1936 On the Continent

illuminated signs of the neighbouring hotels and shops. It was once the largest, now the second largest, station in Germany. Its solidity and impressiveness are typical of the whole town.
    Frankfort, one of the oldest and historically most important towns in the German Reich, combines in the happiest way the old and the new. The monuments to its ancient culture are almost without exception preserved, and the great modern town, grown out of the picturesque market-place and the narrow yet fine streets of the Old Town, does not in any way spoil the picture; on the contrary, it is evidence that the aesthetic taste shown by the Frankforters in medieval times has survived to this day. The climate is mild and invigorated by the fresh breezes from the nearby Taunas. Though compared with other German towns it has the reputation of being somewhat damp, to us English Frankfort will seem to be a dry and sunny town.
    In the morning, when I left my hotel to see the town on foot (which is quite possible in Frankfort as nearly all the sights are close to one another), I noted that I had left my guide-book, up to then of great importance to me, in my room. I was too lazy to go back for it and made a virtue of necessity. After the experiences of my unforgettable walk through Frankfort Old Town, I would advise anyone to wander round the old market and theRömerberg with no set purpose and without looking for sights. Anyone, even if not too enthusiastic about art or a connoisseur of architecture, may experience the joy of discovery as I did. Nothing is more satisfying than to discover beauty for oneself, and in Frankfort this can be done at every turn. One should, of course, go home afterwards and look up the guide-book, from which one can note what has been missed out and what else must be seen.
    Frankfort is and always was an outstandingly middle-class town, in spite of the fact that for a time the Kurfürsten used to elect the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German peoples in the old Rathaus in the Römer, and feasted with him afterwards in the Kaisersaal, which was of course newly decorated. Frankfort was, with Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, one of the free, independent town-states of Germany, and only gave up its independence after the 1866 Prussian-Austrian war, when Frankfort was on the side of the Austrians. The Prussians came to Frankfort as conquerors, but seventy years have sufficed to make of the one-time enemy one of the most important towns of Prussia. The burgher’s pride of the free Frankforter persists, however, to this day.
The Jews of Frankfort
    On visiting Frankfort even a thoroughly non-political traveller like myself can hardly avoid the Jewish question. Whilst on the one hand it was maintained that Frankfort was indebted for its beauty, perfection and wealth principally to the rich, old-established Jewish families, on the other hand it was referred to contemptuously as a Jewish town. It is hard for us English to understand these race questions, but who can avoid them in the home town of the Rothschild family? It is a fact that after Berlin, Frankfort had the largest Jewish population, but even before the Third Reich the number of Jews was only 5 per cent. of the 450,000 inhabitants. In the last three years the number of Jews here, as in the whole of Germany, has diminished considerably. It is known that in the eleventh century there were Jews living in Frankfort, and in the later centuries many Jewish families migrated there. The Jews did not make a commercial town of Frankfort,but they settled there because it had always been the principal trading centre between North and West, and East and South, and as far back as the Middle Ages took the lead in financial matters. The families then, which later became leaders of commerce in Germany and to some extent the world, originated in the one-time Frankfort ghetto. In addition to the Rothschilds who, originating in the Judengasse in Frankfort, may be said to have acquired world-wide fame, Frankfort is the home of many families which have risen to importance in the commercial life of England and America, such as the Goldschmidts, the Speyers, the Oppenheimers, the Sondheimers.
    It is a fact that, even if the Jewish statistics are not of such importance in Frankfort as is maintained, the part played by the Jews in the history of Frankfort cannot be overlooked, and for the foreign traveller it is interesting to trace the past history of the town in the one-time