Frankfurt am Main
From 1150 trade fair to ECB headquarters—Frankfurt's 900-year advantage: neutral ground where competing currencies could trade. 2026: digital euro tests physical primacy.
Frankfurt exists because medieval merchants needed a neutral market where competing currencies could be exchanged—the same instinct that later made it home to the European Central Bank and Germany's financial capital.
The Frankfurt Trade Fair was first documented in 1150, receiving imperial protection in 1240 from Frederick II. In 1372, Frankfurt became a Free Imperial City, answerable only to the Emperor—not to any local prince. This neutrality was its advantage: Holy Roman Emperors were crowned here from 1562 to 1792, but more importantly, traders from across Europe knew Frankfurt's laws would be fair. In 1585, Frankfurt merchants created a standardized exchange system for dozens of circulating currencies—the seed of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The trade fair made Frankfurt rich; the Rothschild family made it a banking center. Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 but merged into its Frankfurt headquarters by 1957. After WWII, the Allies chose Frankfurt as the seat of the Bank deutscher Länder (precursor to the Bundesbank), institutionalizing its financial role. The ECB's arrival in 1998 (new €1.3 billion headquarters completed in 2015) and Brexit's 2016-2020 exodus of banking jobs from London transformed Frankfurt from Germany's financial capital to Europe's. Today 330 financial institutions employ 73,000+ banking workers in the Bankenviertel.
Frankfurt's metro region of 5.8 million people generates 8.35% of German GDP from 4.13% of its territory. Hesse's €57,290 GDP per capita exceeds Germany's average by 12.4%. Frankfurt Airport welcomed 61.6 million passengers in 2024 (Europe's largest cargo hub at 2.1 million metric tons). Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank, and KfW are headquartered here. In 2025, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) established Frankfurt as its headquarters.
By 2026, the digital euro (ECB targeting 2029 launch) will test whether physical banking headquarters still matter—or whether 900 years of neutral-ground advantage can survive the virtualization of money.