Editing Frankfurt (section)

===Frankfurt as a fully sovereign state===
After Napoleon's final defeat and abdication, the [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814–1815) dissolved the grand-duchy and Frankfurt became a fully sovereign city-state with a republican form of government. Frankfurt entered the newly founded [[German Confederation]] (till 1866) as a free city, becoming the seat of its {{lang|de|Bundestag}}, the confederal parliament where the nominally presiding [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg Emperor of Austria]] was represented by an Austrian "presidential envoy".

After the ill-fated [[German revolutions of 1848–1849|revolution of 1848]], Frankfurt was the seat of the first democratically elected German parliament, the [[Frankfurt Parliament]], which met in the {{lang|de|[[Frankfurter Paulskirche]]}} (St. Paul's Church) and was opened on 18 May 1848. In the year of its existence, the assembly developed a common constitution for a unified Germany, with the Prussian king as its monarch. The institution failed in 1849 when the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] king, [[Frederick William IV of Prussia|Frederick William IV]], declared that he would not accept "a crown from the gutter".