Frankfurt


Frankfurt is a metropolis and the largest city of the German state of Hesse. Its 753,056 inhabitants make it the fifth-largest city in Germany. On the River Main, it forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring city of Offenbach am Main and its urban area has a population of 2.3 million. The city is at the centre of the larger Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.5 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr Region. Frankfurt's central business district lies about northwest of the geographic centre of the EU at Gadheim, Lower Franconia. Like France and Franconia, the city is named after the Franks. Frankfurt is the largest city in the Rhine Franconian dialect area.
Frankfurt was a city state, the Free City of Frankfurt, for nearly five centuries and was one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire, as a site of imperial coronations; it lost its sovereignty upon the collapse of the empire in 1806, regained it in 1815 and then lost it again in 1866, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. It has been part of the state of Hesse since 1945. Frankfurt is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, with half of its population, and a majority of its young people, having a migration background. A quarter of the population consists of foreign nationals, including many expatriates.
Frankfurt is a global hub for commerce, culture, education, tourism and transportation, and rated as an "alpha world city" according to GaWC. It is the site of many global and European corporate headquarters. Frankfurt Airport is among the world's busiest. Frankfurt is one of the major financial centres of the European continent, with the headquarters of the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, KfW, Commerzbank, several cloud and fintech startups and other institutes. Automotive, technology and research, services, consulting, media and creative industries complement the economic base. Frankfurt's DE-CIX is the world's largest internet exchange point. Messe Frankfurt is one of the world's largest trade fairs. Major fairs include the Music Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest book fair.
Frankfurt is home to influential educational institutions, including the Goethe University, the UAS, the FUMPA and graduate schools like the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Its renowned cultural venues include the concert hall Alte Oper, Europe's largest English theatre and many museums. Frankfurt's skyline is shaped by some of Europe's tallest skyscrapers. The city is also characterised by various green areas and parks, including the central Wallanlagen, the City Forest, two major botanical gardens and the Frankfurt Zoo. In electronic music, Frankfurt has been a pioneering city since the 1980s, with renowned DJs including Sven Väth, Marc Trauner, Scot Project, Kai Tracid, and the clubs Dorian Gray, U60311, Omen and Cocoon. In sports, the city is known as the home of the top tier football club Eintracht Frankfurt, the Löwen Frankfurt ice hockey team, the basketball club Frankfurt Skyliners, the Frankfurt Marathon and the venue of Ironman Germany. It was also one of the host cities of the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

Distinctions

Frankfurt is the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is home to the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and several large commercial banks.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and accounts for more than 90 percent of the turnover in the German market.
In 2010, 63 national and 152 international banks had their registered offices in Frankfurt, including Germany's major banks, notably Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, KfW and Commerzbank, as well as 41 representative offices of international banks.
Frankfurt is considered a global city as listed by the GaWC group's 2012 inventory. Among global cities it was ranked 10th by the Global Power City Index 2011 and 11th by the Global City Competitiveness Index 2012. Among financial centres it was ranked 8th by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2013 and 9th in the 2013 Global Financial Centres Index.
Its central location within Germany and Europe makes Frankfurt a major air, rail and road transport hub. Frankfurt Airport is one of the world's busiest international airports by passenger traffic and the main hub for Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa. Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest rail stations in Europe and the busiest junction operated by Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway company, with 342 trains a day to domestic and European destinations. Frankfurter Kreuz, the Autobahn interchange close to the airport, is the most heavily used interchange in the EU, used by 320,000 cars daily. In 2011 human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Frankfurt as seventh in its annual 'Quality of Living' survey of cities around the world. According to The Economist cost-of-living survey, Frankfurt is Germany's most expensive city and the world's 10th most expensive.
Frankfurt has many high-rise buildings in the city centre, forming the Frankfurt skyline. It is one of the few cities in the European Union to have such a skyline, which is why Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan, a portmanteau of the local Main River and Manhattan. The other well known and obvious nickname is Bankfurt. Before World War II the city was globally noted for its unique old town with timber-framed buildings, the largest timber-framed old town in Europe. The Römer area was later rebuilt and is popular with visitors and for events such as Christmas markets. Other parts of the old town were reconstructed as part of the Dom-Römer Project from 2012 to 2018.

Etymology

Frankonovurd or Vadum Francorum were the first names mentioned in written records from 794. It transformed to Frankenfort during the Middle Ages and then to Franckfort and Franckfurth in the modern era. According to historian David Gans, the city was named 146 AD by its builder, a Frankish king named Zuna, who ruled over the province then known as Sicambri. He hoped thereby to perpetuate the name of his lineage. The name is derived from the Franconofurd of the Germanic tribe of the Franks; Furt where the river was shallow enough to be crossed on foot.
By the 19th century, the name Frankfurt had been established as the official spelling. The older English spelling of Frankfort is now rarely seen in reference to Frankfurt am Main, although more than a dozen other towns and cities, mainly in the United States, use this spelling.
The suffix am Main has been used regularly since the 14th century. In English, the city's full name of Frankfurt am Main means "Frankfurt on the Main". Frankfurt is located on an ancient ford on the Main River. As a part of early Franconia, the inhabitants were the early Franks, thus the city's name reveals its legacy as "the ford of the Franks on the Main".
Among English speakers, the city is commonly known simply as Frankfurt, but Germans occasionally call it by its full name to distinguish it from the other German city of Frankfurt an der Oder in the Land of Brandenburg on the Polish border.
The city district Bonames has a name probably dating back to Roman times, thought to be derived from .
The common abbreviations for the city, primarily used in railway services and on road signs, are Frankfurt , Frankfurt , Frankfurt a. M., Frankfurt/Main or Frankfurt/M. The common abbreviation for the name of the city is "FFM". Also in use is "FRA", the IATA code for Frankfurt Airport.

History

Early history and Holy Roman Empire

were established in the area of the Römer, probably in the first century. Nida was also a Roman civitas capital.
Alemanni and Franks lived there, and by 794, Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd was first mentioned.
Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. From 855, the German kings and emperors were elected and crowned in Aachen. From 1562, the kings and emperors were crowned in Frankfurt, initiated for Maximilian II. This tradition ended in 1792, when Franz II was elected. His coronation was deliberately held on Bastille Day, 14 July, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. The elections and coronations took place in St. Bartholomäus Cathedral, known as the Kaiserdom, or its predecessors.
The Frankfurter Messe was first mentioned in 1150. In 1240, Emperor Friedrich II granted an imperial privilege to its visitors, meaning they would be protected by the empire. The fair became particularly important when similar fairs in French Beaucaire lost attraction around 1380. Book trade fairs began in 1478.
In 1372, Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt, i.e., directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.
In 1585, Frankfurt traders established a system of exchange rates for the various currencies that were circulating to prevent cheating and extortion. Therein lay the early roots for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Frankfurt managed to remain neutral during the Thirty Years' War, but suffered from the bubonic plague that refugees brought to the city. After the war, Frankfurt regained its wealth. In the late 1770s the theatre principal Abel Seyler was based in Frankfurt, and established the city's theatrical life.

