Whenever I cycled through Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel, the part of the city directly opposite the main railway station, I used to find it disturbing and fascinating at the same time. There are junkies shooting up openly on the pavement as well as hipsters sipping espressos at trendy cafes. You see uber-cool restaurants and cheap chain stores, luxury apartments and brassy sex shops. Some houses are really stylish, others rather dilapidated.

Recently, I joined a guided tour of this part of town to see it from another perspective -the one of a homeless person. Thomas Adam, a man in his late 50ies, lived on the streets of Bahnhofviertel for more than ten years when he was an alcoholic.
Now he is a tour guide and he shows Frankfurters as well as tourists parts of Bahnhofsviertel, where he used to sleep rough and beg for money, where he bought booze and cheap food, where he found a rich sponsor who gave him a few hundreds euros – and the place where he finally found help and the strength to overcome his addiction.