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Frankfurt am Main: Frank Family Center at the JMF

Above: “It’s a miracle I’m still alive”, Otto Frank. Photo, 17 Jun 2023 (X70).

Familie Frank Zentrum, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt

Frank Family Centre, Jewish Museum Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main is a city I’ve visited countless times since 2001, but I hadn’t known until recently that Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were born in Frankfurt am Main, or that their parents, Otto and Edith, had lived in Frankfurt for almost ten years before moving their family to Amsterdam in early-1934. I’ve put together a list of places and traces the Frank family spent and left in Frankfurt am Main.

Here I cast light on the Frank Family Center (FFC), both memorial and historical record of the European-Jewish Frank family which was added to the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt (JMF) in 2020. Having begun in 2012, the Frank Family Center brings together an extensive collection of material belonging to the Frank-Elias families. The archive includes photographs, official documents, hand-written letters, art, books, household items, and furniture. The items provide a glimpse into the lives of the Frank- and Elias-families across Europe; there’s happy times, catastrophe and loss, and the strength gained in survival. The FFC has been designed for the public to view a part of the archive on permanent display in an open museum setting, as well as for research parties to pursue various avenues of academic inquiry.

Upon entry into the space, the first panel includes the following introductory text which I’ve modified to improve clarity.

The Jewish Museum Frankfurt holds a large number of objects belonging to Anne Frank’s family who had lived in Frankfurt for several generations.

Between 1929 and 1933, the entire family departed Frankfurt am Main and established new lives in Basel, Paris, Amsterdam, and London. In 1942 Amsterdam, Otto and Edith Frank, along with their daughters, Margot and Anne, went into hiding to escape imminent deportation. In August 1944, the secret location was revealed to the authorities, and the family was detained, and deported to Auschwitz. Of the four in the family, only Otto Frank survived, who subsequently devoted the rest of his life to acquainting and educating the world with the diary of his murdered daughter, Anne.

In 1933, Anne’s paternal grandmother Alice Frank sold their home in Frankfurt am Main, and moved to Basel to join her daughter, Leni Elias, and her family. Alice was able to take some of the family belongings with her from Frankfurt to Switzerland, including personal photos and documents. Her moving boxes also contained furniture, porcelain, silverware, and paintings. The family’s heritage as documents of their previous lives in Frankfurt was carefully preserved in Basel.

This room of the Frank Family Center provides an introduction to this family heritage and to the history of the Frank and Elias families.

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Frankfurt & the Franks: Anne, Edith, Margot, Otto

Above: The Frank family in happier times; seen left-to-right are Margot, Otto, Anne, and Edith, respectively. Display at the Frank Family Centre at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, 17 Jun 2023 (X70).

I hadn’t realized how long an impression would last, decades after having read in high-school the diary of a young girl stuck in hiding for years. Much later down the line and standing in front of a house in a quiet neighbourhood in a German city, I could almost hear the laughter of children in the backyard and the gentle rebuke of a mother to one of her daughters, years before one of the girls ever considered writing her thoughts down into a book.

The story of Anne Frank and her family are well known. Her father and businessman Otto Frank moved his family from Frankfurt am Main to Amsterdam in 1934 to escape increasing Nazi discrimination against Jews. Otto survived capture, deportation, and time in the camps; but his wife and two daughters did not. After liberation in 1945, Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam and wrote letters to relatives in Basel. He learned how the diary written by his daughter Anne had been carefully hidden; reading her daughter’s thoughts would change the remaining course of his life. In the early-1950s, he moved to Basel, Switzerland, to be closer to his sister’s family. He and his extended family spent time and energy for the rest of their lives dedicated to translation efforts and the distribution of Anne’s diary as a document of family memory, world history, and essential education; and to the collection of memories and belongings of lost family members. Otto died in 1980, and is buried in Birsfelden cemetery, just east of Basel proper.

Much of the story has been written about the Frank family’s time in Amsterdam, but I hadn’t been aware of the family roots in Frankfurt am Main, despite my countless times passing through and multiple stays in the city since 2001 when I moved to Heidelberg. I wanted to learn about their time in Frankfurt am Main, before the family left for Aachen and Amsterdam in 1933–1934. What follows below is my examination of some of the places and traces left behind by the Frank family in Frankfurt am Main.

