As an important commercial and industrial centre and a densely populated transport hub, Frankfurt was included in Allied target planning from an early stage of the war.
Major raids took place on:
30 August 1941,
11 April 1941,
13 September 1943,
4 October 1943,
21 December 1943,
29 January 1944,
19 March 1944,
22 March 1944,
13 September 1944,
15 September 1944,
25 September 1944,
11 December 1944
Between 4 June 1940 and 24 March 1945, air raids on Frankfurt killed 5,559 people according to the figures presented here.
A particularly tragic raid took place on 4 October 1943, when a direct hit on the children’s hospital in Gagernstraße destroyed its air-raid shelter. Ninety children, fourteen nurses, one doctor and 414 other civilians were killed.
The city centre was almost completely levelled, including the Römer, Goethe House, the cathedral and St Paul’s Church. By the end of the war, more than 80,000 homes had been destroyed, along with over 1,000 historic monuments and buildings.
Frankfurt in ruins
Frankfurt in ruins
