Hauptwache is the focus of the busy shopping and business area of Frankfurt-am-Main. In the middle of this thoroughfare is the Hauptwache building, which was constructed in 1730 as a guardhouse for the city, and later became a prison. Public executions were held here, and rumour has it that Johann Goethe was inspired to write his most famous work Faust after witnessing a hanging at the Hauptwache. The building was dismantled to allow the busy underground station and shopping precinct to be built, and then reconstructed brick by brick. Today it is a popular café.
