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Rhein-Main

The Rhein-Main metropolitan area of Germany,1 with 3.1 million residents, centers on six cities: Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Mainz (Mayence in French), Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg, none of which have a million residents. The only one not on the Rhein2 or Main is Darmstadt, located southeast of the two rivers' conjunction. Aschaffenburg is furthest up the Main. Frankfurt3 is on the Main's right, with Offenbach approximately opposite it. Just past the confluence is Mainz, on the Rhein's left, with Wiesbaden more or less opposite. Frankfurt's skyscrapers include the Commerzbank Tower, 259 meters, the pyramid-roofed Messe Turm, 257 meters and the steel-crowned Westendstrasse1, with its accessory: a sculpture of a tie by the entrance. Older buildings include the 19th century opera house, Alte Oper; the 15th century city hall, Roemer, the baroque building atop a train station, the Hauptwache, the Gothic Saint Bartholemeus's Cathedral4 and the re-created Goethe House. Mainz's main attractions are its Roman ruins and the 12th century St. Martin's cathedral. Darmstadt includes two Jugenstil examples: the Marriage Tower,5 in a garden and the Russian Chapel.6 The city sights also include Hundertwasser's Forest Spiral,7 wrapping about a courtyard, and surmounted by a roof arbor. Aschaffenburg's best known building is the 17th century Schloss St. Johannisburg. Not far beyond Darmstadt is the Messel Pit Fossil Site, which Unesco honored as a World Heritage Site; it boasts many Eocene fossils, especially of mammals.

In Mainz from 1669 to 1672, Leibniz mostly completed the development of his calculus, although it was published later and elsewhere.8

City or metropolitan areaYearPopulation9Political entity
Mainz100025,000Regnum Francorum (Holy Roman Empire)
Mainz120025,000Imperium Romanum Sacrum (Holy Roman Empire)
Mainz130024,000Kurfürstentum10, 11 Mainz (nominally Imperium Romanum Sacrum or Holy Roman Empire)
Mainz170024,000Kurfürstentum11 Mainz (nominally Imperium Romanum Sacrum or Holy Roman Empire)
Mayence180023,000République française (French Republic)
Mainz-Wiesbaden1900193,000Deutsches Reich (German Empire)

Main River, buildings on far side, garden park on near side, threatening clouds

Historical maps

map showing part of Regnum Francorum, 1000 CE

map showing part of Regnum Teutonicum, 1100 CE

map showing part of Imperium Romanum Sacrum, 1200 CE

map showing part of Kurfürstentum Mainz, 1300 to 1700 CE

map showing part of the République française, 1800 CE

map showing part of the Deutsches Reich, 1900 CE

map of Deutschland, the Benelux countries and Danmark (part), 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. Deutschland in German.
2. Rhine in English.
3. Frankfurt-am-Main is the longer form.
4. Not a cathedral in the sense of the longer form.
5. Hochzeitsturm in German.
6. Russische Kapelle in German.
7. Waldspirale in German.
8. John Stillwell, Mathematics and Its History, 2nd ed. (Springer, 2002), pg. 168.
9. Estimates in Tables of the World's Largest Cities, or in Continental Tables and Maps: Europe, both in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987). In 1000 Mainz was the largest city in what is now Deutschland, België, Nederland, Luxembourg and Danmark.
10. The city proper also had a charter for a while; during this period it could be considered a Reichsstadt (Free City) distinct from the Kurfürstentum Mainz.
11. The Archbishop of Mainz was also subordinate to the Pope in Roma, but in practice his feudal role was independent of papal direction.