Frankfurt

(frängk`fo͝ort) or

Frankfurt am Main

(frängk`fo͝ort äm mīn), city (1994 pop. 659,800), Hesse, central Germany, a port on the Main River. It is also known in English as Frankfort. The city is an industrial, media, and commercial center and a transportation hub. A world financial center and Germany's financial capital, it is headquarters of the leading German stock exchange, numerous commercial banks, and the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank; the European Central Bank also is there. Manufactures include river craft, pharmaceuticals, metals, machinery, oil products, and beer. Chemical production is concentrated in the HöchstHöchst
, industrial district of Frankfurt, in Hesse, central Germany. It is a leading center of the German chemical industry and was formerly the site of the I. G. Farben chemical and dye works. Höchst was chartered in 1355 and in 1928 was incorporated into Frankfurt.
..... Click the link for more information. district. Frankfurt is the site of major international trade fairs, including an annual book fair. Its international airport is one of the largest and busiest in Europe.

Points of Interest

Points of interest include the Römer (the city hall, begun in the 15th cent.); the Gothic Church of St. Bartholomew (13th–15th cent.), also called the coronation cathedral, which has a high (312 ft/95 m) tower; the house (now a museum) in which GoetheGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von
, 1749–1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist, b. Frankfurt. One of the great masters of world literature, his genius embraced most fields of human endeavor; his art and thought are epitomized in his great dramatic poem Faust.
..... Click the link for more information. was born (1749); the Lutheran Church of St. Paul, or Paulskirche (built 1789–1833), where the Frankfurt Parliament met; the Städel Art Institute (founded 1816); the German Postal Museum; the Jewish Museum; and museums of applied arts, ethnology, film, and architecture. The Commerzbank Tower (850 ft/259 m) and Messeturm Building (843 ft/257 m) are among the tallest buildings in Europe. Frankfurt is the seat of a university (opened 1914) and a national library.

History

A Roman town founded in the 1st cent. A.D., Frankfurt became (8th cent.) a royal residence under CharlemagneCharlemagne
(Charles the Great or Charles I) [O.Fr.,=Charles the great], 742?–814, emperor of the West (800–814), Carolingian king of the Franks (768–814).
..... Click the link for more information. . After the Treaty of VerdunVerdun, Treaty of,
the partition of Charlemagne's empire among three sons of Louis I, emperor of the West. It was concluded in 843 at Verdun on the Meuse or, possibly, Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, Soâne-et-Loire dept., E France.
..... Click the link for more information. (843) it was briefly the capital of the kingdom of the Eastern Franks (i.e., Germany). It prospered as a commercial center and held annual fairs (first mentioned 1240) that drew merchants from all of Europe. Frankfurt was designated in the Golden BullGolden Bull,
term translated from the Latin bulla aurea and generally referring to a bull (edict) with a golden seal. Golden bulls were promulgated by medieval Byzantine rulers and by Western European monarchs, for example, by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (Golden Bull
..... Click the link for more information. (1356) of Emperor Charles IV as the seat of the imperial elections of the Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire,
designation for the political entity that originated at the coronation as emperor (962) of the German king Otto I and endured until the renunciation (1806) of the imperial title by Francis II.
..... Click the link for more information. , which took place in the chapel of the Church of St. Bartholomew. It was made a free imperial city in 1372.

After the emperors ceased to be crowned by the popes, the coronation ceremonies took place (1562–1792) at Frankfurt. The emperors-elect, after being crowned at St. Bartholomew's by the archbishop-elector of Mainz, proceeded with much pageantry to a banquet in the city hall, called Römer [Ger.,=Romans] because the emperors-elect were crowned kings of the Romans. The coronation (1764) of Joseph II has been described in the autobiography of the writer Goethe, a native of Frankfurt.

