Decision Sciences and Management

Frankfurt is one of the biggest cities in Germany. The city of Frankfurt has a population of 700,000. The metropolitan area, called Rhine-Main after its two biggest rivers, has over four million people. Frankfurt is an important center for traffic and for the financial business. The Frankfurt International Airport is the largest in Germany, and one of the largest in the world. Frankfurt's train station is one of the largest, and its highway crossing is the center of Germany's street network. Frankfurt is the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank (Bundesbank) and of the biggest German banks, and it has an important stock exchange where shares of German companies are traded.

Frankfurt is on the Main river. The city's name means ford of the Franks - a ford is a place in a river where it is so shallow that you can walk through it, and the Franks were a Germanic people which existed in the first millennium. So, this was a place where travellers could cross the river without a boat. The Frankish kings built a palace and a church here. Over the centuries, this group of buildings grew to be a big city which was famous for international trade and fairs, like today. Frankfurt was one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire, and its emperors were crowned here. In the 19th century, Frankfurt was the capital of the German Confederation which was founded after the Holy Roman Empire fell apart. During the revolution of 1848, the first freely elected German parliament worked in Frankfurt.

During the Industrial Revolution, many factories and railway lines were built in Frankfurt and its suburbs. In the city center, a lot of big buildings were built, like an opera house, theatres, stock exchange, railway stations, department stores or museums. Tram lines were constructed to make travelling inside the growing city easier. In World War II, the old city was destroyed by airplane bomber attacks. After the war, Germany was divided into two parts, and Frankfurt became the economic capital of West Germany while Bonn was chosen to be the political capital.

Frankfurt is a very international city. Every third inhabitant is not German. Most immigrants come from southeastern Europe, Turkey, and North Africa, but there are people from almost every country living in Frankfurt. There are also many international business companies here, and the big airport links Frankfurt with many countries in the world. Many banks are based in Frankfurt, which is why so many are offered there. Frankfurt has some of the tallest buildings in Europe, which is why the city is although called "Mainhattan". The largest shopping street in Frankfurt is called the Zeil.