ANNELIES Marie Frank, daughter: b/✵ 12 June 1929, Frankfurt am Main – d/✟ March 1945, Bergen-Belsen.
EDITH Frank (née Holländer), mother: b/✵ 16 January 1900, Aachen – d/✟ 6 January 1945, Auschwitz.
MARGOT Betti Frank, daughter: b/✵ 16 February 1926, Frankfurt am Main – d/✟ March 1945, Bergen-Belsen.
OTTO Heinrich Frank, father: b/✵ 12 May 1889, Frankfurt am Main – d/✟ 19 August 1980, Birsfelden.

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Allgäu winter: Fellhorn in the German-Austrian Alps

Above: A group of skiers gather before their run near the Fellhorn summit.

As a product of the Canadian southwest, I’ve maintained a fascination with mountains. I don’t necessarily need to climb the mountains, but I’ve always been curious about the names of mountains, the reasons for their names, and the people who named them. I’m not always going to get answers, but if there’s a lift to take me to a view, I’m always game.

With an easy bus from Oberstdorf in the southwest corner of Germany, I’m headed 10 km south to Faistenoy for the gondola up to the summit of Fellhorn (2038 metres) among the Allgäu Alps. There’s a lot of snow up top with a depth of about 1.5 metres; skiing and snowboarding conditions look good in the Skigebiet Fellhorn-Kanzelwand (Fellhorn-Kanzelwand Ski Area). But what do I know? I don’t ski or snowboard, but the winter-afternoon light is decent on the smooth snowy landscape. I’m drawn to the information displays to learn more about Fellhorn and the mountains I’m seeing in the near 360-degree panorama. In the distance the flat-topped Hoher Ifen mountain looks like a multiple-layer cream-filled cake. I arrive quickly at a couple of conclusions: one, it’s fun to stand on a border between two countries at altitude, even if an international frontier is set somewhat arbitrarily; and two, I promise to return in the summertime to do a loop: return to Fellhorn, hike along the relatively flat ridge-line west, take the Kanzelwandbahn gondola down into Austria’s Kleinwalsertal, have a sip and nosh in one of the alpine towns, and return to Germany’s Oberstdorf on a local bus.

Fellhorn, Oberstdorf Kleinwalsertal Bergbahnen, Allgaeuer Alps, Allgaeu, Oberstdorf, Swabia, Bavaria, Bayern, Germany, fotoeins.com

On the bus south from Oberstdorf, at the Zweistapfenweg bus stop, facing west with Höchster Kackenkopf (1560 metres) at upper-left.

Morning light in Faistenoy, near the Fellhorn gondola lower- or valley-station.

1m12s video, ending with “Fellhorn-Gipfel Bergschau 2037 (Fellhorn summit, mountain view 2037-metres) at the upper-/mountain-station.

Morning information display inside the mountain station. In the video above, the gondola attendant mentioned their avalanche warning was raised from level 3 (significant risk) to level 4 (high risk) to better account for local conditions.

From the mountain-station of the Fellhorn gondola: facing east, with Nebelhorn summit at upper-left.

Fellhorn, facing east.

Fellhorn and the German-Austrian frontier. The orange out-of-bounds fence straddling the ridge also marks the border between Germany and Austria. This southwest facing view includes the Möserbahn at lower-left; and the Kanzelwandbahn’s upper station at the upper right, above which is the peak Grosse Widderstein (2533 metres).

Facing southwest: Möserbahn Bergstation (centre-right), Kanzelwandbahn Bergstation (upper right). Grosse Widderstein is the prominent peak in the background at upper right.

Inside the arrows: the orange out-of-bounds fence straddling the ridge marks the border between Germany and Austria. This southwest-facing view includes the Möserbahn at lower-left; and the Kanzelwandbahn upper station at the upper-right, above which is the peak Grosse Widderstein (2533 metres).

Fellhorn, Allgaeu Alps, Oberbayern, Fellhornbahn, Bavaria, Germany, Kanzelwand, Kanzelwandbahn, Mittelberg, Vorarlberg, Austria, fotoeins.com

Southwest view along the German-Austrian frontier. Germany: G1, Obere-Geren-Piste, from the Fellhorn mountain station (from lower-right); G2, Möse chair-lift; G3, Zweiländer chair-lift. Austria: A1, Kanzelwandbahn cable-car mountain station at a line-of-sight distance 1.6 km (1 mi); A2, Zwerenalpe chair-lift; A3, Grosser Widderstein, summit 2533 metres (8310 feet); A4, Elferkopf, summit 2387 metres (7831 feet).

