Overview

Paulskirche (St. Paul's Church) became famous not as a church, but as a meeting place. Built to replace the Barfüßerkirche (Church of the Barefooted), it was opened in 1833. The first freely-elected German parliament sat here in 1848; it met 99 times and passed 59 articles which are still part of the German constitution today. Destroyed in an air-raid in 1944, the church was rebuilt in 1947/48 as a memorial to the horrors of war. The simple hall is now a venue for important events such as the annual German Peace Prize ceremony and the City of Frankfurt's Goethepreis awards.