Frankfurt Coat of Arms

The area around Frankfurt is a low swampy valley criscrossed by channels of the River Main and surrounded by two mountain ranges the Odenwald and Spessart. Archeaological evidence shows that this area on the banks of the River Main has been under continuous settlement as early as 3000 BC. Waves of Celtic and Germanic tribes decsended into the area around the first and second centries BC. There is evidence of Roman settlement and development, including a Roman road that connected Mainz to Hidderheim in the area around AD 83 and into the second century AD. The center of the city is known as Domhügel(cathedral hill)and is a hill on an island that runs between the two arms of the River Main. At the same place, a Roman military camp was established and in the Merovingian era, the court of a Franconian king.

The name Frankfurt or Franconofurt meaning ford, or river crossing of the Franks, is thought to date from AD 500 when the Germanic Frankish tribes pushed the Germanic Alemanni tribes further to the south and began the occupation of the area.

In AD 794 Charlemange called a synod here to consider theological issues. For this, his first synod Charlemange built only a wooden "domus regis" (house of the king) rather than a stone palace. Charlemange never again returned to Frankfurt but his son and successor, Louis the Pious built a new palace complex here AD 822 In AD 843, after the Treaty of Verdun Frankfurt became the most important royal palatinate of the Eastern Franconians and the site where their early parliaments convened. The establishment of religious monasteries and numerous endowments to the local church furthered an urban community.

In AD 852 Louis's son, Louis the German is credited with building an impressive church here staffed with twelve clerics, an abbot and numerous treasures from the King's palace at Aachen. Between 1018 and 1045 the imperial palace may have been burned extensively which resulted in the Salian and Saxon kings avoiding Frankfurt until the Hohenstaufen Konrad III built a new palace on the south edge of Domhügel. Under the Hohenstaufen emperors, Frankfurt experienced strong growth and rising national importance. By 1180 the city had expanded greatly, and by 1250 had seen an increase in privledges in addition to economic growth. Police power in the city lay in the hands of the bailiffs and reeves. However, the citizens selected their own mayors and officials, who were responsible for police management and some judicial duties. These officials enjoyed the favor of the emperors, who had eliminated the reeves entirely by the end of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

When Konrad III departed for the Crusades he had his young son, Henry the IV named king in Frankfurt and with the election of Frederic I Barbarossa in 1152, a tradition was established in which Holy Roman Emperors were elected and crowned here at Louis the German's Church of St. Bartholomew. In 1356 on onwards the in the codification of law known as the Golden Bull, declared Frankfurt as the permanent city of choice for the Roman kings.