Main Market Square with Frauenkirche and the New Rathaus

The Main Market Square was still just a big construction site into the 1960s. Installing new underground flood tunnels improved the flood protection system that was first built in 1909. City planners took advantage of the moment for necessary renovations, but also put forward ideas that sound ridiculous today – such as moving the "Schöner Brunnen" somewhere else. Yet exactly that fountain is a kind of "hinge" that performs an important urban design function, guiding the gaze from the Frauenkirche to the Imperial Castle. From today's vantage point, adopting the plaza's original layout proves to have been a thoroughly successful choice.