The street’s urban context has been largely lost - due to road breaches and wartime destruction in the bombing campaign, but above all the reconstruction of the 1950s, which failed to consider the preservation of the historical townscape.

The street's earliest record can be traced back to August 15, 1219, when King Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty mentioned it in an official document.

At the citizens of Frankfurt's request (ad supplicationem fidelium nostrorum universorum de Frankinfort ) King Frederick II granted a courtyard owned by the empire, situated on the Kornmarkt (aream seu curtem iacentem iuxta forum frumenti) to be used for the construction of the Leonhardkirche (Leonhard church).

Previously, the main streets predominantly ran in an east-west direction, including Alte Mainzer Gasse, Saalgasse, and Markt.

However, towards the end of the 15th century, the area underwent a significant transformation as printers and booksellers started to settle here, displacing the previously resident crafts.

Due to the liberal regulations of the Free Imperial City, even the writings of Martin Luther could be traded here at the beginning of the Reformation, which was banned elsewhere because of heresy.

A letter from Luther to his friend Spalatin, written from Frankfurt, has been preserved, in which he describes the physical hardships of his journey and continues: "But Christ lives!

The next morning, Luther wrote a letter to Lucas Cranach, hinting at his seclusion at Wartburg, stating, "I let myself be shut up and hidden, not yet knowing myself where...There must be a little time of silence and suffering: a little yet see me not, and yet a little, yet see me, saith Christ."

"After the Thirty Years' War, the intellectual center of Germany shifted from the imperial cities on the Rhine to the absolutist states in the north and east, causing the book trade to gradually migrate there, especially to Leipzig.

[3] Even after the end of the international book trade and the shift of the city center from the Altstadt to the Neustadt, the Kornmarkt remained a residential area of the upper class.

In 1788, the Große Stalburg was sold to the German Reformed congregation, which subsequently demolished it the following year to make way for their new church, built by Georg Friedrich Mack and Salins de Montfort.

The neighboring house Liebeneck (Großer Kornmarkt 15) was occupied by the Schönemann banking family, whose daughter Lili engaged with Johann Wolfgang Goethe in 1775, who grew up a few streets away.

During the Free City period, the building at Großer Kornmarkt 12, located opposite the Reformed Church, served as the seat of the city-state's Court of Appeal.

The soft areas of the old town, once characterized by gardens, arterial roads, and country houses, were quickly covered by urbanization.

Cross streets like Schöppen-, Pauls-, Römer- or Kälbergasse even disappeared completely from the Frankfurt city map.

Along Bethmannstraße, the imposing buildings of the new city hall were built between 1900 and 1908, designed by architects Franz von Hoven and Ludwig Neher.

During World War II, the western part of Frankfurt's Old Town, including Kornmarkt and Buchgasse, suffered severe destruction due to multiple air raids.

The reconstruction of Kornmarkt in the early 1950s followed a radically modern approach, departing from the previous small-scale division, and uniform street lines were completely abandoned.

In terms of traffic and functionality, Kornmarkt has significantly diminished in importance and is now relatively unknown compared to the main streets of Zeil.

As a consequence, Berliner Straße divides today’s Kornmarkt into two distinct areas that are no longer perceived as a coherent street.

Meanwhile, the southern section, characterized by administrative and residential buildings, remains part of the old town and excludes a quieter atmosphere.

The Kornmarkt roadway diagonally crosses the irregular square forecourt of the parking garage, which now occupies the former street space.

When it opened, it offered parking spaces for 430 vehicles, the garage was designed by architects Max Meid and Helmut Romeick, and it was commissioned by the city-owned Frankfurter Aufbau-Aktiengesellschaft.

On the opposite side of the street, between Kleinem Hirschgraben and Weißadlergasse, stands a three-part structure that is not parallel to the parking garage but rather spans a trapezoidal area.

South of the intersection with Münzgasse (west) and Limpurgergasse (east), row housing buildings from the 1950s show little regard for their location in the heart of a historic European city center.

[13] In 2007, a proposal was made in the city council to commemorate the winners of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade with a kind of "Walk of Fame" from the Paulskirche to the Buchgasse.

[14] The Buchgasse is also part of the Parade of Cultures route and is home to the Buchgassenfest,[15] which is organized by the Literature Society of Hesse in the courtyard and bistro of Lebenshaus St.