Hanau

Hanau is a city in the German state of Hesse, about 25 kilometres east of Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway station is a major junction and its port on the river Main makes it an important transport centre. The city is the birthplace of the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, and since the sixteenth century it has been a centre of precious metal working with many goldsmiths. The company Heraeus, one of the largest family-owned firms in Germany, is based there. With more than 96,000 residents it was the largest city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis before becoming a district-free city in 2026. Much of its architectural heritage, including the City Palace, was lost in the Second World War, when a British air raid in 1945 destroyed most of the old city.