Frankfurt has become a place to visit for more than just business
For many years, Frankfurt was near the bottom of the list as a destination for travelers. Sure, you might fly through its airport, on the way to someplace else, but few people who didn’t have business here came to visit. And business was the reason to come. Frankfurt is the home to Germany’s banking and insurance industries, and the view was that there was not a lot here for tourists. But times have changes, and today, Frankfurt is definitely worth a visit. Like Hamburg, Frankfurt’s history dates back to the Holy Roman Empire . Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly here in 794 CE. From 1562 until 1792 this was the place where kings and emperors and elected and crowned. Frankfurt started hosting trade fairs in 1150, and in 1372 it was named an Imperial Free City, making it a free-trade zone. Those fairs continue today, and Frankfurt hosts the largest book fair in the world. Frankfurt is also home to Germany’s main stock exchange, which began as a market to standardize...