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History of Frankfurt, Germany
In the area of the Römer in the 1st century, Roman settlements were established. Frankfurt's city districts such as Bonames and Nida (Heddernheim) probably date back to Roman times, as Heddernheim was a Roman civitas capital.
The name of Frankfurt on Main is derived from the Franconofurd of the Germanic tribe of the Franks; Furt which translates as ford means where the river is shallow enough to be crossed by wading. Alemanni and Franks lived here and by 794 Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd is first mentioned.
One of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire (Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt or imperial city of the Empire in 1372) from 855 onwards the German kings and emperors were elected in Frankfurt and crowned in Aachen. From 1562 the kings/emperors were also crowned in Frankfurt, Maximilian II was the first. This tradition ended in 1792, when Franz II was elected. The elections and coronations took place in St. Bartholomäus cathedral, known as the Kaiserdom or Emperor's Cathedral.
In the Napoleonic Wars Frankfurt was occupied or bombarded several times by French troops. Frankfurt nevertheless remained a free city until the total collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1805/6. In 1806 it become part of the principality of Aschaffenburg and was incorporated into the confederation of the Rhine. In 1810 Dalberg adopted the title of a Grand Duke of Frankfurt.
After Napoleon's final defeat and abdication, the Congress of Vienna (1812–1815, redrawing the map of Europe) dissolved the grand-duchy, and Frankfurt entered the newly founded German Confederation as a free city, becoming the seat of its Bundestag, the confederal parliament.
In 1848 Frankfurt became the seat of the first democratically elected German parliament and worked the next year to develop a common constitution for a unified Germany but remained under a Prussian king as the monarch.
After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 Frankfurt was incorporated into the province of Hesse-Nassau.
Frankfurt, under a unified Germany suffered defeat in WWI and in WWII from Allied forces (France, Britain, Russia, USA, Canada). Large parts of Frankfurt's city centre were destroyed by air raids. On March 22, 1944 a British attack destroyed the entire Old City, killing 1001 people. The East Port - an important shipping center for bulk goods, with its own rail connection - was also largely destroyed.
Post-war Frankfurt planned a major reconstruction of the historical center. In 1946 Frankfurt joined the state of Hesse, and became the West German federal capital both culturally and financially.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the unification of East and West Germany, Frankfurt continued to grow as the financial and transportation centre of Germany and the city is now the second most important commercial centre in Europe, after London.