Impact of French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars

Following the French Revolution, Frankfurt was occupied or bombarded several times by French troops. It remained a free city until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1805/6. In 1806, it became part of the principality of Aschaffenburg under the Fürstprimas, Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg. This meant that Frankfurt was incorporated into the confederation of the Rhine. In 1810, Dalberg adopted the title of a Grand Duke of Frankfurt. Napoleon intended to make his adopted son Eugène de Beauharnais, already Prince de Venise, Grand Duke of Frankfurt after Dalberg's death. The Grand Duchy remained a short episode lasting from 1810 to 1813, when the military tide turned in favour of the Anglo-Prussian lead allies that overturned the Napoleonic order. Dalberg abdicated in favour of Eugène de Beauharnais, which of course was only a symbolic action, as the latter effectively never ruled after the ruin of the French armies and Frankfurt's takeover by the allies.

Frankfurt as a fully sovereign state

After Napoleon's final defeat and abdication, the Congress of Vienna dissolved the grand-duchy and Frankfurt became a fully sovereign city state with a republican form of government. Frankfurt entered the newly founded German Confederation as a free city, becoming the seat of its Bundestag, the confederal parliament where the nominally presiding Habsburg Emperor of Austria was represented by an Austrian "presidential envoy".
After the ill-fated revolution of 1848, Frankfurt was the seat of the first democratically elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Parliament, which met in the Frankfurter Paulskirche and was opened on 18 May 1848. The institution failed in 1849 when the Prussian king, Frederick William IV, declared that he would not accept "a crown from the gutter". In the year of its existence, the assembly developed a common constitution for a unified Germany, with the Prussian king as its monarch.

Frankfurt after the loss of sovereignty

Frankfurt lost its independence after the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 when Prussia annexed several smaller states, among them the Free City of Frankfurt. The Prussian administration incorporated Frankfurt into its province of Hesse-Nassau. The Prussian occupation and annexation was perceived as a great injustice in Frankfurt, which retained its distinct western European, urban and cosmopolitan character. The formerly independent towns of Bornheim and Bockenheim were incorporated in 1890.
In 1914, the citizens founded the University of Frankfurt, later named Goethe University Frankfurt. This marked the only civic foundation of a university in Germany; today it is one of Germany's largest.
From 6 April to 17 May 1920, following military intervention to put down the Ruhr uprising, Frankfurt was occupied by French troops. The French claimed that Articles 42 to 44 of the peace treaty of Versailles concerning the demilitarisation of the Rhineland had been broken. In 1924, Ludwig Landmann became the first Jewish mayor of the city, and led a significant expansion during the following years. During the Nazi era, the synagogues of the city were destroyed.
Frankfurt was severely bombed in World War II. About 5,500 residents were killed during the raids, and the once-famous medieval city centre, by that time the largest in Germany, was almost completely destroyed. It became a ground battlefield on 26 March 1945, when the Allied advance into Germany was forced to take the city in contested urban combat that included a river assault. The 5th Infantry Division and the 6th Armored Division of the United States Army captured Frankfurt after several days of intense fighting, and it was declared largely secure on 29 March 1945.
After the end of the war, Frankfurt became a part of the newly founded state of Hesse, consisting of the old Hesse- and the Prussian Hesse provinces. The city was part of the American Zone of Occupation of Germany. The Military Governor for the United States Zone and the United States High Commissioner for Germany had their headquarters in the IG Farben Building, intentionally left undamaged by the Allies' wartime bombardment.
Frankfurt was the original choice for the provisional capital city of the newly founded state of West Germany in 1949. The city constructed a parliament building that was never used for its intended purpose. In the end, Konrad Adenauer, the first postwar Chancellor, preferred the town of Bonn, for the most part because it was close to his hometown, but also because many other prominent politicians opposed the choice of Frankfurt out of concern that Frankfurt would be accepted as the permanent capital, thereby weakening the West German population's support for a reunification with East Germany and the eventual return of the capital to Berlin.
Postwar reconstruction took place in a sometimes simple modern style, thus changing Frankfurt's architectural face. A few landmark buildings were reconstructed historically, albeit in a simplified manner. The collection of historically significant Cairo Genizah documents of the Municipal Library was destroyed by the bombing. According to Arabist and Genizah scholar S.D. Goitein, "not even handlists indicating its contents have survived."
The end of the war marked Frankfurt's comeback as Germany's leading financial centre, mainly because Berlin, now a city divided into four sectors, could no longer rival it. In 1948, the allies founded the Bank deutscher Länder, the forerunner of Deutsche Bundesbank. Following this decision, more financial institutions were re-established, e.g. Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. In the 1950s, Frankfurt Stock Exchange regained its position as the country's leading stock exchange.
Frankfurt also re-emerged as Germany's transportation centre and Frankfurt Airport became Europe's second-busiest airport behind London Heathrow Airport in 1961.
During the 1970s, the city created one of Europe's most efficient underground transportation systems. That system includes a suburban rail system linking outlying communities with the city centre, and a deep underground light rail system with smaller coaches also capable of travelling above ground on rails.
In 1998, the European Central Bank was founded in Frankfurt, followed by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and European Systemic Risk Board in 2011.

Geography

Frankfurt is the largest city in the federated state of Hesse in the south-western part of Germany.

Site

Frankfurt is located on both sides of the Main River, south-east of the Taunus mountain range. The southern part of the city contains the Frankfurt City Forest, Germany's largest city forest. The city area is and extends over east to west and north to south. The city centre is north of the River Main in Altstadt district and the surrounding Innenstadt district. The geographical centre is in Bockenheim district near Frankfurt West station.
Frankfurt is the centre of the densely populated Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region with a population of 5.5 million. Other important cities in the region are Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Offenbach am Main, Hanau, Aschaffenburg, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Rüsselsheim, Wetzlar and Marburg.

Districts

The city is divided into 46 city districts, which are in turn divided into 121 city boroughs and 448 electoral districts. The 46 city districts combine into 16 area districts, which each have a district committee and chairperson.
The largest city district by population and area is Sachsenhausen, while the smallest is Altstadt, Frankfurt's historical center. Three larger city districts are divided for administrative purposes into a northern and a southern part, respectively a western and an eastern part, but are generally considered as one city district.
Some larger housing areas are often falsely called city districts, even by locals, like Nordweststadt, Goldstein, Riedberg and Europaviertel. The Bankenviertel, Frankfurt's financial district, is also not an administrative city district.
Many city districts are incorporated suburbs, or were previously independent cities, such as Höchst. Some like Nordend and Westend arose during the rapid growth of the city in the Gründerzeit following the Unification of Germany, while others were formed from territory which previously belonged to other city, such as Dornbusch and Riederwald.

History of incorporations

Until the year 1877 the city's territory consisted of the present-day inner-city districts of Altstadt, Innenstadt, Bahnhofsviertel, Gutleutviertel, Gallus, Westend, Nordend, Ostend and Sachsenhausen.
Bornheim was part of an administrative district called Landkreis Frankfurt, before becoming part of the city on 1 January 1877, followed by Bockenheim on 1 April 1895. Seckbach, Niederrad and Oberrad followed on 1 July 1900. The Landkreis Frankfurt was finally dispersed on 1 April 1910, and therefore Berkersheim, Bonames, Eckenheim, Eschersheim, Ginnheim, Hausen, Heddernheim, Niederursel, Praunheim, Preungesheim and Rödelheim joined the City. In the same year a new city district, Riederwald, was created on territory that had formerly belonged to Seckbach and Ostend.
On 1 April 1928 the City of Höchst became part of Frankfurt, as well as its city districts Sindlingen, Unterliederbach and Zeilsheim. Simultaneously the Landkreis Höchst was dispersed with its member cities either joining Frankfurt or joining the newly established Landkreis of Main-Taunus-Kreis.
Dornbusch became a city district in 1946. It was created on territory that had formerly belonged to Eckenheim and Ginnheim.
On 1 August 1972 Hesse's smaller suburbs of Harheim, Kalbach, Nieder-Erlenbach, and Nieder-Eschbach became districts while other neighbouring suburbs chose to join the Main-Taunus-Kreis, the Landkreis Offenbach, the Kreis Groß-Gerau, the Hochtaunuskreis, the Main-Kinzig-Kreis or the Wetteraukreis.
Bergen-Enkheim was the last suburb to become part of Frankfurt on 1 January 1977.
Flughafen became an official city district in 1979. It covers the area of Frankfurt Airport that had belonged to Sachsenhausen and the neighbouring city of Mörfelden-Walldorf.
Frankfurt's youngest city district is Frankfurter Berg. It was part of Bonames until 1996.
Kalbach was officially renamed Kalbach-Riedberg in 2006 because of the large residential housing development in the area known as Riedberg.

