Frankfurt
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ABOUT FRANKFURT
Frankfurt am Main is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and
the fifth-largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne,
with an end-2006 population of 661,877. The Frankfurt urban area, which extends
beyond the city boundaries, had an estimated population of 1,468,140 in 2000.
The city is at the center of the larger Frankfurt Rhine Main Area which has a
population of 5 million and is Germany's second largest metropolitan area.
Situated on the Main river, Frankfurt is the financial and transportation center
of Germany. Frankfurt is the seat of the European Central Bank, the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is one of the two largest financial centres in
continental Europe (the other one being Paris). According to Liverpool
University, Frankfurt was the wealthiest city in the European Union in 2001 as
measured by GDP per capita. It is also listed as one of nine Alpha world
cities.
Among English speakers the city is commonly known simply as "Frankfurt",
though Germans occasionally call it by its full name when it is necessary to
distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) Frankfurt in the
German state of Brandenburg, known as Frankfurt (Oder). It was once
called Frankfort-on-the-Main in English, a translation of Frankfurt am Main.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cathedral
Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral (Dom Sankt Bartholomäus) is a Gothic building,
which was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an
earlier church from the Merovingian time. It is the main church of Frankfurt.
From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this church,
and from 1562 to 1792, emperors were crowned here.
Since the 18th century, Saint Bartholomeus' has been called "the cathedral" by
the people, although it has never been a bishop's seat. In 1867, the cathedral
was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in its present style. The height of the
cathedral is 95 m.
Römer
The name of the town hall means "Roman". In fact, nine houses were acquired by
the city council in 1405 from a wealthy merchant family. The middle house
became the town hall and was later connected with the neighbouring buildings.
In the upper floor, there is the Kaisersaal ("Emperor's Hall") where the newly
crowned emperors held their banquets.
The Römer was partially destroyed in World War II, and later rebuilt.
St. Paul's Church
St. Paul's Church (Paulskirche) is a national historic monument in Germany with
great political symbolism, 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 finished until 1833. Its importance has its root 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, and in
1849 Prussian troops ended the democratic experiment by force of arms and the
parliament was dissolved. Afterwards, the building was used for church services
again.
St. Paul's was partially destroyed in World War II, particularly the interior of
the building, which now has a modern appearance. It was quickly and
symbolically rebuilt after the war; today it is not used for religious
services, but mainly for exhibitions and events.
Concert House Old Opera
Alte Oper, Frankfurt's famous opera house, was built in 1880 by the architect
Richard Lucae. It was one of the major opera houses of Germany, until it was
destroyed in World War II. It was not until 1981 that the old opera was fully
rebuilt and reopened. Today it functions as a concert hall, while operas are
performed in the Oper Frankfurt. The inscription on the frieze of the Old Opera
says: "Dem Wahren, Schönen, Guten" ("To the true, the beautiful, the good").
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