Frankfurt - Paulskirche

Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main) is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. The city is the heart of the larger Rhine-Main metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.8 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region.

Alemanni and Franks lived there, and by 794, Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd was first mentioned. It was one of the two capitals of Charlemagne's grandson Louis the German. Louis founded the collegiate church, rededicated in 1239 to Bartholomew the Apostle and now Frankfurt Cathedral.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. From 855, the German kings were elected and crowned in Aachen. From 1562, the kings and emperors were crowned and elected in Frankfurt. This tradition ended in 1792.

The Frankfurter Messe ('Frankfurt Trade Fair') was first mentioned in 1150. Book trade fairs began in 1478. In 1372, Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (Imperial Free City), directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor, and was the Free City of Frankfurt, for nearly five centuries. It lost its sovereignty upon the collapse of the empire in 1806, regained it in 1815, and then lost it again in 1866 when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia.

The Paulskirche is a former Protestant church. It is an important political symbol, as it was used as a national assembly in 1848 when the Frankfurt Parliament convened there, the first publicly and freely-elected German legislative body.

On 18 May 1848, the National Assembly met for the first time here and was therefore named the "Paulskirchenparlament". Until 1849, the National Assembly worked in the church to develop the first constitution for a united Germany. The resistance of Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and a number of smaller German states ultimately destroyed the effort.

During WW II, the church was destroyed along with much of Frankfurt's wider city center. As a tribute to its symbolism of freedom and as the cradle of Germany, it was the first structure in Frankfurt the city rebuilt after the war.

In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy gave a major speech in the Paulskirche during his visit to Germany.