A look back – stock market history in pictures

Old New Stock Exchange at St. Paul's Church

Towards the end of the 17th century, regular trading in promissory notes and bonds began. This created a market that was also open to non-merchants for investing their assets.

The Old Stock Exchange on Paulsplatz: opened in 1843, it was Frankfurt's first representative stock exchange building. The stock exchange assembly moved here after its previous premises had become too small for the growing trading business. In the 19th century, Frankfurt developed into an international capital market and the old stock exchange quickly became too small. A new stock exchange building was needed. The old new stock exchange stood empty. 

The photo from 1938 shows the once proud stock exchange – before it was destroyed in the Second World War.

Full house at the New Stock Exchange

Opened in 1879, the building on Börsenplatz provided a prestigious setting for trading bonds and stocks. In the 1920s and 30s, it was a hive of activity – traders and brokers filled the hall, prices were negotiated at the top of their voices, and the mood fluctuated between euphoric and tense. 

Despite Berlin's dominance, Frankfurt asserted itself as an internationally important financial center and offered southern German companies in particular an important alternative to the capital's stock exchange.

Trade in ruins

Under the Nazis, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange lost its importance: from 1933 onwards, free trade was severely restricted, stock exchange supervision was centralized, and many regional stock exchanges were closed. Capital was allowed to flow almost exclusively into the war economy – there was hardly any room left for bonds and stocks. 

In 1944, an Allied air raid finally hit the building itself, leaving it severely damaged. Meetings were only held in basement rooms. After the war, the end seemed sealed, but as early as September 1945, a new beginning began in Frankfurt – as one of the first stock exchanges to reopen in Germany.

A fresh start with clear words

On February 9, 1957, Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard opened the restored trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In his speech, he called for shares to be brought out of the political shadows and made attractive to the “little man.” An appeal that sounds as relevant today as it did then – because without broad participation, there can be no real capital market.

When prices were still written in chalk

A look at bond trading in 1978. On this day, a Mexican government bond and a Standard Chartered bank bond began trading.

For decades, Frankfurt was the center for international bonds denominated in German marks—a market that provided investors with security and gave countries and companies access to capital. Today, specialists manage around 37,000 different bonds—but chalkboards are long gone.

Voice to the world

In the pre-internet era, stock market reporters were the only source of information for the world outside the trading floors. They moved among the traders on the trading floor. Many became well-known figures and remain anchored in the collective memory.

Friedhelm Busch, left, was the first television journalist to report on the stock market for a wider audience. From 1987, he was the presenter of Telebörse, initially on Sat.1, and from 1994 on the newly founded news channel n-tv. For this, he received the Golden Camera in 1988 and the Golden Gong in 1989. Basic tone: humorous and entertaining.

Frank Lehmann, right, regularly presented ARD's stock market reporting from 1989 onwards, including on Tagesschau and Tagesthemen. He was the initiator and presenter of Börse im Ersten on ARD, currently Germany's most successful TV stock market program. Key characteristics: funny, ironic-skeptical, and Hessian. 

A crowded trading floor, hectic activity

1997: Stockbrokers, their deputies, bank traders, independent brokers, and stock market journalists crowded the Frankfurt trading floor. Bid and ask prices ran across greenish-shimmering monitors at the trading barrier. Instead of cell phones, long telephone cords hung from the small booths of the bank traders, and trading took place on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Trading was done in the traditional way—by shouting, with gestures and lots of waving. And yet, this year marked the start of a new era on the stock exchange.

Rapid change: digital trading with Xetra

The launch of the Xetra electronic trading system in 1997 fundamentally changed the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. By 2004, trading had long since gone digital – price information was displayed on screens in real time and transactions were executed at lightning speed. The trading floor remained a symbol, but the heart of trading now beat in the data centers. Digitalization made Frankfurt a global pioneer.

State-of-the-art and globally networked

Since 2006, white round trading barriers have shaped the image of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Specialists trade 1.5 million securities – and the stock exchange has remained a place for encounters, media, and the public. Frankfurt is thus not only one of the largest trading centers in Europe, but also a center for innovation, regulation, and capital market development.

• Anyone who would like to visit the Frankfurt Stock Exchange can see for themselves. Simply register free of charge at: boerse-frankfurt.de/besuch.