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The Secrets of Frankfurt
Where Emperors Were Crowned and Democracy Was Born
This city has always punched above its weight. A free imperial city since the Middle Ages, Frankfurt crowned Holy Roman Emperors in its cathedral and gave birth to German democracy in its churches. Then the bombs came in 1944 and erased almost everything. But Frankfurt rebuilt — glass towers beside reconstructed half-timbered houses, a skyline locals proudly call “Mainhattan.”
How to Play
- Tap a stop to read its story
- Solve the riddle — tap your answer
- The truth (+ hidden history) is revealed!
- Tap the 📍 address to navigate via Google Maps
The Imperial Age
Where Emperors Celebrated
For six centuries, newly crowned emperors walked from the cathedral to this square for their coronation banquet.
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Römerberg & Römer
Medieval · 1405
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📖 The Story
You stand in the heart of old Frankfurt. The Römer — three step-gabled houses — has been the city hall since 1405, when the council bought it from a merchant named Kunz for 800 guldens. Inside, the Kaisersaal glows with life-sized portraits of every Holy Roman Emperor from Charlemagne to Francis II. After coronations at the cathedral, the new emperor processed here for a banquet while outside, a fountain on this very square ran with wine.
🧩 Riddle
The city council purchased the Römer in 1405. How much did they pay?
💡 Need a hint?
A sum in guldens — think three digits, a round number...
🍺Local’s Tip
Cross the square to Haus Wertheym — the only half-timbered house on Römerberg to survive WWII intact. Order a Handkäse mit Musik and an Apfelwein. Sit in the courtyard and toast to survival.
The Age of Coronations
The Cathedral That Made Emperors
Not technically a cathedral — no bishop ever sat here. Yet this church crowned more rulers than almost any building in Europe.
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Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus
Gothic · Founded 852 AD
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📖 The Story
Since 1356, when Emperor Charles IV issued the Golden Bull, every Holy Roman Emperor was elected in this church. From 1562 onward, they were crowned here too — sixteen emperors in total, in a small vaulted room called the Wahlkapelle. The 95-meter Gothic tower took decades to complete and was once the tallest structure in Frankfurt. Climb 328 steps and the entire city unfolds beneath you.
🧩 Riddle
The Golden Bull of 1356 decreed that emperors would be elected here. Who issued it?
💡 Need a hint?
A Holy Roman Emperor whose number matched his name in Roman numerals...
🗣️ Frankfurters never call their skyline “the skyline.” They call it “Mainhattan” — a portmanteau of the Main river and Manhattan. They’re proud of it, and they should be.
The Birth of Democracy
Where Germany First Dared to Be Free
On May 18, 1848, 600 delegates gathered here for the first freely elected German parliament. Nothing would ever be the same.
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Paulskirche
Neoclassical · 1789–1833
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📖 The Story
The revolution of 1848 swept across Europe. In Frankfurt, delegates from every German state crowded into this oval Protestant church to draft a constitution based on freedom, equality, and the rule of law. It was bold, idealistic, and ultimately crushed by the old powers. But the words survived. In 1949, when West Germany wrote its Basic Law, the fundamental rights were taken almost word-for-word from the Paulskirche constitution.
🧩 Riddle
A famous American president visited in 1963 and called Paulskirche the “cradle of German democracy.” Who?
💡 Need a hint?
He also gave a famous speech at the Berlin Wall that same trip...
☕Local’s Tip
Walk two minutes to Bitter & Zart on Braubachstraße. This chocolate boutique and café serves exquisite hot chocolate and handmade pralines. The perfect reward after contemplating the weight of history.
The Age of Genius
The House That Made a Poet
On August 28, 1749, Germany’s greatest writer was born in this house. He would change literature forever.
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Goethe-Haus
Baroque · Built ~1618
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📖 The Story
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent his first 16 years here. His father, a wealthy imperial councillor, filled the house with books and art. Young Goethe wrote the first draft of Faust and the revolutionary Götz von Berlichingen in these rooms. The original house was destroyed in 1944 — only the cellar survived the Allied bombing. It was meticulously rebuilt and reopened in 1951 by President Theodor Heuss.
