A Little About Frankfurt

 

First off, a little about Frankfurt.  It’s one of the easiest cities to get around in. The airport (flughaffen) is very well laid out and full of people who live to help.  If you even speak a gurgling of German you can easily get by, but not to worry most here speak two or three other languages including English (Shame on us) Everybody  seems happy here, probably due to the ready availability of good sausage and beer, because everything is better with good sausage and beer.

As far as getting around... its a blast... As you clear immigrations and customs, so fast you wont believe it.  There is a train station (bahnhof) in the basement of the airport.  The station has ticket machines which have touchpads that work in numerous languages including English and if you're too stupid to work the maching there will be a uniformed person standing by who will also speak English.  The machines take smaller Euro currency so if you have a card or a large denomination bill you will need to go to the service/ticket desk and deal with a human... dont worry they speak English too... (are you getting the feeling that everybody learns our launguage, then maybe we should learn a few others too)

Buy a day pass for the trains and explore the city and surrounding... You can go to Weisbaden and Hanau also.

Even someone with a childs understanding of German can get around here

In fact if you get on the wrong platform you wont have much choice other than to explore.  Most trains into Frankfurt Main Hbf are approximately 5 stops from the train station.  Just look at the overhead sign on the trainplatform to see which train you are getting on and make sure it is correct for your destination.


Geographically and Historically

 

 

Geographically and Historically, Frankfurt am Main , (Frankfurt on the Main River) commonly known as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2011 population of 695,624 . Frankfurt is the financial and transport center of Germany and the largest financial center in continental Europe. It is the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the Frankfurt Trade Fair. 

In the area of the Römer, Roman settlements were established, probably in the 1st century; (the FIRST FREAKING CENTURY) some artifacts from that era are found even to this day. The city district Bonames has a name dating back to Roman times—it is thought to be derived from bona me(n)sa. Nida (Heddernheim) was also a Roman civitas capital.

 

The name of Frankfurt on Main is derived from the Franconofurd of the Germanic tribe of the Franks; Furt (cf. English ford) where the river was shallow enough to be crossed by wading. Alemanni and Franks lived there and by 794 Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd (-furt -vurd) was first mentioned.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the following Holy Roman Empire. From 855 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 being the first. This tradition ended in 1792, when Franz II was elected. His coronation was deliberately held on Bastille Day, 14 July, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. The elections and coronations took place in St. Bartholomäus cathedral, known as the Kaiserdom (en: Emperor's Cathedral), or in its predecessors.

The Frankfurter Messe (Frankfurt Trade Fair) was first mentioned in 1150. In 1240, Emperor Friedrich II granted an Imperial privilege to its visitors, meaning they would be protected by the Empire. The fair became particularly important when similar fairs in French Beaucaire lost attraction around 1380. Book trade fairs have been held in Frankfurt since 1478.

In 1372 Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (en: Imperial city), i.e. directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.

Franfurt survivied virtually untouched until the Second World War where it was subjected to extensive aerial bombardment followed by an allied ground campaign which was reflected upon as some of the most fierce urban fighting of the war.  The damages of the allied incursion and subsequent occupation left all but a few of the historical buildings in ruins.