Frankfurt am Main, commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2009 population of 672,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,295,000 in 2010. The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5,600,000 and is Germany’s second largest metropolitan area.
Frankfurt has been Germany’s financial centre for centuries, and it is the home of a number of major banks and brokerages. The three pillars of Frankfurt’s economy are finance, transport, and trade fairs. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is by far Germany’s largest, and is one of the world’s most important. Frankfurt is also the seat of the European Central Bank which sets monetary policy for the Eurozone economy, and of the German Federal Bank. Over 300 national and international banks are represented including the headquarters of the major German banks. Frankfurt has an excellent transportation infrastructure, and the Frankfurt International Airport is a major European aviation hub. Its central location at the heart of Europe and its excellent accessibility by air, rail and road make Frankfurt Airport City especially attractive.
In addition, many large trade fairs are held in Frankfurt each year, notably the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, the world’s largest motor show, and the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the world’s largest book fair, and Musikmesse world’s largest music fair. Frankfurt is also home to many cultural and educational institutions including the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, many museums, and two major botanical gardens, the Palmengarten and the Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.
Frankfurt is one of only three cities in the European Union that have a significant number of skyscrapers. With 12 skyscrapers (i.e. buildings taller than 150 m (492 ft)) in late 2010, Frankfurt is second behind Paris with 14 skyscrapers, and ahead of London which has 10 skyscrapers. The city of Frankfurt contains the two tallest skyscrapers in the European Union, the Commerzbank Tower and Messeturm, which rank third and fourth on the continent after the Naberezhnaya Tower and the Triumph-Palace in Moscow.
Situated on the Main River, Frankfurt is the financial and transportation centre of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Trade Fair, as well as several large commercial banks. Frankfurt Airport is one of the world’s busiest international airports, Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, and the Frankfurter Kreuz (Autobahn interchange) is the most heavily used interchange in Europe. Frankfurt is the only German city listed as one of ten Alpha world cities. Frankfurt lies in the former American Occupation Zone of Germany, and it was formerly the headquarters city of the U.S. Army in Germany.
With the stock exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) and XETRA, which belong to Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt has the second largest stock exchange in Europe after the London Stock Exchange. It is by far the largest stock exchange in Germany with over 90 percent turnover in the German market. In terms of market capitalisation, Deutsche Börse is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world.