Neighbouring districts and cities

To the west Frankfurt borders the administrative district of Main-Taunus-Kreis with towns such as Hattersheim am Main, Kriftel, Hofheim am Taunus, Kelkheim, Liederbach am Taunus, Sulzbach, Schwalbach am Taunus and Eschborn; to the northwest the Hochtaunuskreis with Steinbach, Oberursel and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe; to the north the Wetteraukreis with Karben and Bad Vilbel; to the northeast the Main-Kinzig-Kreis with Niederdorfelden and Maintal; to the southeast the city of Offenbach am Main; to the south the Kreis Offenbach with Neu-Isenburg and to the southwest the Kreis Groß-Gerau with Mörfelden-Walldorf, Rüsselsheim and Kelsterbach.
Together with these towns Frankfurt forms a contiguous built-up urban area called Stadtregion Frankfurt which is not an official administrative district. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.3 million in 2010 and is therefore the 13th largest urban area in the European Union.

Climate

Frankfurt has a temperate-oceanic climate. Its average annual temperature is, with monthly mean temperatures ranging from in January to in July.
Climate data for Frankfurt-------------
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Mean daily daylight hours9.010.012.014.015.016.016.014.013.011.09.08.012.3
Average Ultraviolet index1134676642113.5
Source: Weather Atlas-------------

Demographics

Population

With a population of 732,688 within its administrative boundaries and of 2,300,000 in the actual urban area, Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.
Central Frankfurt has been a Großstadt since 1875. With 414,576 residents in 1910, it was the ninth largest city in Germany and the number of inhabitants grew to 553,464 before World War II. After the war, at the end of the year 1945, the number had dropped to 358,000. In the following years, the population grew again and reached an all-time-high of 691,257 in 1963. It dropped again to 592,411 in 1986 but has increased since then. According to the demographic forecasts for central Frankfurt, the city will have a population up to 825,000 within its administrative boundaries in 2020 and more than 2.5 million inhabitants in its urban area.
During the 1970s, the state government of Hesse wanted to include the entire urban area into its administrative boundaries. This would have made Frankfurt officially the second largest city in Germany after Berlin with up to 3 million inhabitants. However, because local authorities did not agree the administrative territory is still much smaller than its actual urban area.
No
City district
Area in km²
Population
Foreign nationals
Foreign nationals in %
Area district
1Altstadt0.513.4751.12232.301 – Innenstadt I
2Innenstadt1.526.5772.52938.501 – Innenstadt I
3Bahnhofsviertel0.532.12581038.101 – Innenstadt I
4Westend-Süd2.4717.2883.44519.902 – Innenstadt II
5Westend-Nord1.678.8542.18424.702 – Innenstadt II
6Nordend-West3.0728.8085.16217.903 – Innenstadt III
7Nordend-Ost1.6926.6195.58021.003 – Innenstadt III
8Ostend5.4026.9557.21326.804 – Bornheim/Ostend
9Bornheim2.6627.1846.24023.004 – Bornheim/Ostend
10Gutleutviertel2.205.8431.95333.401 – Innenstadt I
11Gallus4.2226.71611.01241.201 – Innenstadt I
12Bockenheim8.0434.7409.03426.002 – Innenstadt II
13Sachsenhausen-Nord4.2430.3746.50721.405 – Süd
14Sachsenhausen-Süd34.9126.1144.84718.605 – Süd
15Flughafen20.00211146.605 – Süd
16Oberrad2.7412.8283.11324.305 – Süd
17Niederrad2.9322.9546.56928.605 – Süd
18Schwanheim17.7320.1623.53217.506 – West
19Griesheim4.9022.6488.02935.506 – West
20Rödelheim5.1517.8414.86327.307 – Mitte-West
21Hausen1.267.1782.13529.707 – Mitte-West
22/23Praunheim4.5515.7613.19720.307 – Mitte-West
24Heddernheim2.4916.4433.19419.408 – Nord-West
25Niederursel7.2216.3943.67122.408 – Nord-West
26Ginnheim2.7316.4444.02424.509 – Mitte-Nord
27Dornbusch2.3818.5113.48218.809 – Mitte-Nord
28Eschersheim3.3414.8082.65717.909 – Mitte-Nord
29Eckenheim2.2314.2773.67425.710 – Nord-Ost
30Preungesheim3.7413.5683.44225.410 – Nord-Ost
31Bonames1.246.3621.28820.210 – Nord-Ost
32Berkersheim3.183.40059217.410 – Nord-Ost
33Riederwald1.044.9111.14223.311 – Ost
34Seckbach8.0410.1941.96919.311 – Ost
35Fechenheim7.1816.0615.63535.111 – Ost
36Höchst4.7313.8885.27938.006 – West
37Nied3.8217.8295.22429.306 – West
38Sindlingen3.989.0322.07623.006 – West
39Zeilsheim5.4711.9842.55521.306 – West
40Unterliederbach5.8514.3503.51124.506 – West
41Sossenheim5.9715.8534.23526.706 – West
42Nieder-Erlenbach8.344.62949610.713 – Nieder-Erlenbach
43Kalbach-Riedberg6.908.4821.27915.112 – Kalbach-Riedberg
44Harheim5.024.29444610.414 – Harheim
45Nieder-Eschbach6.3511.4991.97817.215 – Nieder-Eschbach
46Bergen-Enkheim12.5417.9542.76415.416 – Bergen-Enkheim
47Frankfurter Berg2.167.1491.71524.010 – Nord-Ost
Frankfurt am Main248.33679.571165.41824.3-

Immigration/Foreign Nationals

According to data from the city register of residents, 51.2% of the population had a migration background as of 2015, which means that a person or at least one or both of their parents was born with foreign citizenship. For the first time, a majority of the city residents had an at least part non-German background. Moreover, three of four children in the city under the age of six had immigrant backgrounds. and 27.7% of residents had a foreign citizenship.
According to statistics, 46.7% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from other countries in The European Union, 24.5% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from European countries that are not part of the EU, 15.7% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from Asia, 7.3% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from Africa, 3.4% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from North America, 0.2% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from Australia and Zealandia, 2.3% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from South America and 1.1% of immigrants in Frankfurt come from The Pacific Island Nations. Because of this, the city is often considered to be a multicultural city and has been compared to New York City and London.

