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Frankfurt

City in GermanyFrankfurt lies on both banks of the Main River in the state of Hesse, in west-central Germany, just southeast of the Taunus hills.

What it's known for

Frankfurt is one of the major financial centres of Europe, with the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Its airport is one of the busiest in the world, and the city hosts the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Fun facts

  1. The name means 'ford of the Franks': a place where the Franks could cross the Main on foot.
  2. Its many skyscrapers, some of the tallest in Europe, gave the city the nickname 'Mainhattan'.
  3. The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749.

Finding it on the globe

Find where the Main River flows into the Rhine in western Germany, then go a short way up the Main to the east: that is Frankfurt, about 420 km southwest of Berlin.

Easy to mix up

Frankfurt is Germany's banking city, but the capital is Berlin. Another city, Frankfurt (Oder), lies on the border with Poland, which is why this one is often called Frankfurt am Main.

Sources: Wikipedia: Frankfurt, Wikipedia: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wikipedia: Main (river), Wikipedia: Frankfurt (Oder)