I had a few hours to kill after landing at the Frankfurt airport. Since Frankfurt is not one of the obvious tourist attractions of Germany, I had never visited the old city center. I entered the historically significant Paulskirche, where representatives from all over Germany met in 1848 to discuss German unification and a constitution for Germany inspired by the French revolution. But reactionary forces gained the upper hand and the so-called 1848 revolution was squashed by the middle of the next year. Today the church is a museum commemorating the constitutional convention of 1848/9. On the walls inside the church you can read the proclamations that were made by the convention in the Paulskirche. I am surprised just how similar the principles are to what was enacted in 1919, ushering in the Weimar Republic. It now becomes clear to me that convention in 1848 was not the failure that history books had made it out to be. The convention wrote the blueprint for all future democratic constitutions of Germany. After leaving the church, I went to a little souvenir shop across the road.
Next to many postcards of Frankfurt today it had two postcards that show what Frankfurt looked like right after World War II.  These pictures send a clear message: It is not a good idea to elect people in the highest office who are crazy. During what now seem twelve short years (the period from 1933 to 1945), the dreams and delusions of German citizens led a catastrophe that is symbolized by destruction (see photos) of such historic cities as Frankfurt. Thank God that Hitler was so fond of Paris that he gave a strict order not to bomb the French capital otherwise Paris would look like modern day Frankfurt.

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