🧩 Riddle
Which groundbreaking work did young Goethe begin writing in this very house?
💡 Need a hint?
A deal with the devil — it became the most famous work in German literature...
🗣️ Frankfurt’s airport (FRA) is the busiest in Germany and third busiest in Europe. Locals joke that more people pass through Frankfurt than actually want to stay. Prove them wrong.
Rebirth From Rubble
35 Houses, 1,250 Ghosts
Where 1,250 medieval buildings once stood, 35 new ones now rise — 15 of them faithful reconstructions of what the bombs took.
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Neue Altstadt (New Old Town)
Reconstructed · 2012–2018
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📖 The Story
Before 1944, Frankfurt’s old town was one of the largest half-timbered districts in Europe — approximately 1,250 medieval and Renaissance houses. Allied bombing erased almost all of it. For decades, a brutalist concrete complex sat here instead. Then in 2012, Frankfurt did something extraordinary: it tore down the concrete and rebuilt 35 houses, 15 of them meticulous recreations. The crown jewel is the Haus zur Goldenen Waage, a Renaissance merchant’s house from 1618.
🧩 Riddle
How many visitors came to the opening festival of the New Old Town in September 2018?
💡 Need a hint?
Think hundreds of thousands — a quarter of a million or more...
🍰Local’s Tip
Inside the Neue Altstadt, find Café im Goldenen Lämmchen. This tiny café sits in a reconstructed house and serves Frankfurt’s best Bethmännchen — the city’s signature marzipan pastry. Order with a coffee.
The Gilded Stage
Germany’s Most Beautiful Ruin
Emperor Wilhelm I himself attended the opening in 1880. Sixty-four years later, bombs reduced it to a shell.
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Alte Oper
Neo-Renaissance · 1880
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📖 The Story
Architect Richard Lucae designed one of Germany’s grandest opera houses, which opened on October 20, 1880 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana premiered here in 1937. Then came 1944 — the interior was gutted, but the majestic facades survived. For decades, Frankfurters called it “Germany’s most beautiful ruin.” Citizens fought to save it from demolition, and it finally reopened on August 28, 1981 — Goethe’s birthday, naturally.
🧩 Riddle
Which now-famous choral work had its world premiere at the Alte Oper in 1937?
💡 Need a hint?
O Fortuna! A dramatic opening that everyone recognizes...
🗣️ The Zeil shopping street near Hauptwache is one of the highest-grossing shopping streets in all of Europe. On Saturdays, it feels like the entire Rhein-Main region has descended upon it.
The Iron Age
170 Meters of Love and Steel
Built by public subscription, blown up by the Wehrmacht, rebuilt in 1946 — this bridge has survived everything.
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Eiserner Steg
Industrial · 1868
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📖 The Story
In 1868, Frankfurt’s citizens pooled their money to build a pedestrian bridge across the Main. The original wrought-iron structure was replaced in 1911 with a larger cantilever design. In the final days of WWII, retreating German troops destroyed it — but the city rebuilt it within a year. Today, 10,000 people cross it daily, and thousands of love locks hang from its railings. At sunset, with the skyline glowing behind you and Sachsenhausen ahead, it might be the most beautiful viewpoint in Frankfurt.
🧩 Riddle
The bridge was famously funded not by the government but by what method?
💡 Need a hint?
The citizens reached into their own pockets...
🍺Local’s Tip
Cross the bridge to Sachsenhausen and find Apfelwein Wagner. This legendary apple wine tavern has been serving since 1931. Order a Bembel (jug) of Apfelwein and Grüne Soße with potatoes and eggs. Sit at the communal tables.
The Art Mile
700 Years Under One Roof
A banker’s dying wish created Germany’s oldest museum foundation. Two centuries later, it’s still extraordinary.
