Travel Guide Frankfurt (Am Main)

The old town on the Main is a city of superlatives, many and varied, making it one of the few key cities in the country. By its economic importance, it can even be said that it is part of the trio without which Germany would not be Germany: Berlin, political capital, Hamburg, world export platform… and Frankfurt. With its 701 000 inhabitants, the prosperous city is salmonids of the country's fifth city, but its urban area is the second, with 2 220 000 inhabitants. In this decentralized country of Germany, Frankfurt plays the undisputed role of capital in several areas. The first financial place of the country and continental Europe, which one can instantly see to its whole skyscraper, its «skyline» to the American dubbed «Mainhattan», the city is the seat of the European Bank and the EU's capital capital. Frankfurt is also the country's largest stock exchange and one of the largest in the world and its fairs and fairs are among the largest in Germany. Its airport is the largest in Germany and the third in Europe after Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Lufthansa's headquarters. It can also be said that the hessoise city is one of the Germanic media metropolises, the seat of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the capital of book and publishing, and one of the country's first cultural centres - for example its theatre capital. So many superlatives, structural points to note; what is being given to the visitor? A fascinating city full of aesthetic and cosmopolitan contrasts (perhaps the most cosmopolitan of the country, with 1/4 of residents who are foreign), the urban landscape so characteristic with the juxtaposition of its Skyline and its old town which, rebuilt after the war (and again in full work at the time of writing the guide), has superb sites to offer: churches, half-timbered houses… neighbourhoods with a marked identity, a profustion of secular architecutraux styles (Renaissance, Art Nouveau, New Clacissisme, modern and contemporary architecture), quality establishments, rich gastronomy, numerous museums and passionnnats, creative and quality shops. In this city of celebration, design, fashion and culture, it will be difficult to get bored. It is also difficult to seize in a short time all contrasts and all the elements that make its profusion, incredible abundance that few cities have to offer.Frankfurt, the imperial man, owes his main position in Germany to Emperor Frédéric Barbarossa who made his land of election in 1152. Subsequently, from 1562 until the th century, all the Germanic Roman emperors were crowned in Frankfurt (and not in Rome), which became the symbol of the political unity of the Empire. At the same time, in the Middle Ages, Frankfurt has become one of the continent's leading trading places, driven by an extremely active and prosperous commercial bourgeois. The city of Goethe, in the th century, became one of the country's main cultural centres and national cultural identity. That is why it is not so paradoxical that imperial'capital'also became the first of the city of democracy in Germany when the Members of 1848, gathered in the Paulskirche, formed the first German Parliament. Frankfurt was severely affected by the destruction of the Second World War. But it was, after the war, one of the symbols of the German economic miracle, thanks to its incredible economic and financial liveliness, that it owes to its tradition, but also to the central role that it played in the time of German separation, taking into account the roles played hitherto by other cities, which became German (the sector of the German). publishing and music in Leipzig for example). A Liberal, combining tradition with inspiration from the Atlantic, Frankfurt was perhaps the only city in Europe with London to compete in modernity with American cities, while preserving its European identity and traditions.