Religion

Frankfurt was historically a Protestant-dominated city. However, during the 19th century an increasing number of Catholics moved there. The Jewish community has a history dating back to Medieval times and has always ranked among the largest in Germany. Two synagogues operate there. Due to the growing immigration of people from Muslim countries beginning in the 1960s, Frankfurt has a large Muslim community. The Ahmadiyya Noor Mosque, constructed in 1959, is the city's largest mosque and the third largest in Germany.
, the largest Christian denominations were Catholicism and Protestantism, especially Lutheranism. Estimations put the share of Muslim inhabitants at approximately 12%. According to calculations based on census data for 21 countries of origin, the number of Muslim migrants in Frankfurt amounted to about 84,000 in 2011, making up 12.6 percent of the population. A large part of them was from Turkey and Morocco. Over 7,000 inhabitants were affiliated with the Jewish community, amounting to approximately 1% of the population.

Politics

Frankfurt is one of five independent district-free cities in Hesse, which means that it does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity, in this case it is not part of a Landkreis. The other four cities are the second to fifth largest cities in Hesse: Wiesbaden, Kassel, Darmstadt and Offenbach am Main. A kreisfreie Stadt has territorial sovereignty within its defined city limits.
In 1995 Petra Roth of the Christian Democratic Union became Lord Mayor, Frankfurt's municipal leader. In 2012, Peter Feldmann succeeded Roth as Lord Mayor. The CDU and the Alliance '90/The Greens formed the government.

International relations

Frankfurt is twinned with:

Partnerships

Partnerships and city friendships are a weaker form of cooperation than the sister city relationship, acting more like a fixed-term cooperation or limited to certain projects. Frankfurt has partnerships with the following cities:

Landmarks

Römer
Römer, the German word for Roman, is a complex of nine houses that form the Frankfurt city hall. The houses were acquired by the city council in 1405 from a wealthy merchant family. The middle house became the city hall and was later connected with its neighbours. The Kaisersaal is located on the upper floor and is where the newly crowned emperors held their banquets. The Römer was partially destroyed in World War II and later rebuilt. The surrounding square, the Römerberg, is named after the city hall.
The former Altstadt quarter between the Römer and the Frankfurt Cathedral was redeveloped as the Dom-Römer Quarter from 2012 to 2018, including 15 reconstructions of historical buildings that were destroyed during World War II.
Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral is not a cathedral, but the main Catholic church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew. The Gothic building was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this church, and from 1562 to 1792, Roman-German emperors were crowned there.
Since the 18th century, St. Bartholomew's has been called Dom, although it was never a bishop's seat. In 1867 it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in its present style. It was again partially destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the 1950s. Its height is 95 meters. The cathedral tower has a viewing platform open to the public at a height of 66 meters, accessed through a narrow spiral staircase with 386 steps.
St. Paul's Church
St. Paul's Church is a national historic monument in Germany because it was the seat of the first democratically elected parliament in 1848. It was established in 1789 as a Protestant church, but was not completed until 1833. Its importance has its roots in the Frankfurt Parliament, which met in the church during the revolutionary years of 1848/49 in order to write a constitution for a united Germany. The attempt failed because the monarchs of Prussia and Austria did not want to lose power. In 1849 Prussian troops ended the democratic experiment by force and the parliament dissolved. Afterwards, the building was used for church services again.
St. Paul's was partially destroyed in World War II, particularly its interior, which now has a modern appearance. It was quickly and symbolically rebuilt after the war; today it is used mainly for exhibitions and events.
Archäologischer Garten Frankfurt
The Archaeological Garden contains small parts of the oldest recovered buildings: an ancient Roman settlement and the Frankfurt Royal Palace from the 6th century. The garden is located between the Römerberg and the Cathedral. It was discovered after World War II when the area was heavily bombed and later partly rebuilt. The remains were preserved and are now open to the public. There are plans underway to construct a building on top of the garden but anyhow it is decided that the garden will stay open to the public.
Haus Wertheim
Wertheim House is the only timbered house in the Altstadt district that survived the heavy bombings of World War II undamaged. It is located on the Römerberg next to the Historical Museum.
Saalhof
The Saalhof is the oldest conserved building in the Altstadt district and dates to the 12th century. It was used as an exhibition hall by Dutch clothiers when trade fairs were held during the 14th and 15th century. The Saalhof was partly destroyed in World War II and later rebuilt. Today it serves as a part of the Historical Museum.
Eiserner Steg
The Eiserner Steg is a pedestrian-only bridge across the Main that connects Römerberg and Sachsenhausen. It was built in 1868 and was the second bridge to cross the river. After World War II, when it was blown up by the Wehrmacht, it was quickly rebuilt in 1946. Today some 10,000 people cross the bridge on a daily basis.
, now a concert hall, at Opernplatz
Alte Oper
The Alte Oper is a former opera house, hence the name "Old Opera". The opera house was built in 1880 by architect Richard Lucae. It was one of the major opera houses in Germany until it was heavily damaged in World War II. Until the late 1970s, it was a ruin, nicknamed "Germany's most beautiful ruin". Former Frankfurt Lord Mayor Rudi Arndt called for blowing it up in the 1960s, which earned him the nickname "Dynamite-Rudi".
Public pressure led to its refurbishment and reopening in 1981. Today, it functions as a famous concert hall, while operas are performed at the "new" Frankfurt Opera. The inscription on the frieze of the Alte Oper says: "Dem Wahren, Schönen, Guten".
Eschenheimer Turm
The Eschenheim Tower was erected at the beginning of the 15th century and served as a city gate as part of late-medieval fortifications. It is the oldest and most unaltered building in the Innenstadt district.
St. Catherine's Church
St. Catherine's Church is the largest Protestant church, dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria, a martyred early Christian saint. It is located in the city centre at the entrance to the Zeil, the central pedestrian shopping street.
Hauptwache
Although today Hauptwache is mostly associated with the inner-city underground train station of the same name, the name originates from a baroque building on the square above the station. The Hauptwache building was constructed in 1730 and was used as a prison, therefore the name that translates as "main guard-house". Today the square surrounding the building is also called "Hauptwache". It is situated in the city centre opposite to St. Catherine's Church and houses a famous café.
Central Station
Frankfurt Central Station, which opened in 1888, was built as the central train station for Frankfurt to replace three smaller train stations in the city centre and to boost the needed capacity for travellers. It was constructed as a terminus station and was the largest train station in Europe by floor area until 1915 when Leipzig Central Station was opened. Its three main halls were constructed in a neorenaissance-style, while the later enlargement with two outer halls in 1924 was constructed in neoclassic-style.
Frankfurter Hof
The Frankfurter Hof is a landmarked hotel in the city centre at Kaiserplatz, built from 1872 to 1876. It is part of Steigenberger Hotels group and is considered the city's most prestigious.
St. Leonhard
St. Leonhard, on the Main close to the bridge Eiserner Steg, is a Catholic late Gothic hall church, derived from a Romanesque style basilica beginning in 1425. It is the only one of nine churches in the Old Town that survived World War II almost undamaged. The parish serves the English-speaking community. The church has been under restoration since 2011.

