1936 On the Continent

Judengasse, where in the former bank of the Rothschilds a Jewish museum is established, and in the old Jewish Friedhof which, with the Prager, is one of the most beautiful of its kind.
Goethe and Old Frankfort
    For some people Frankfort is more famous as the home of the Rothschilds, for some as the birthplace and the home in his youth of the greatest of the German poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He also came from the middle class, his family holding high official posts. At the time when Goethe was born and brought up on the banks of the Main, when he entered his profession and wrote his first poem, the present-day town of nearly half a million inhabitants, although important commercially and politically, had a population of only 30,000. The surroundings in which lived Goethe and his 30,000 contemporaries are to a large extent preserved intact to this day. Round about the Römerberg, quite the most beautiful marketplace in the world, where each year the festival plays take place, and in the little streets and squares, hardly anything has changed since Goethe’s time, and its medieval character remains. I naturally visited the Goethe House in the Grossen Hirschgraben, which not only reflects unchanged Goethe’s background, but isone of the finest examples of a Frankfort patrician’s house. The “Haus zur Golden Wage,” the Metzgerhöfchen, the wonderful little street which bears the name Hinter dem goldener Lämmchen, the stone house in the old market, the Heitserhaus in the Grossen Fleischergasse, are only a few of the places in Old Frankfort which certainly ought to be visited. I must say that the Fünffinger Plätzchen, which I discovered myself, made the greatest impression of all on me personally; here the brightly painted medieval houses, at the extremely narrow openings of five diminutive streets, literally lean against one another and one forgets that one lives in the hurried, machine-ridden age of the twentieth century.
    Old Paul’s Church, which is really considerably younger than many others in Frankfort, interests us English as democrats on account of the fact that in its aisles in the middle of the nineteenth century an attempt was made to establish the United German State on democratic lines. Amongst the ambassadors to this memorable national gathering was the young Bismarck, later the creator of the German Empire. The name of another German Chancellor will be found in Frankfort—that of Bethmann-Hollweg, who was at the head of the German Government during the War, and whose family has its house and banking business in Frankfort to-day.
Frankfort: Shops and Hotels
    My extraordinarily interesting walks in the old town had so detained me that, in spite of my usual habit, I had hardly any time left to stroll about the principal shopping streets and in the standardised modern residential quarters of the commercial metropolis. A hasty walk through the Kaiserstrasse, however, which changes at the Schillerplatz to the Zeil, showed me that the shops reflected the prosperity and the good taste of the Frankforters.
    One of my best recollections is my climb up the tower of the cathedral, where I saw the whole of the Old Town laid out like a toy city. The view also from the old bridge which leads out from the Old Town gives a wonderful impression of the compactness of this many-centuries-old city.
    I stayed at the Frankfurter Hof, so as to get acquainted with one of the best-known hotels in Germany. It once had a reputation for being outrageously expensive, but to my relief I did not find it dear. For 10 marks I had a very good room with a bathroom; the latter is an advantage, as in the German hotels if one has no private bathroom the bath is charged extra, on an average from 1 to 2 marks. The Frankfurter Hof has also the advantage of its situation, right in the centre of the town; from here the Goethehaus, the Römer and the Main can be reached in a few minutes. The Excelsior, Parkhotel and Kaiserhof can also be well recommended, and are about one-fourth cheaper than the Frankfurter Hof. Round the station there are a large number of cheaper hotels; friends of mine once stayed at the Vier Jahreszeiten, where a room with breakfast and service, running hot and cold water, cost 3.50 marks. There are also many good hospices, the largest being the Baseler Hof and the Savoy Hotel.
Frankfort: Amusements and Food
    Although commerce and industry are its background, Frankfort is the equal of any other town as regards