The Paulskirche (St. Pauls Church) is seen as the cradle of German democracy. In the course of the civil revolution of March 1848, as central building in Frankfurt, the Paulskirche was the obvious assembly point for the first representative body of the total German population. On 18. May 1848 the first freely elected National Assembly convened in Paulskirche to debate a constitution for a united Germany.
Completely burned down following an air raid on 18. March 1944, Paulskirche was rebuilt after the War as Frankfurt’s first historic building. On the one hundredth commemoration day of the National Assembly it was opened on 18. May 1948 as the “House of all Germans”.
Since then it has stood as national monument and is used principally for public functions, including the award of the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is awarded during the Frankfurt Book Fair.