20th-century architecture

Frankfurt is one of the few European cities with a significant number of skyscrapers,. It hosts 17 out of Germany's 18 skyscrapers. Most skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings are located in the financial district near the city centre, around the trade fair premises and at Mainzer Landstraße between Opernplatz and Platz der Republik, which connects the two areas.
The 17 skyscrapers are:
Other high-rise buildings include:

History of high-rise buildings

For centuries, St. Bartholomeus's Cathedral was the tallest structure. The first building to exceed the 95-metre-high cathedral was not an office building but a grain silo, the Henninger Turm, built from 1959 to 1961.
The first high-rise building boom came in the 1970s when Westend Gate and Silberturm were constructed and became the tallest buildings in Germany with a height of 159.3 metres and 166.3 metres, respectively. Around the same time, Frankfurter Büro Center and City-Haus were constructed at Mainzer Landstraße and Eurotower and Garden Tower were constructed in the financial district.
None of the buildings constructed during the 1980s surpassed Silberturm. The most famous buildings from this decade are the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers at Taunusanlage, both 155.0 metres tall.
The 1990s featured a second wave. Messeturm, built on the trade fair site, reached a height of 256.5 metres and became the tallest building in Europe by 1991. It was overtaken by the Commerzbank Tower in 1997. Other tall buildings from this decade are Westendstrasse 1, Main Tower and Trianon.
In 21st-century Frankfurt, more high-rise buildings and skyscrapers emerged, but none have surpassed Commerzbank Tower.

Other tall structures

With a large forest, many parks, the Main riverbanks and the two botanical gardens, Frankfurt is considered a "green city": More than 50 percent of the area within the city limits are protected green areas.

Museums

With more than 30 museums, Frankfurt has one of the largest variety of museums in Europe. 20 museums are part of the Museumsufer, located on the front row of both sides of the Main riverbank or nearby, which was created on an initiative by cultural politician Hilmar Hoffmann.
Ten museums are located on the southern riverbank in Sachsenhausen between the Eiserner Steg and the Friedensbrücke. The street itself, Schaumainkai, is partially closed to traffic on Saturdays for Frankfurt's largest flea market.
Two museums are located on the northern riverbank:
Not directly located on the northern riverbank in the Altstadt district are:
Another important museum is located in the Westend district:
Other museums are the Dialogmuseum in the Ostend district, Eintracht Frankfurt Museum at Commerzbank-Arena, Explora Museum+Wissenschaft+Technik in the Nordend district, the Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum in the Gallus district, the Verkehrsmuseum Frankfurt in the Schwanheim district, the Hammer Museum in the Bahnhofsviertel district and the Geldmuseum der Deutschen Bundesbank in the Ginnheim district.

Performing arts

Music

and Trance music originated in Frankfurt. In 1989 German producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti formed the Snap! project. Snap! songs combined Rap and Soul vocals adding rhythm by using computer technology and mixing electronic sounds, bass and drums. By doing so a new genre was born: Eurodance. In the early 1990s, DJs including Sven Väth and DJ DAG first played a harder, deeper style of acid house that became popular worldwide over the next decade as Trance music. Some of the early and most influential Eurodance, Trance and Techno acts, e.g., La Bouche, Jam and Spoon, Magic Affair, Culture Beat, Snap!, Dance 2 Trance, Oliver Lieb and Hardfloor, and record labels such as Harthouse and Eye Q, were based in the city in the early 1990s.

Venues

Frankfurt is home to two major botanical gardens.
Frankfurt offers a variety of restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs. Clubs concentrate in and around the city centre and in the Ostend district, mainly close to Hanauer Landstraße. Restaurants, bars and pubs concentrate in Sachsenhausen, Nordend, Bornheim and Bockenheim.
One of the main venues of the early Trance music sound was the :de:Omen |Omen nightclub. Another popular disco club of the 1980-1990s and a hotspot for Techno/Trance music was the Dorian Gray, located within Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport. Because of the location at the airport the club had no restrictions regarding opening hours. The club had to close at the end of 2000 because of stricter fire safety regulations. Also notable for its extraordinary design was Coocoon Club in Fechenheim which opened in 2004 was and voted best techno club of the year by music magazines "Groove" and "Raveline" in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. It closed in 2012.

Airports

Frankfurt Airport

The city can be accessed from around the world via Frankfurt Airport located southwest of the city centre. The airport has four runways and serves 265 non-stop destinations. Run by transport company Fraport it ranks among the world's busiest airports by passenger traffic and is the busiest airport by cargo traffic in Europe. The airport also serves as a hub for Condor and as the main hub for German flag carrier Lufthansa. It is the busiest airport in Europe in terms of cargo traffic, and the fourth busiest in Europe in terms of passenger traffic behind London Heathrow Airport, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport in 2018 was 69,510,269 passengers.
A third terminal is being constructed. The third terminal will increase the capacity of the airport to over 90 million passengers per year.
The airport can be reached by car or bus and has two railway stations, one for regional and one for long-distance traffic. The S-Bahn lines S8 and S9 departing at the regional station take 10–15 minutes from the airport to Frankfurt Central Station and onwards to the city centre, the IC and ICE trains departing at the long-distance station take 10 minutes to Frankfurt Central Station.

Frankfurt Hahn Airport

Despite the name, Frankfurt Hahn Airport is situated approximately from the city in Lautzenhausen. Hahn Airport is a major base for low-cost carrier Ryanair. This airport can only be reached by car or bus. An hourly bus service runs from Frankfurt Central Station, taking just over 2 hours. Passenger traffic at Hahn Airport in 2010 was 3.5 million.

Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport

is a busy general aviation airport located south-east of Frankfurt Airport, near Egelsbach.

Roads

Frankfurt is a traffic hub for the German motorway system. The Frankfurter Kreuz is an Autobahn interchange close to the airport, where the Bundesautobahn 3, Cologne to Würzburg, and the Bundesautobahn 5, Basel to Hanover, meet. With approximately 320,000 cars passing through it every day it is Europe's most heavily used interchange. The Bundesautobahn 66 connects Frankfurt with Wiesbaden in the west and Fulda in the east. The Bundesautobahn 661 is mainly a commuter motorway which starts in the south, runs through the eastern part and ends in the north. The Bundesautobahn 648 is a very short motorway in the western part which primarily serves as a fast connection between the A 66 and the Frankfurt Trade Fair. The A5 in the west, the A3 in the south and the A661 in the north-east form a ring road around the inner city districts and define a Low-emission zone, meaning that vehicles have to meet certain emission criteria to enter the zone.
The streets of central Frankfurt are usually congested with cars during rush hour. Some areas, especially around the shopping streets Zeil, Goethestraße and Freßgass, are pedestrian-only streets. Car parks are located throughout the city and especially in the city centre.

Railway stations

Frankfurt Central Station

is the largest railway station in Germany by railway traffic. By daily passenger volume, it ranks second together with Munich Central Station after Hamburg Central Station. It is located between the Gallus, the Gutleutviertel and the Bahnhofsviertel district, not far away from the trade fair and the financial district. It serves as a major hub for long-distance trains and regional trains as well as for Frankfurt's public transport system. It is a stop for most of ICE high speed lines, making it Germany's most important ICE station. ICE Trains to London via the Channel Tunnel were planned for 2013. All Rhine-Main S-Bahn lines, two U-Bahn lines, several tram and bus lines stop there. Regional and local trains are integrated in the Public transport system Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, the second largest integrated public transport systems in the world, after Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg.

Frankfurt Airport stations

Frankfurt Airport can be accessed by two railway stations: Frankfurt Airport long-distance station is only for long-distance traffic and connects the airport to the main rail network, with most of the ICE services using the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line. The long-distance station is located outside the actual airport ground but has a connecting bridge for pedestrians to Terminal 1, concourse B. Frankfurt Airport regional station is for local S-Bahn trains and regional trains. The regional station is located within Terminal 1, concourse B.

