Frankfurt - Römer

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 Römer has been the town hall of Frankfurt for over 600 years. The Roman merchant family sold it together with a second neighboring building to the city council in 1405. The “Romer House” is actually the middle building of a group of three on Römerbergplatz.

The air raids on Frankfurt during World War II left only the stone facades and ground floors of the medieval houses standing. Behind the emblematic stepped gable facade is the new construction of a modern office building in the style of the early 1950s.