Frankfurt - Overview

Overview

The three major pillars of Frankfurt's economy are finance, transport, and trade fairs.

Frankfurt has been Germany's financial centre for centuries and it is the home of a number of major banks and brokerages. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) 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 (Europäische Zentralbank) which sets monetary policy for the Eurozone, consisting of 17 European Union member states that have adopted the euro (€) as their common currency and sole legal tender, and of the German Federal Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank). In 2010, 63 national and 152 international banks had their registered offices here including the headquarters of the major German banks, notably Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, as well as 41 representative offices of international banks.

The importance of Frankfurt as a financial centre is rising in recent years. Indications are the establishment of the European supervisory authority for insurance EIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) and the installation of the EU system risk-Council, the European authority for the early detection, prevention and management of systemic risks within the financial market in the EU. Additionally, the single European supervisory mechanism for the European banking union will be controlled by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank from 2013 onwards aiming to supervise more than 6000 banks in the Euro zone.

Frankfurt has an excellent transport infrastructure: Frankfurt Airport (Flughafen Frankfurt am Main) is the third busiest airport by passenger traffic in Europe and is the main hub for Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa, the largest airline in Europe. The airport is close to the Frankfurter Kreuz (Autobahn interchange) where two of the most heavily used motorways in Europe, Bundesautobahn 3 in west-east-direction and Bundesautobahn 5 in north-south-direction, meet. In addition, Frankfurt has three railway stations for high-speed ICE trains: Frankfurt Central Station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof), Frankfurt South station (Frankfurt Südbahnhof) and Frankfurt Airport long-distance station (Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof). Frankfurt is the busiest junction operated by Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway company, with 342 daily trains to domestic and European destinations.

Frankfurt Trade Fair (Messe Frankfurt) is the third largest trade fair in the world with a total area of 578,000 square metres (6,221,540 square feet). It has ten halls with a total of 321,754 square metres (3,463,331 square feet) of exhibition space and 96,078 square metres (1,034,175 square feet) of outdoor area more available. Many large trade fairs are held in Frankfurt each year, notably the Frankfurt Motor Show (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung - IAA), the world's largest motor show, the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse), the world's largest book fair, and Musikmesse, the world's largest music fair.

Frankfurt is also home to many cultural and educational institutions including the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, many museums (e.g. Städel, Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Goethe House), and two major botanical gardens, the Palmengarten, which is Germany's largest, and the Botanical Garden of the Goethe University.

A unique feature of Frankfurt is its significant number of skyscrapers in the city center which form the Frankfurt skyline. Frankfurt is one of only a few cities in the European Union that have such a skyline, the others being London, Milan, Moscow, Warsaw, Madrid, Rotterdam and La Défense in the outer Paris region. Because of the city's skyline, Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt am Main as "Mainhattan".