Overview

Frankfurt Am Main

Germany’s Money Spinner is the new tourist hot spot

Frankfurt Am Main is one of those cities that make you think. Looking at the city’s avant-garde lifestyle and its cloud – piercing skyscrapers contrast with its well preserved 19th century buildings you wonder if it should be called a 21st century city looking at the next one or a really old city that has somehow stopped in time? Is it a modern dwelling or an ancient marvel?

The answer is not easy but as you peel off the layers of this multi-faceted city you find it full of pleasant paradoxes – whether in its physical structure or its social fabric, Frankfurt surprises you at every layer that opens up. The city attracts millions of visitors to its eventful history as reflected in its squares, museums and monuments. At the same time, Frankfurt attracts people for being an important financial center and a traffic hub on the continent. What people find most intriguing, whether they are in the city as tourists or as business visitors to one of its many trade fairs; is the way Frankfurt has preserved its traditional German culture without forgoing the benefits of a modern society.

Frankfurt is famous for its numerous churches, cathedrals and old buildings scattered all around, its two botanical gardens that boast of a unique array of flora, its architecture and its culture. It may not be Berlin, but when it comes to nightlife and the eating out culture, Frankfurt does not disappoint. It is the home to the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Trade Fair. The city is one of the most important commercial centers in the world and attracts a lot of visitors for this purpose too.

In all, Frankfurt is a great place for a city break that could extend from a weekend to a week and you can be sure, there is enough to see and do in the city to fill up the spaces. Get the whole story on this ancient city, nestled enigmatically within a modern one, so that you can max out the fun!

The Frankfurt Story

Although the Romans are believed to have settled in the area around present day Frankfurt, the first known written reference to Frankfurt was signed in 794 by none other than Charlemagne, who, in a letter to the bishop of Toledo, wrote –“ in loco celebri qui dicitur Franconofurd” which means “that famous place which is called Frankfurt”. The Romans settled in the hilly terrain in the last quarter of the 1st century and like most notable cities in Europe where they formed settlements, left their imprints in the form of Roman Baths, villas and farm buildings. The retreat of the Romans in the 3rd century brought an end to the Roman occupation, leaving the area free for the Frankish King, Charlemagne to occupy.

Charlemagne built his royal court in the place he named “Franconovurd” and in 794 AD held a church council there to beat down Adoptionism. Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son further increased the importance of the city by selecting it as his seat and building a larger palace. In 838, he ordered the construction of defensive walls and ditches, making the city safer from invasions and attacks.

Frankfurt had long been an important trading center, thanks to the Romans, and by the 12th century the city's famous trade fairs were attracting merchants from as far as the Mediterranean and the Baltic. This gave the city a commanding position among its contemporaries. Another event that sealed the city’s position as the seat of power was when Fredrick I Barbarossa was elected king in 1152 in a local church in Frankfurt. Ever since this time, every German King has been elected in Frankfurt.

In 1372, the Frankfurters bought their autonomy from Karl IV for a fee of 8800 Gulden, making Frankfurt a freie Reichstadt, or free imperial city. However, this free status did not deter other kingdoms from attacking and occupying the golden city and Frankfurt came under fire thrice in the next few centuries - in 1631 by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War, in 1759-63 by French troops during the Seven Years' War, and again during the Napoleonic Wars.

These were tumultuous times for the city but during these centuries several developments in the field of commerce and the arts also took place. Science and innovation were regarded as the drivers for growth, the printing press was invented in nearby Mainz, giving an impetus to education and the most important book fair in Germany was held in Frankfurt from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

Even in the early times, Frankfurt displayed a strong secular culture, perhaps because it was a primarily trading economy and the city was among the first to embrace Luther's reformist ideas. It held a significant position in the Holy Roman Empire of Germany, although the Hessian principalities that surrounded it remained disorganized up to 1945. The advent of Napoleon led to the end of The Holy Roman Empire in 1806 with Napoleon, and Napoleon’s subsequent fall resulted in the re-organization of the country’s countless principalities were into a confederation of 35 states, with Frankfurt hosting its ineffective Reichstag. In 1848, that great year of revolutions, Germany's very first parliamentary delegation met briefly at Frankfurt's Paulskirche.

During the second World War, the worst hit community in the city was the Jews who despite having contributed immensely to the city by way of its banking tradition and much of its academic and cultural heritage. Faced with Nazi atrocities, a huge fraction of Jews emigrated and the ones who couldn’t, suffered a gory and chillingly horrific fate in the Nazi concentration camps. The bombing raids led by the Allied Forces flattened most of the city centre and led to huge losses of life. In 1945, the American Army took over the city and made it their headquarters during Germany's rehabilitation.

Today Frankfurt is known as the birthplace of the Deutschmark, the home of the Deutsche Bundesbank and as the seat of the European Central Bank. The Euro was launched here on 1 January 1999 and is a beautiful amalgam of its past and present with a definite eye on the future.

The Frankfurt Season

There are many reasons people go to Frankfurt and though tourism is a booming business, a huge chunk of visitors come to the city for trade shows and conventions regularly held here. It just so happens that most major trade shows and conventions take place during the months from March to May and from September to October - which are also the best times to visit weather-wise. Tricky, isn’t it? The suits are not going to stop but you can solve the situation by booking ahead or choosing accommodations that are not popular with the business visitors.

The winter months in Frankfurt are from November through to February and are the hardest months to play tourist. If you go to Frankfurt in winters you would have to brave storms and freezing temperatures and a near-zero social and entertainment scene. Of course since there are no or just a handful of tourists at this time, you can have the run of hotels in the city! However, do brace yourself for Christmas time as this is when the Christmas market is in full swing and crowds are thick. If excessive heat and thunderstorms do not bother you, aim for the time period from June to August which is characterized by a lot of outdoors action.