The story of this place
In the revolutionary spring of 1848, delegates from across the German states gathered in Frankfurt's round Paulskirche to form the first freely elected national assembly in German history. For a year they debated liberty, unity and a constitution for a democratic Germany, drafting a bill of basic rights and offering the crown of a united empire to the King of Prussia. Friedrich Wilhelm IV contemptuously refused a crown 'from the gutter', and the revolution collapsed; troops dissolved the parliament and many delegates fled abroad. Though it failed, the Frankfurt Parliament became the touchstone of German democratic tradition. The church, burned out in 1944, was the first Frankfurt monument rebuilt after the war as a symbol of democratic hope.