Frankfurt accepted the Reformation in 1530, and was a member of the Schmalkaldic LeagueSchmalkaldic League
, alliance formed in 1531 at Schmalkalden by Protestant princes and delegates of free cities. It was created in response to the threat (1530) by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to stamp out Lutheranism.
..... Click the link for more information. . It was occupied many times in the wars of the 17th and 18th cent. Frankfurt was the original home of the RothschildsRothschild
, prominent family of European bankers. The first important member was Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1743–1812), son of a money changer in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt, Germany. His first names are also spelled as Meyer and Anselm.
..... Click the link for more information. , who, along with other Jewish merchants and bankers, played a leading role in the economic growth of the city (especially after 1700). After the dissolution (1806) of the Holy Roman Empire, Frankfurt was included in the ecclesiastic principality of Regensburg and Aschaffenburg, created by Napoleon I for Karl Theodor von DalbergDalberg, Karl Theodor, Freiherr von
, 1744–1817, German statesman, of an ancient noble family prominent in imperial service. He was archbishop-elector of Mainz (1802–3) and, as such, archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire.
..... Click the link for more information. . The principality was converted in 1810 into the grand duchy of Frankfurt, also under Dalberg.

The Congress of Vienna (1814–15) restored Frankfurt to the status of a free city and made it the seat of the diet of the German ConfederationGerman Confederation,
1815–66, union of German states provided for at the Congress of Vienna to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It comprised 39 states in all, 35 monarchies and 4 free cities.
..... Click the link for more information. . The Frankfurt ParliamentFrankfurt Parliament,
1848–49, national assembly convened at Frankfurt on May 18, 1848, as a result of the liberal revolution that swept the German states early in 1848. The parliament was called by a preliminary assembly of German liberals in Mar.
..... Click the link for more information. , the first German national assembly, met there in 1848–49. Having sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian WarAustro-Prussian War
or Seven Weeks War,
June 15–Aug. 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, seconded by Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, and several smaller German states.
..... Click the link for more information. (1866), Frankfurt was annexed by Prussia. In 1871 the Treaty of Frankfurt, which ended the Franco-Prussian War, was signed there. The city was heavily damaged in World War II, but after 1945 many of its historic landmarks were restored and numerous modern structures were built.

Frankfurt

(also Frankfurt an der Oder), a Bezirk (district) in the eastern part of the German Democratic Republic, in the Oder River basin. Area, 7,200 sq km. Population, 688,600 (1974). The capital is the city of Frankfurt an der Oder.

Frankfurt is an industrial and agricultural region and one of East Germany’s principal regions of heavy industry. In 1974 industry, including construction and handicrafts, accounted for 40 percent of those employed in the district, and agriculture and forestry accounted for 17.6 percent. One of the most important industries is ferrous metallurgy, which produces 33 percent of the district’s gross industrial product; major plants are the Eisenhüttenstadtkombinat Ost in Eisenhüttenstadt and a rolling mill in Eberswalde. Other leading industries include the chemical and petrochemical industries (29 percent of the district’s gross industrial product), represented by a petrochemical plant in Schwedt and a tire plant in Fürstenwalde; general and transportation machine building (8.2 percent of the district’s gross industrial product), represented by a plant producing heavy machinery in Eberswalde and a river shipyard in Oderberg; and the electronics industry (6.6 percent of the district’s gross industrial product), represented by a semiconductor plant in Frankfurt an der Oder. Frankfurt’s leading industries also include the cement industry, represented by a cement plant in Rüdersdorf; light industry, including a paper mill in Schwedt; and food-processing.

More than one-third of Frankfurt is covered by forest. Agriculture in the areas adjoining Berlin is devoted to perishable products; in Oderbruch (the Oder Marshes), vegetables, sugar beets, rye, and potatoes are cultivated. Swine and high-yield dairy cattle are raised in the district.

The Oder and Spree rivers and the Oder-Havel and Oder-Spree canals are used for navigation. Schwedt is the terminus of the Druzhba Petroleum Pipeline; petroleum pipelines run from Rostock to Schwedt and from Schwedt to Leuna. A pipeline carrying petroleum products runs from Schwedt to Seefeld, near Berlin.

A. I. MUKHIN

Frankfurt

Frank·furt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt

Frankfurt an der Oder

Frank•furt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main

Points of Interest

History

Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Synonyms for Frankfurt

noun a German city

Synonyms

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