Frankfurt South station

Frankfurt's third long-distance station is Frankfurt South station, located in Sachsenhausen. It is an important destination for local trains and trams and the terminal stop for four U-Bahn lines and four S-Bahn lines.

Messe stations

The Frankfurt Trade Fair offers two railway stations: Messe station is for local S-Bahn trains and is located at the centre of the trade fair premises while Festhalle/Messe station is served by U-Bahn line U4 and is located at the north-east corner of the premises.

Konstablerwache station and Hauptwache station

Two other major railway stations in the city centre are Konstablerwache and Hauptwache, located on each end of the Zeil. They are the main stations to change from east-to-west-bound S-Bahn trains to north-to-south-bound U-Bahn trains. Konstablerwache station is the second-busiest railway station regarding daily passenger volume after the central station. The third-busiest railway station is Hauptwache station.

Coach stations

There are three stations for intercity bus services in Frankfurt: one at the south side of the Central Station, one at the Terminal 2 of the airport and another one at Stephanstraße.

Public transport

The city has two rapid transit systems: the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn, as well as an above-ground tram system. Information about the U- and S-Bahn can be found on the website of the RMV.

S-Bahn

Nine S-Bahn lines connect Frankfurt with the densely populated Rhine Main Region. Most routes have at least 15-minute service during the day, either by one line running every 15 minutes, or by two lines servicing one route at a 30-minute interval. All lines, except line S7, run through the Frankfurt city tunnel and serve the stations Ostendstraße, Konstablerwache, Hauptwache, Taunusanlage and Frankfurt Central Station. When leaving the city the S-Bahn travels above ground. It provides access to the trade fair, the airport, the stadium and nearby cities such as Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Rüsselsheim, Hanau, Offenbach am Main, Oberursel, Bad Homburg, Kronberg, Friedberg and smaller towns that are on the way.
The S8/S9 runs 24/7.

U-Bahn

The U-Bahn has nine lines serving Frankfurt and the larger suburbs of Bad Homburg and Oberursel in the north. The trains that run on the U-Bahn are in fact light rail as many lines travel along a track in the middle of the street instead of underground further from the city centre. The minimum service interval is 2.5 minutes, although the usual pattern is that each line runs at 7.5 to 10-minute intervals, which produce between 3 and 5-minute intervals on city centre tracks shared by more than one line.

Tram

Frankfurt has ten tram lines, with trams arriving usually every 10 minutes. Many sections are served by two lines, combining to run at 5-minute intervals during rush-hour. Trams only run above ground and serve more stops than the U-Bahn or the S-Bahn.

Bus

A number of bus lines complete the Frankfurt public transport system. Night buses replace U-Bahn and tram services between 1:30 am and 3:30 am. The central junction for the night bus service is Konstablerwache in the city centre, where all night bus lines start and end.

Taxis

s can usually be found outside the major S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations, at the central station, the south station, the airport, the trade fair and in the crowded inner-city shopping streets. The common way to obtain a taxi is to either call a taxi operator or to go to a taxi rank. However, although not the norm, one can hail a passing taxi on the street.
Uber ceased operations in Frankfurt on 9 November 2015 after operating in the city for 18 months.

Bicycles

makes bicycles available for hire through their Call a Bike service. The bicycles are stationed all over the city, including at selected railway stations. They can easily be spotted because of their eye-catching silver-red colour. To rent a specific bike, riders either call a service number to get an unlock code or reserve the bike via the smartphone application. To return the bike, the rider locks it within a designated return area.
Nextbike also makes bicycles available for hire in Frankfurt. They are stationed all over the city. These can be spotted with their blue color scheme.
Cycle rickshaws, a type of tricycle designed to carry passengers in addition to the driver, are also available. These are allowed to operate in pedestrian-only areas and are therefore practical for sightseeing.
Frankfurt has a network of cycle routes. Many long-distance bike routes into the city have cycle tracks that are separate from motor vehicle traffic. A number of roads in the city centre are "bicycle streets" where the cyclist has the right of way and where motorised vehicles are only allowed access if they do not disrupt the cycle users. In addition, cyclists are allowed to ride many cramped one-way streets in both directions., 15 percent of citizens used bicycles.

Economy and business

Frankfurt is one of the world's most important financial centres and Germany's financial capital, followed by Munich. Frankfurt was ranked 8th at the International Financial Centers Development Index, 8th at the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, 9th at the Global Financial Centres Index, 10th at the Global Power City Index, 11th at the Global City Competitiveness Index, 12th at the Innovation Cities Index, 14th at the World City Survey and 23rd at the Global Cities Index.
The city's importance as a financial centre has risen since the eurozone crisis. Indications are the establishment of two institutions of the European System of Financial Supervisors in 2011 and the Single Supervisory Mechanism by which the European Central Bank was to assume responsibility for specific supervisory tasks related to the financial stability of the biggest and most important Eurozone banks.
According to an annual study by Cushman & Wakefield, the European Cities Monitor, Frankfurt has been one of the top three cities for international companies in Europe, after London and Paris, since the survey started in 1990. It is the only German city considered to be an alpha world city as listed by the Loughborough University group's 2010 inventory, which was a promotion from the group's 2008 inventory when it was ranked as an alpha minus world city.
With over 922 jobs per 1,000 inhabitants, Frankfurt has the highest concentration of jobs in Germany. On work days and Saturdays one million people commute from all over the Rhein-Main-Area.
The city is expected to benefit from international banks relocating jobs from London to Frankfurt as a result of Brexit to retain access to the EU market. Thus far, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc., Standard Chartered Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. announced they would move their EU headquarters to Frankfurt.

Central banks

Frankfurt is home to two important central banks: the German Bundesbank and the European Central Bank.

European Central Bank

The European Central Bank is one of the world's most important central banks. The ECB sets monetary policy for the Eurozone, consisting of 19 European Union member states that have adopted the Euro as their common currency. From 1998 the ECB Headquarters have been located in Frankfurt, first in the Eurotower at Willy-Brandt-Platz and in two other nearby high-rises. The new Seat of the European Central Bank in the Ostend district, consisting of the former wholesale market hall and a newly built 185-metre skyscraper, was completed in late 2014. The new building complex was designed to accommodate up to 2,300 ECB personnel. The location is a few kilometres away from the city centre and borders an industrial area as well as the Osthafen, It was primarily chosen because of its large premises which allows the ECB to install security arrangements without high fences.
The city honours the importance of the ECB by officially using the slogan "The City of the Euro" since 1998.

Deutsche Bundesbank

The Deutsche Bundesbank, located in Ginnheim, was established in 1957 as the central bank for the Federal Republic of Germany. Until the euro was introduced in 1999, the Deutsche Bundesbank was responsible for the monetary policy of Germany and for the German currency, the Deutsche Mark. The Bundesbank was greatly respected for its control of inflation through the second half of the 20th century. Today the Bundesbank is an integral part of the European System of Central Banks which is formed by all 28 European Union member states.

