We are looking at flights for an October trip to the Czech Republic,Austria and Germany. We are thinking of flying out of Newark instead of JFK to Prague (Lufthansa), but the connection in Dusseldorf is only an hour. I am thinking that there is no way we can clear German customs and make that connection, even though flights from the NY airports always have an extra hour built into the flight time for ground delays. Our other option is out of JFK with a 3 hour connection in FRA, which I have heard is a nightmare airport.
Any insight on either airport would be helpful. Thanks.

When you have 3 hours, changing planes is no big deal in Frankfurt.
While DUS is a smaller airport, it can also involve some walking to your connecting gate and would be a nightmare in just 1 hour.

FRA is not such a nightmare - it is very big, but extremely well-organised. I would think 3 hours would be more than enough to make a connection in Frankfurt.

Lavandula

Definitely do 3 hours in FRA - 1 hour anyplace is scary.

Thanks for your replies!