In fact, it is one of the few cities in the European Union (EU) to have such a skyline, which is why Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan, combining the local river Main and "Manhattan".

The city district Bonames has a name probably dating back to Roman times, thought to be derived from bona me(n)sa (good table).

Alemanni and Franks lived there, and by 794, Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd (alternative spellings end with -furt and -vurd) was first mentioned.

In 1372, Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (Imperial Free City), i.e., directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.

The Grand Duchy remained a short episode lasting from 1810 to 1813 when the military tide turned in favor of the Anglo-Prussian-led allies that overturned the Napoleonic order.

Dalberg abdicated in favor of Eugène de Beauharnais, which of course was only a symbolic action, as the latter effectively never ruled after the ruin of the French armies and Frankfurt's takeover by the allies.

After Napoleon's final defeat and abdication, the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) dissolved the grand-duchy and Frankfurt became a fully sovereign city-state with a republican form of government.

The Prussian occupation and annexation were perceived as a great injustice in Frankfurt, which retained its distinct western European, urban and cosmopolitan character.

It became a ground battlefield on 26 March 1945, when the Allied advance into Germany was forced to take the city in contested urban combat that included a river assault.

In the end, Konrad Adenauer, the first postwar Chancellor, preferred the town of Bonn, for the most part because it was close to his hometown, but also because many other prominent politicians opposed the choice of Frankfurt out of concern that Frankfurt would be accepted as the permanent capital, thereby weakening the West German population's support for a reunification with East Germany and the eventual return of the capital to Berlin.

"[28] The end of the war marked Frankfurt's comeback as Germany's leading financial hub, mainly because Berlin, now a city divided into four sectors, could no longer rival it.

Until the year 1877 the city's territory consisted of the present-day inner-city districts of Altstadt, Innenstadt, Bahnhofsviertel, Gutleutviertel, Gallus, Westend, Nordend, Ostend and Sachsenhausen.

The Landkreis Frankfurt was finally dispersed on 1 April 1910, and therefore Berkersheim, Bonames, Eckenheim, Eschersheim, Ginnheim, Hausen, Heddernheim, Niederursel, Praunheim, Preungesheim and Rödelheim joined the city.

Due to its location at the northern tip of the Upper Rhine Valley in the Southwest of Germany, Frankfurt is one of the warmest and driest major German cities along with Darmstadt, Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau.

The growing season is longer when compared to the rest of Germany, thus resulting in an early arrival of springtime in the region, with trees typically leafing out already toward the end of March.

The area is called the "Nizza" (the German word for the southern French town Nice) and is one of the biggest parks with Mediterranean vegetation north of the Alps.

[32] With a population of 763,380 (2019) within its administrative boundaries[38] and of 2,300,000 in the actual urban area,[39] Frankfurt is the fifth-largest city in Germany, after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.

[61] The city is expected to benefit from international banks relocating jobs from London to Frankfurt as a result of Brexit to retain access to the EU market.

The new Seat of the European Central Bank in the Ostend district, consisting of the former wholesale market hall (Großmarkthalle) and a newly built 185-meter skyscraper, was completed in late 2014.

The location is a few kilometers away from downtown and borders an industrial area as well as the Osthafen (East Harbor), It was primarily chosen because of its large premises which allows the ECB to install security arrangements without high fences.

Deutsche Börse's headquarters are formally registered in Frankfurt, but it moved most of its employees to a high-rise called "The Cube" in Eschborn in 2010, primarily due to significantly lower local corporate taxes.

[75] Most of the large international law firms maintain offices, among them Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Bird & Bird, Clifford Chance, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Debevoise & Plimpton, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells, Jones Day, Latham & Watkins, Linklaters, Mayer Brown, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Norton Rose, Shearman & Sterling, Sidley Austin, SJ Berwin, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Sullivan & Cromwell, K&L Gates, Taylor Wessing and White & Case.

Other important food companies are Ferrero SpA (German headquarters) and Radeberger Gruppe KG, the largest private brewery group in Germany.

Most skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings are located in the financial district (Bankenviertel) near downtown, around the trade fair premises (Europaviertel) and at Mainzer Landstraße between Opernplatz and Platz der Republik, which connects the two areas.

Most museums are part of the Museumsufer, located on the front row of both sides of the Main riverbank or nearby, which was created on an initiative by cultural politician Hilmar Hoffmann.

In 1989 German producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti (under the pseudonyms Benito Benites and John "Virgo" Garrett III) formed the Snap!

songs combined Rap and Soul vocals adding rhythm by using computer technology and mixing electronic sounds, bass and drums.

In electronic music, Frankfurt was a pioneering city in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with renowned DJs including Sven Väth, Marc Trauner, Scot Project and Kai Tracid.

It provides access to the trade fair (S3, S4, S5, S6), the airport (S8, S9), the stadium (S7, S8, S9) and nearby cities such as Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Rüsselsheim, Hanau, Offenbach am Main, Oberursel, Bad Homburg, Kronberg, Friedberg and smaller towns that are on the way.

However, their use is being regarded with increasing weariness due to frequent abuse (parking, speeding, vandalism, accidents) and has sparked a public debate about the need of further regulation of the e-scooter market.