The confederation's governing body, the Bundestag (officially called the Bundesversammlung, Federal Assembly) was located in the Palais Thurn und Taxis in Frankfurt's city centre.

In 1819 Freiherr vom Stein founded the Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (Monumenta Germaniae Historica).

Civic foundations and clubs also fostered the city's culture life, e.g. the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the Museumsgesellschaft, the Cäcilienverein and the Städtische Theater.

There were several significant uprisings against plans to develop a Prussian Tariff Union because they threatened to undermine Frankfurt's role as a centre of transport and trade.

Because the Federal Assembly and Frankfurt's city authorities feared for their reputation, they tried to ban political unions and to suppress the circulation of liberal publications.

German national consciousness grew throughout the 1840s: The sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler created a Goethe monument in 1844 and the unveiling ceremony, for example, became a rallying point for nationalists as did a meeting of German Studies scholars in Frankfurt's city hall, which, just before this meeting, had been decorated with images of all 52 emperors of the Holy Roman Empire created by artists such as Philipp Veit, Alfred Rethel and Eduard von Steinle.

On 9 March 1848 a flag in the colours of black, red and gold was first flown from the roof of the Palais Thurn und Taxis.

On 18 May 1848 the parliamentarians of the Frankfurt national assembly, among the first free voted German parliaments, congregated in the Paulskirche in a celebratory fashion.

On 14 April 1853 he wrote to the Prussian foreign minister Otto Theodor von Manteuffel: "Regarding the democratic spirit and turmoils within the population of the city and its neighbouring regions...

I am sure that we will only be able to successfully face these threats by subjecting this particular part of Germany to a military dictatorship, without any consideration of judicial norms or the preservation of these."

In June 1866, right before losing its status as a free city, a direct majority voting system for all citizens was introduced to the legislative branch, instead of the previous electoral procedure which had been arranged according to profession.

In the satirical magazine Frankfurt Lantern, first published in 1860, editor Friedrich Stoltze criticized Bismarck's policy in increasingly harsh commentaries and caricatures.

The Prussian consul general of Frankfurt was the highly respected banker Moritz von Bethmann, who had been one of the hosts of the Fürstentag.

On 16 July 1866 the undefended city was occupied by the Prussian Army under their General Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein, who immediately imposed strict reprisals on the town.

Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, who was appointed as successor of Falckenstein on 20 July raised a second demand of contribution of 25 million guilder.

The editor of the newspaper of the main post office and privy councillor Fischer-Goullet was arrested and suffered a deadly stroke.

The senators Bernus, Müller and Speltz were held hostage in the fortress of Cologne but were allowed to return to Frankfurt as a consequence of pledging their word of honour.

The outskirts along the present-day Alleenring, however, were cultivated in the old-fashioned style of Flurzwang, which took the basic principles of the crop rotation system, dating back to the Middle Ages.

In between these parts lay small woodland areas and acres including the Knoblauchsfeld (garlic field) in the Nordend district, which was the source of the city's water supply.

The Riederwald, located south of Bornheim, as well as the exclave Hohemark in Taunus, which had been part of Nieder-Erlenbach, Bonames, Niederursel and Dortelweil, also belonged to the forest district.

Since 1728 the supervision over all schools has lied with the Lutheran Consistory, a committee established by the City Council, consisting of secular and sacred members.

In 1803 Hufnagel founded Frankfurt's first junior high, the Musterschule, based upon the pedagogical concept of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

Unlike German area states Frankfurt's Lutheran state church had no parochial system territorially assigning parishioners to a particular church, but all Lutherans of Frankfurt formed a citywide community with one presbytery (Gemeindevorstand, comprising 36 elders), elected by the enfranchised parishioners, however, the voter turnout was always lower than 3% of the electorate.

Only Frankfurt's five rural Lutheran congregations in Bonames, Bornheim, Hausen, Niederrad, Niederursel and Oberrad formed separate parishes.

The city-area was newly divided into six parishes, each assigned to one of the six Lutheran churches, the rural congregations now also received elected bodies.

However, the usurpation of leading positions by Nazi-submissive clergy made the opponents of Nazism in the regional church doubt the legal validity of the merger.

This appropriation was protested by the emperor who – by the Augsburg Interim of 1548 – regained all former collegiate churches, including their endowments of earning assets, for Catholic parishes, which the city thus had to tolerate within its boundary.

Complete legal equality was achieved simultaneously with the end of the free imperial city (German: Freie Reichsstadt) and the Edict of Toleration, 1806.

Reformed Protestants from France and the Low Countries, in the 1550s reluctantly adopted in the free imperial city, were forbidden to profess their faith in 1561, but enjoyed unlimited staying permits, but not citizenship.

After the Amendment Acts to the Constitution had been passed the Churches were forced to fund all costs of their religious cult as according to the treaties without competing with the city-aerarii.