Commercial banks

In 2010, 63 national and 152 international banks had a registered office, including the headquarters of the major German banks, as well as 41 offices of international banks. Frankfurt is therefore known as Bankenstadt and nicknamed "Mainhattan" or "Bankfurt". 73,200 people were employed at banks in 2010.
Other major German banks include Frankfurter Volksbank, the second-largest Volksbank in Germany, Frankfurter Sparkasse and old-established private banks such as Bankhaus Metzler, Hauck & Aufhäuser and Delbrück Bethmann Maffei.
Many international banks have a registered or a representative office, e.g., Credit Suisse, UBS, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of China, Banco do Brasil, Itaú Unibanco Société Générale, BNP Paribas, SEB, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange began in the 9th century. By the 16th century Frankfurt had developed into an important European hub for trade fairs and financial services. Today the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is by far the largest in Germany, with a turnover of more than 90 percent of the German stock market and is the third-largest in Europe after the London Stock Exchange and the European branch of the NYSE Euronext. The most important stock market index is the DAX, the index of the 30 largest German business companies listed at the stock exchange. The stock exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which is itself listed in the DAX. Deutsche Börse also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and clearing company Clearstream. Trading takes place exclusively via the Xetra trading system, with redundant floor brokers taking on the role of market-makers on the new platform.
On 1 February 2012 European Commission blocked the proposed merger of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext. "The merger between Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext would have led to a near-monopoly in European financial derivatives worldwide. These markets are at the heart of the financial system and it is crucial for the whole European economy that they remain competitive. We tried to find a solution, but the remedies offered fell far short of resolving the concerns." European competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, said.
It is located in the city centre at the Börsenplatz. Deutsche Börse's headquarters are formally registered in Frankfurt but it moved most of its employees to a high-rise called "The Cube" in Eschborn in 2010, primarily due to significantly lower local corporate taxes.

Frankfurt Trade Fair

has the third-largest exhibition site in the world with a total of 578,000 square metres. The trade fair premises are located in the western part between Bockenheim, the Westend and the Gallus district. It houses ten exhibition halls with a total of 321,754 square meters of space and 96,078 square metres of outdoor space.
Hosted in Frankfurt are the Frankfurt Motor Show, the world's largest auto show, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest book fair, the Ambiente Frankfurt, the world's largest consumer goods fair, the Achema, the world's largest plant engineering fair, and many more like Paperworld, Christmasworld, Beautyworld, Tendence Lifestyle or Light+Building.
Messe Frankfurt GmbH, the owner and operator company, organized 87 exhibitions in 2010, 51 thereof in foreign countries. It is one of the largest trade fair companies with commercial activities in over 150 countries.

Messeturm

A landmark building of the trade fair is the Messeturm, which was the tallest building in Europe from 1991 to 1997. It is located on the north-east corner of the trade fair premises at the so-called city entrance. Despite the name it is not used for exhibition but serves as an office tower.

Aviation

is one of the busiest airports in the world and is also the single largest place of work in Germany with over 500 companies which employ 71,500 people.

Lufthansa

The largest company at Frankfurt Airport is Lufthansa, Germany's flag carrier and Europe's largest airline. Lufthansa employs 35,000 people in Frankfurt. The Lufthansa Aviation Center is the main operation base of Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport. The airport serves as Lufthansa's primary hub with 157 worldwide destinations. Lufthansa Cargo is based in Frankfurt and operates its largest cargo center at Frankfurt Airport. Lufthansa Flight Training is also based here.

Fraport

is the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport. It is the airport's second-largest employer. Fraport also operates other airports worldwide, e.g., King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima and Antalya Airport.

Condor

is a German airline and part of Thomas Cook Group, based at Frankfurt Airport.

Other industries

Accountancy and professional services

Three of the four largest international accountancy and professional services firms are present.
PricewaterhouseCoopers German headquarters are located at Tower 185. KPMG moved its European Headquarters to The Squaire. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are present, while Ernst & Young is located in Eschborn.

Credit rating agencies

The three major international credit rating agencies – Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch Ratings – have their German headquarters in Frankfurt.

Investment trust companies

DWS Investments is the largest investment trust company in Germany and manages €288 billion fund assets. It is one of the 10 largest investment trust companies in the world. Other large investment trust companies are Allianz Global Investors Europe, Union Investment and Deka Investmentfonds.

Management consultancies

Many of the largest international management consultancies are represented, including Arthur D. Little, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Booz & Company, Oliver Wyman, Bearing Point, Capgemini, Bain & Company and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Real estate services companies

Located in Frankfurt are the German headquarters of Jones Lang LaSalle and BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Law firms

Frankfurt has the highest concentration of lawyers in Germany, with one lawyer per 97 inhabitants in 2005.
Most of the large international law firms maintain offices, among them Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Bird & Bird, Clifford Chance, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Debevoise & Plimpton, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells, Jones Day, Latham & Watkins, Linklaters, Mayer Brown, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Norton Rose, Shearman & Sterling, Sidley Austin, SJ Berwin, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Sullivan & Cromwell, K&L Gates, Taylor Wessing and White & Case.

Advertising agencies

Although it is best known for its banks and financial institutions, Frankfurt is also a centre for media companies. Around 570 companies of the advertising industry and 270 public relations companies are there.
According to a ranking of German FOCUS magazine seven of the 48 largest advertising agencies in Germany are based in Frankfurt, including Havas, Dentsu, McCann-Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, and Publicis.

Food

Frankfurt is home to the German headquarters of Nestlé, the world's largest food company, located in Niederrad. Other important food companies are Ferrero SpA and Radeberger Gruppe KG, the largest private brewery group in Germany.

Automotive

The South-Korean automobile manufacturer Kia Motors moved its European headquarters to Frankfurt in 2007. In the same year Italian manufacturer Fiat opened its new German headquarters. The automotive supplier Continental AG has the headquarters and a major manufacturing plant of its Chassis & Safety division located in Frankfurt Rödelheim.

Construction

Some of the largest German construction companies have offices, e.g., Bilfinger Berger, Hochtief, Züblin and BAM Deutschland.

Property and real estate

Frankfurt has Germany's highest concentration of homeowners. This is partly attributed to the financial sector, but also to its cosmopolitan nature, with expatriates and immigrants representing one fourth of its population. For this reason Frankfurt's property market often operates differently than the rest of the country where the prices are generally flatter.

Other

Frankfurt is home to companies from the chemical, the transportation, the telecommunication and the energy industry. Some of the larger companies are:
Within Frankfurt's urban area are several important companies.
The business centre of Eschborn is located right at Frankfurt's city limits in the west and attracts businesses with significantly lower corporate taxes compared to Frankfurt. Major companies in Eschborn include Ernst & Young, Vodafone Germany, Randstad Holding and VR Leasing. Deutsche Börse moved most of its employees to Eschborn in 2010.
Rüsselsheim is internationally known for its automobile manufacturer Opel, one of the biggest automobile manufacturers in Germany. With 20,000 employees in 2003, Opel was one of the five largest employers in Hesse.
Offenbach am Main is home to the European headquarters of automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company, to the German headquarters of automobile manufacturer Honda, to Honeywell Germany and to Deutscher Wetterdienst, the central scientific agency that monitors weather and meteorological conditions over Germany.
Two DAX companies are located in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and Fresenius Medical Care. Other major companies are Hewlett-Packard, Bridgestone, Deutsche Leasing and Basler Versicherungen.
Kronberg im Taunus is home of the German headquarters of automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars as well as the German headquarters of Accenture.
Lufthansa Systems, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, is located in Kelsterbach.
LSG Sky Chefs, another subsidiary of Lufthansa, is located in Neu-Isenburg.
The German headquarters of Thomas Cook Group are based in Oberursel.
Langen is home to Deutsche Flugsicherung, the German air traffic control.

