfreundschaft" to the locals) inaugurated in 1958 on the corner of Reuterweg and Staufenstraße, was supposed to bring the American culture in the form of books, films and music, closer to the people of Frankfurt.

Alongside is the Festhalle, a civic center, with a freely supported dome construction of glass and steel between stone corner-towers.

After World War II the IG Farben Building became the main location of the American armed forces in Europe.

After the war the synagogue was reinaugurated on 6 September 1950, this time by Orthodox Jews; it now houses the Yeshiva Gedolah Frankfurt.

The functional structure of the Suhrkamp publishing house is located in Lindenstraße, the architectural reputation of the residence corresponds inversely to its literary importance.