Frankfurt am Main (
help·
info) (German: [ˈfraŋkfʊrt], British English: [ˈfɹaŋkfɜːt] American English: [ˈfɹaŋkfɝt]) is the largest city in the German
state of
Hesse and the fifth-largest city in
Germany after
Berlin,
Hamburg,
Munich and
Cologne, with an end-2006 population of 661,877.
[1] The Frankfurt urban area, which extends beyond the city boundaries, had an estimated population of 1,468,140 in 2000.
[2] The city is at the center of the larger
Frankfurt Rhine Main Area which has a population of 5 million and is Germany's second largest metropolitan area.
Situated on the
Main river, Frankfurt is the financial and transportation center of Germany. Frankfurt is the place of residence of the
European Central Bank, the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is one of the two largest financial centres in
continental Europe (the other one being
Paris). According to
Liverpool University, Frankfurt was the wealthiest city in the
European Union in 2001 as measured by
GDP per capita.
[3] It is also listed as one of nine
Alpha world cities.
[4]Among
English speakers the city is commonly known simply as "Frankfurt", though Germans occasionally call it by its full name when it is necessary to distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) Frankfurt in the German state of
Brandenburg, known as
Frankfurt (Oder). It was once called
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