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Städel Museum
Founded 1815
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📖 The Story
Johann Friedrich Städel was a wealthy Frankfurt banker who loved art more than money. When he died in 1816, his will left everything — his house, his collection, his fortune — to found a public art institute. Today, the museum holds 3,100 paintings, 660 sculptures, over 100,000 drawings, and 5,000 photographs. From Botticelli to Rembrandt, Vermeer to Picasso, Beckmann to Richter — 700 years of European art in a single building on the banks of the Main.
🧩 Riddle
The Städel was founded from the bequest of a wealthy Frankfurt professional. What was his profession?
💡 Need a hint?
He made his fortune in finance, not brushstrokes...
🗣️ Frankfurt has more museums per capita than almost any German city. The Museumsufer (Museum Embankment) along both banks of the Main holds over a dozen world-class institutions within walking distance.
The Last Sentinel
The Tower a Frenchman Saved
Of the 60 towers that once guarded Frankfurt’s walls, this is the most magnificent survivor — saved from demolition by an unlikely hero.
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Eschenheimer Turm
Medieval · 1426–1428
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📖 The Story
Madern Gerthener, the architect of Frankfurt Cathedral, completed this 47-meter tower in 1428. It was the grandest of roughly 60 towers in the city’s fortifications. When Napoleon’s forces ordered the medieval walls demolished in 1806–1812, the Eschenheimer Turm was slated for destruction. But the French ambassador, Count d’Hédouville, objected — he found the tower too beautiful to destroy. It was spared, and today stands as the oldest unaltered building in Frankfurt’s city center.
🧩 Riddle
Who saved the Eschenheimer Turm from demolition during the Napoleonic era?
💡 Need a hint?
A diplomat from the very country whose army ordered the walls torn down...
🍔Local’s Tip
The tower’s ground floor is now a bar-restaurant. Grab a drink at Eschenheimer Turm Restaurant and sit outside on Eschenheimer Anlage with a view of the tower’s medieval spire against the glass skyscrapers behind it. Frankfurt in one frame.
The Soul of Frankfurt
Where Apple Wine Flows Like Water
Cross the river, and you enter a different world — cobblestones, half-timbered houses, and the tangy scent of Apfelwein.
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Sachsenhausen & Apfelwein Quarter
Historic District · 16th Century Onward
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📖 The Story
Sachsenhausen is where Frankfurt exhales. Since the 16th century, when a vine pest destroyed grape harvests and beer taxes made ale unaffordable, locals turned to fermented apple juice. Apfelwein became Frankfurt’s drink — served from a blue-grey stoneware jug called a Bembel, drunk from a diamond-patterned glass called a Gerippte. The taverns here — Zum Gemalten Haus, Adolf Wagner, Zur Buchscheer — have served it for generations at communal tables where strangers become friends.
🧩 Riddle
Apfelwein is traditionally served from a distinctive blue-grey stoneware jug. What is it called?
💡 Need a hint?
Five letters, starts with B, rhymes with “tremble”...
🗣️ The word “Frankfurter” means two things worldwide: a citizen of Frankfurt, and a sausage. Locals are remarkably good-humored about this. Ask one which they prefer to be called.
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Palmengarten
22-hectare botanical garden with tropical greenhouses and over 13,000 plant species. Founded 1871.
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Main Tower Observation Deck
200-meter skyscraper with a public rooftop platform. The only tower with an open-air viewing deck in Mainhattan.
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Kleinmarkthalle
Indoor market hall with 60+ vendors. Cheese, olives, sausages, Grüne Soße herbs. Open Mon–Sat.
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Hauptwache
Baroque guard house from 1730, now a café. The heart of Frankfurt’s transit network and shopping district.
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Senckenberg Natural History Museum
Germany’s largest natural history museum. Dinosaur skeletons, Egyptian mummies, biodiversity exhibits.
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Ebbelwei-Express (Apple Wine Tram)
A vintage tram loop through the city. Ticket includes unlimited Apfelwein or apple juice. Runs weekends.
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Grüneburgpark
Frankfurt’s second-largest park. Korean Garden, playgrounds, and summer picnics. Adjacent to the Palmengarten.