Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-05-17
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
FRANKFORT HOME OF JEWISH

MUSEUM
"Frankfort-sausage," probably is
the reaction of the average Amer1-
can to the report that the home of
the hve famous Frankfurters is to be
a museum. Frankfort-on-the-Main in
Germany, the town from which hail
ed the famous banking family of
Rothschild, is to turn the old home
place of thai family into a museum
of Jewish Antiquities.
1T is upon the financial strength
of Frankfort hat its important COM
mercial standing among the cities
OF the European Continent rests,
rather than upon its manufactus
and other industries, though it has
these In abundance. Since the days
of old Mayer Anselm, the first of the
Rothschilds who won fame as a fl
nancier and sent out his five sons
to corner the money markets of other
European countries, Frankfort has
been the home of some of the strong
est moneyed institution3 IN the
world" says a bulletin of the Nation
al Geographic Society from its Wash
ington. d. c., headquarters.
Old Ford of the Franks"
Frankfort, now the size of Mil
waukee, Wisconsin, or Washington.
d. c., was the old TraiectuIn Fran
corum of ford Of the Franks of ear
iy Rcraan days which Charlemagne
selected as the place for the con-
vocation of bishops and mobiles. Its
position in a fertile and picturesque
plain surrounded by mountains has
been of the chief factors on
tributing to its long career of al
most uninterrupted prosperity.
During the days of Mayor An
selm, Frankfort, like most Europ-
no. naNtAo haA InuytCh 4 ~ ar
known as the Judengasso, the gates
of which were closed at night to
prevent the inhabitants from going
out of their portion Of the city I'M
til morning. Those gates were torn
down during the French occupation
of the city during 1906. By degrees
| almost all the old houses in the
! Ghetto have been torn down, with
the exception of Number 14S in the
street now known as the Borne
strasse, the ancestral home of the
Rothschilds, which has been restor-
| ed to it's former condition. This
is the building which is to house
the valuable collection OF antiquities
| representing all periods of Jewish
history from the Diaspora, or the
dispersion of the Jews after the
Babylonian captivity.
A Safe Deposit Vault of History
MANY a famous man has left a
heritage of history and romance to
the city. Charlemange built one of
his favorite palaces there; in the
thirteenth century the city became
one of the notable free cities of the
continent and so remained until
1855 when after having sided with
Austria in the war with Germany,
it was formally incorporated in h
Pr ussian State.
From the days of Frederick Bar
barossa, who was the first re!gning
German king to be chosen in the
city, it became customary to elect
the German rulers there, and in
1855 Charles ~ made this custom
a right. The Golden Bull, in which
the provision Is made, is still in the
Archives OF the Romer, or City Hall.
where it may be seen today almost
in its original state of preservation.
No other native of Frankfort
holds as high a place perhaps in
the hearts of SO many people as
Goethe. At Number %, Grosser Hir-
schgraben, stands the Gotehe House,
where the poet spent his boyhood. 1t
has been carefully preserved and
on the front has been placed the
following inscription: Johann Wolf
gang Goethe was born in this house
2Sth August, 1749.'
"a short distance from the Goethe
house stands a house in which re-
sided for a time a man who left the
firm impress of his personality on
the German mind. Martin Luther's
picture hangs in the house and the
inscription marking the place reads:
In q%uietness and in confidence shall
be your strength
Napoleon defended the city and
made 1t the capital of a grand
duchy, but upon his downfall it re-
gained its independence.
"A statue of Schiller stands at the
beginning of the Zeil, the principal
business street of Frankfort. The
city is properly divided into the old
and the new sections. The former,
which is made up mainly of harrow
streets. centers about the Romer-
berg, or Market-place, from which
the Jews were for a long time barred.
The fashionable quarter of the city
is the West End"