Frankfurt has
played a central
role in the
political
history of
Germany and the
German states
for centuries.
From 855 to 1792
Frankfurt was
the electoral
city for the
Emperors of the
Holy Roman
Empire of the
German Nation.
In the 1848-49
revolutions, it
became a sort of
revolutionary
capital and was
the seat of the
first
democratically
elected German
parliament, the
Frankfurt
Parliament,
which met in the
Frankfurter
Paulskirche,
or the St.
Paul's Church.
The three
pillars of
Frankfurt's
economy are
finance,
transport, and
trade fairs.
Frankfurt has
been Germany's
financial
capital for
centuries, and
it is the home
of a number of
major banks and
brokerages. The
Frankfurt Stock
Exchange is
Germany's
largest, and one
of the world's
most important.
Frankfurt houses
the European
Central Bank,
which sets
monetary policy
for the Eurozone
economy, and the
German
Bundesbank. It
also houses a
number of major
commercial
banks, including
Deutsche Bank,
Dresdner Bank,
and Commerzbank.
Frankfurt has an
excellent
transportation
infrastructure
and a major
international
airport and
European
transportation
hub, the
Frankfurt
International
Airport.
Frankfurt
Airport ranks
among the
world's top ten
airports and
serves 304
flight
destinations in
110
countries.Depending
whether total
passengers or
flights are used
to measure, it
ranks as the
second or third
busiest in
Europe alongside
London Heathrow
Airport and
Paris' Charles
de Gaulle. Its
central location
at Europe's
heart and its
excellent
accessibility by
air, rail and
road make
Frankfurt
Airport City
especially
attractive. In
addition, many
large trade
fairs take place
in Frankfurt
each year,
notably the
Internationale
Automobil-Ausstellung
(Frankfurt
Motor Show)
and the
Frankfurt Book
Fair, which have
far over 100,000
visitors each,
but also
important
special interest
fairs like the
LinuxWorld
Conference &
Expo or
Musikmesse
Frankfurt.
