Frankfurt
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50 free Frankfurt trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Frankfurt am Main is the German city that looks least like the rest of the country: a cluster of glass towers beside a rebuilt medieval square, with trading floors a short walk from old taverns. It has been a place where rulers were chosen, where a first national parliament sat, and where a surprising number of famous lives began. This quiz covers the whole story. You will meet the landmarks and the skyline, the city's part in German history from the Middle Ages to the post-war years, and the writers, scientists and thinkers linked to it. There are questions on local dishes, on the football club and its big European nights, and on the fun facts that guidebooks tend to skip. It suits anyone planning a trip, locals who want to test what they know, and pub-quiz fans who like a geography round with some history mixed in. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a new detail even when you guess wrong.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which airship left Frankfurt in May 1937 bound for New Jersey, where it burst into flames while landing?
Hindenburg
Hindenburg began nearly all its Atlantic crossings at Frankfurt's airport, and in 1936 flew a record round trip to Lakehurst in under 99 hours in the air.
Q 02Which smaller city on the Rhine narrowly beat Frankfurt in the 1949 vote to choose West Germany's capital?
Bonn
Bonn won partly because Konrad Adenauer, the first postwar chancellor, wanted the capital close to his hometown.
Q 03Which storybook heroine is sent to Frankfurt as a companion for the invalid Klara Sesemann?
Heidi
Heidi grows so homesick in the grand Frankfurt household that she starts sleepwalking, and the family doctor has her sent back to the mountains.
Q 04Which girl, born in Frankfurt in June 1929, moved with her family to Amsterdam after the Nazis took power?
Anne Frank
Anne Frank was four and a half when she joined her family in Amsterdam in 1934. Her father Otto was the only one of them to survive the Holocaust.
Q 05Which writer was born in 1749 in a Frankfurt house that was bombed flat and later rebuilt as a museum?
Goethe
Goethe's family home was destroyed in a 1944 air raid, then rebuilt exactly as it had stood, with work starting in 1947.
Q 06Which EU institution moved in 2014 into a new tower on the site of Frankfurt's former wholesale market?
European Central Bank
European Central Bank staff had worked in the Eurotower before the move, and the bank kept that building too because banking supervision needed the extra space.
Q 07Which tart drink is poured from grey stoneware jugs called Bembel in Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen taverns?
Apple wine
Apple wine is the state beverage of Hesse and comes in a ribbed glass called a Geripptes, cut to give a better grip.
Q 08Which banking dynasty began in Frankfurt's Judengasse, the Jewish ghetto where its founder Mayer Amschel was born?
Rothschild
Rothschild became an international name through Mayer Amschel's five sons, who ran banks in five European cities from London to Naples.
Q 09Frankfurt is the largest city in the German state of Hesse, but which smaller city is the state capital?
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden already held the state government in 1949, one reason Frankfurt looked free to become West Germany's federal capital.
Q 10Which product is traded each October at a huge Frankfurt fair with roots in the fifteenth century?
Books
Books have been traded at Frankfurt since at least 1462, soon after Gutenberg developed movable-type printing in the nearby city of Mainz.
Q 11Which club beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7–3 at Hampden Park in the 1960 European Cup final?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid won before a record crowd of over 127,000, with Ferenc Puskás scoring four goals and Alfredo Di Stéfano three.
Q 12Which boxer defended his world heavyweight title against Karl Mildenberger at Frankfurt's Waldstadion in 1966?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was troubled early on by the German's awkward southpaw style and needed until the 12th round to stop him.
Q 13Which condition is named after the doctor who examined Auguste Deter at a Frankfurt asylum in 1901?
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease was described after she died in 1906: her husband had agreed to hand over her brain and records in return for free care.
Q 21Which cold Frankfurt speciality is made from seven fresh herbs, including borage, sorrel and chervil?
Green sauce
Green sauce is eaten with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, and Frankfurt honoured it with a monument of its own in 2007.
Q 22In Frankfurt's dish 'Handkäse mit Musik', which topping is said to provide the 'music' through its effect on digestion?
Raw onions
Raw onions are piled on the pungent sour-milk cheese, and locals joke that the music arrives later.
Q 23Which sweet paste forms Bethmännchen, the Frankfurt Christmas treats named after a local banking family?
Marzipan
Marzipan is rolled into balls and studded with almonds; legend says there were once four, one for each son of the banker Simon Moritz von Bethmann.
Q 14Which round Frankfurt landmark housed the first parliament for the whole of Germany from 1848 to 1849?
Paulskirche
Paulskirche was picked because its circular preaching hall let every delegate hear the speaker, and it was the first building Frankfurt rebuilt after the war.
Q 15Which former merchant's house on a Frankfurt square has served as the city hall for more than 600 years?
The Römer
The Römer was sold to the city council by a merchant family in 1405, and the complex now spreads across nine houses around six courtyards.
Q 16Which British architect designed Frankfurt's Commerzbank Tower, Europe's tallest building on completion in 1997?
Norman Foster
Norman Foster's firm opened the tower's atrium into sky gardens at nine levels, earning it the label of the world's first ecological skyscraper.
Q 17Which share index tracks the major German blue-chip companies trading on Frankfurt's stock exchange?
DAX
DAX began at a base value of 1,000 points at the end of 1987, and unlike most headline share indices it counts reinvested dividends as well as prices.
Q 18Which Frankish ruler held a church council at Frankfurt in 794, the year of the city's first written mention?
Charlemagne
Charlemagne kept a royal court at the site, and his council drew bishops from the Frankish kingdom, Italy and Aquitaine, plus clergy from England.
Q 19Which kingdom annexed the Free City of Frankfurt in 1866, ending its independence?
Prussia
Prussia had just beaten Austria, and Frankfurt, loyal to the German Confederation, was folded into the new province of Hesse-Nassau by royal decree.
Q 20What does the 'furt' in Frankfurt's name mean, a clue to why the Franks valued the site?
A ford
A ford is a shallow stretch where a river can be crossed on foot, and legend says a doe showed the Frankish army the way over.
Q 24Which set of cautionary tales did Frankfurt doctor Heinrich Hoffmann write as a Christmas present for his young son?
Struwwelpeter
Struwwelpeter includes a tailor who snips off the thumbs of a boy who will not stop sucking them, and Mark Twain later made his own English translation.
Q 25Which room did Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky redesign in 1926 as a compact built-in unit for Frankfurt's social housing?
The kitchen
The kitchen she designed was laid out to cut the steps a cook had to take, and about 10,000 were installed, the forerunner of today's fitted kitchens.
Q 26Which Oscar-winning film composer was born in Frankfurt in 1957 and moved to London as a teenager?
Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer started out writing advertising jingles in London before winning Academy Awards for his scores to The Lion King and Dune.
Q 27Germany's other Frankfurt, a smaller city on the River Oder, looks across the water to which country?
Poland
Poland gained the part of town on the east bank after World War II; renamed Słubice, it had belonged to Frankfurt an der Oder until 1945.
Q 28Which Scottish club did Eintracht Frankfurt beat on penalties in Seville to win the 2022 Europa League?
Rangers
Rangers lost the shoot-out 5–4 after a 1–1 draw, and Eintracht finished the whole competition unbeaten.
Q 29Which airline, founded in Cologne in 1953, runs its largest hub and operations base at Frankfurt Airport?
Lufthansa
Lufthansa long hoped to move its base back to Germany's pre-war capital, but the plan was never carried out, even after reunification.
Q 30Which king turned down the imperial crown that the Frankfurt Parliament offered him in 1849?
Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV would not take a crown from an elected assembly, arguing that the offer trampled the rights of the German princes.