Quality of life

According to a ranking list produced by the University of Liverpool, Frankfurt is the richest city in Europe by GDP per capita, followed by Karlsruhe, Paris and Munich.
Frankfurt was voted the 7th in the Mercer Quality of Living Survey by the Mercer Quality of Living Survey, seventh in the Mercer Quality of Living Survey and 18th at the Economist's World's Most Liveable Cities Survey. According to an annual citizen survey, arranged by the city council, 66 percent inhabitants are satisfied or highly satisfied with the city, while only 6 percent said that they are dissatisfied. Compared to the 1993's survey the number of satisfied inhabitants has grown about 22 percent while the number of dissatisfied inhabitants was reduced by 8 percent. 84 percent of the inhabitants like to live in Frankfurt, 13 percent would rather choose to live somewhere else. 37 percent are satisfied with the public safety, 22 percent are dissatisfied.
Frankfurt consistently has the highest levels of crime per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany and is therefore dubbed the German "crime capital". However, this statistic is often criticized because it ignores major factors: It is calculated based on the administrative 680,000-inhabitant figure while the urban area has 2.5 M inhabitants and on weekdays adds another million people. The rate for personal safety-relevant crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape or bodily harm, is 3.4 percent, placing Frankfurt twelfth in the ranking or number 21. In 2018, the state of Hesse where Frankfurt lies ranked the third safest state in Germany.

Governmental institutions

European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority is an institution of the European Union and part of the European System of Financial Supervisors that was created in response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. It was established on 1 January 2011.

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority

Frankfurt is one of two locations of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. The BaFin is an independent federal institution and acts as Germany's financial regulatory authority.

International Finance Corporation

Frankfurt is home to the German office of the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank Group. The IFC promotes sustainable private sector investment in developing countries.

German National Library

Frankfurt is one of two sites of the German National Library, the other being Leipzig. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek is the largest universal library in Germany. Its task, unique in Germany, is to collect, permanently archive, comprehensively document and record bibliographically all German and German-language publications from 1913 on, foreign publications about Germany, translations of German works and the works of German-speaking emigrants published abroad between 1933 and 1945, and to make them available to the public.

Trade unions and associations

Frankfurt is home to multiple trade unions and associations, including:
trade associations include:

Sights

Frankfurt is one of Germany's leading tourist destinations. In addition to its infrastructure and economy, its diversity supports a vibrant cultural scene. This blend of attractions led 4.3 million tourists to visit Frankfurt. The Hotels in central Frankfurt offer 34,000 beds in 228 hotels, of which 13 are luxury hotels and 46 are first-class hotels.

Sights in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main-Area

Besides the tourist attractions in central Frankfurt many internationally famous sites are within 80 km of the city, such as:

North

As a profoundly international city, Frankfurt hosts 92 diplomatic missions. Worldwide, only New York City and Hamburg are non-capital cities with more foreign representation. The Consulate General of the United States in Eckenheim is the largest American consulate in the world.

Courts

Several courts are located in Frankfurt, including:

Newspapers

Two important daily newspapers are published. The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, also known as FAZ, was founded in 1949 and is the German newspaper with the widest circulation outside of Germany, with its editors claiming to deliver the newspaper to 148 countries every day. The FAZ has a circulation of over 380,000 copies daily. The other important newspaper, the Frankfurter Rundschau, was first published in 1945 and has a daily circulation of over 181,000.

Magazines

Several magazines also originate from Frankfurt. The local Journal Frankfurt is the best-known magazine for events, parties, and "insider tips". Öko-Test is a consumer-oriented magazine that focuses on ecological topics. Titanic is a well-known and often criticized satirical magazine with a circulation of approximately 100,000.

Radio and TV

Frankfurt's first radio station was the Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG, founded in 1924. Its successor service is the public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk. It is located at the "Funkhaus am Dornbusch" in the Dornbusch district and is one of the most important radio and television broadcasters in Hesse, with additional studios in Kassel, Darmstadt and Fulda.
Bloomberg TV and RTL Television have regional studios.
Other radio broadcasters include Main FM and Radio X.
From August 1945 to October 2004, the American Forces Network had broadcast from Frankfurt. Due to troop reductions the AFN's location has been closed with AFN now broadcasting from Mannheim.

News agency

Frankfurt is home to the German office of Reuters, a global news agency.

Education and research

Frankfurt hosts two universities and several specialist schools. The two business schools are Goethe University Frankfurt's Goethe Business School and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

The oldest and best-known university is the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, with locations in Bockenheim, Westend, and Riedberg, and the university hospital in Niederrad. Goethe Business School is part of the University's House of Finance at Campus Westend. The Business School's Full Time MBA program has over 70% international students.

Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences

The Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences was created out of several older organisations in 1971, and offers over 38 study areas, in the arts, sciences, engineering and law. Some of the most important research projects: Planet Earth Simulator, FraLine-IT-School-Service, quantitative analysis of methane in human corpses with the help of a mass spectrometer, software engineering, analysis of qualitative and quantitative gas in human lungs, long-term studies on photovoltaic modules.

Frankfurt School of Finance and Management

The city is also home to a business school, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, formerly known as the Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft, with its new campus near Deutsche Nationalbibliothek U-Bahn stop. In 2001, it became a specialist institution for Economics and Management, or FOM. Frankfurt School is consistently ranked among the best business schools in the world, attributed to its high research output and quality of undergraduate and graduate training.

Städelschule

Frankfurt has the State Institution of Higher Learning for Artistic Education known as the Städelschule, founded in 1817 by Johann Friedrich Städel. It was taken over by the city in 1942 and turned into a state art school.

Music schools and conservatory

Music institutions are the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and the Hoch Conservatory which was founded in 1878. The International Ensemble Modern Academy is a significant institution for the study of contemporary music.

Other notable schools

The Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology, a private institution with membership in the German Jesuit Association, has been located in Sachsenhausen since 1950.
The city is home to three Max Planck Society institutes: the Max Planck Institute for European History of Law, Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.
The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, sponsored by several institutional and private sources, is involved in theoretical research in physics, chemistry, neuroscience, and computer science.
Frankfurt is host to the Römisch-Germanische-Kommission, the German Archaeological Institute branch for prehistoric archaeology in Germany and Europe. The RGK is involved in a variety of research projects. Its library, with over 130,000 volumes, is one of the largest specialised archaeological libraries in the world.

Education and media

Frankfurt schools rank among the best equipped schools nationwide for availability of PCs and other media facilities. In order to assure maintenance and support of the school PCs, the city in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences launched the project Fraline – IT-Schul-Service, an initiative employing students to provide basic school IT-support.

Sports

Frankfurt is home to several professional sports teams. Some of them have won German Championships. E.g. the Skyliners Frankfurt won the German Basketball Championship in 2004 and the German Cup in 2000. Women's side 1. FFC Frankfurt are Germany's record title holders; Eintracht Frankfurt are one-time German champions, five-times winners of the DFB-Pokal, and winners of the UEFA Cup in 1980.
Frankfurt hosts the following sports teams or clubs:
Frankfurt is host to the classic cycle race Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop. The city hosts also the annual Frankfurt Marathon and the Ironman Germany. In addition to the former, it is one of 13 global host locations to the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge , Germany's biggest corporate sports event. Rhein-Main Eissport Club forms the base of the German bandy community.

Citations

History