At upper-left are Grosse Widderstein and the Kanzelwandbahn gondola with Hochkünzelspitze at upper-right. Also visible in the scene is a sprinkling of skiers.

“I know your bones are begging to step out of your wardrobe.”

On the snowbank resting on the German-Austrian border (deutsche-österreichische Staatsgrenze) is this view northwest over Austria’s Kleinwalsertal, a mountain valley with alpine villages whose road access is solely through Germany.

With Hoher Ifen in the centre-background, a group of skiers gather before their run. The orange safety-fence prevents wayward skiers or snowboarders from going over the steep ridge.

Facing west towards Hoher Ifen. The orange safety-fence marks approximately the German-Austria border along the ridgeline.

Visible peaks in the Swiss Alps, including Säntis (2502 m), visible at a line-of-sight distance of 65 km.

Facing west across the Kleinwalsertal valley. Holenke: 2044 metres elevation, 22 km line-of-sight; Diedamskopf: 2090 metres elevation, 15 km line-of-sight, and the elevated plateau that is Hoher Ifen: 2230 metres elevation, 9 km line-of-sight.

Hoher Ifen: one of the displays as translated:

The Schratten limestone slab, up to 100 metres in thickness, is folded over like a tablecloth. The original rock layer above has been eroded away over geologic time. The Schratten slab is fractured in a number of places, revealing the underlying older layers, as seen on Hoher Ifen.

Directions

From Oberstdorf Busbahnhof, I hopped on DB Regio Bus Bayern route 7 for the 15-minute ride to stop “Fellhornbahn Talstation”. The gondola up to Fellhorn is operated by Oberstdorf-Kleinwalsertal Bergbahnen.

( View this location on OpenStreetMap )

I received neither pre-visit support nor post-visit compensation for this post. I made all media above on 8 March 2017 with a Canon EOS6D mark1. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-f6u. Last edit: 12 Jan 2026.

Vienna Steinhof Church: city- & Wagner-landmark

Above/featured: East side of the church, in afternoon light. Photo on 28 May 2023, X70 with wide-field WCL-X70 lens attachment, image corrected for geometric distortion.

Building: Steinhof church, also St. Leopold Church, 1907 // Kirche am Steinhof, Kirche zum heiligen Leopold.
Address: Baumgartner Höhe 1, in Penzing, the city’s 14th district.

Up on the city’s Baumgartner Heights is an example of Europe’s first modernist church at Steinhof. Dedicated to St. Leopold, the structure is one of the city’s finest examples of turn-of-the-century architecture, and one of the world’s most important churches in the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau architectural style. The church was designed and built by architect Otto Wagner, inaugurated in 1907 for patients and staff within the surrounding hospital complex the Lower Austria state, sanatorium, and nursing home for the mentally ill (Niederösterreichische Landes-, Heil-, und Pflegeanstalt für Geistes- und Nervenkranke) which included over 30 buildings and room for over 2000 beds. The bright, airy, and spacious modern design was met at that time with skepticism and criticism by local church officials. Of utmost importance on Wagner’s mind were the hospital patients: his church design was about gentle solitude, not fire and damnation.

The church was a collaborative effort with other Viennese artists, including mosaics and stained glass by Koloman Moser, angel sculptures by Othmar Schimkowitz, and exterior tower sculptures by Richard Luksch. The church roof is topped with a dome covered in gold-plated copper plates, whose bright yellow appearance in daylight merits the nickname “Limoniberg” (lemon hill) that’s visible in different parts of the city. The Steinhof church is an example of a “Gesamtkunstwerk“, where every detail and fixture contributed to a “total and functional work of art”; an architectural masterpiece of the period; and one of Otto Wagner’s most important creations.

I included this building as part of my description of Otto Wagner’s architectural legacy in Vienna and of the recent centenary celebration in Vienna of the city’s 19th- to 20th-century architectural transition from historicism to modernism.

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25 for 25: fotoeins fotos in 2025

Above/featured: “Göttin” (goddess), by AlfAlfA, also known as Nicolás Sánchez, for One Wall 2017. Photo, 17 Jun 2025 (P15).

In continuation of high spirits and enthusiastic support of leading choices, I’m very grateful to significant time spent:

in the Bay Area, to visit mum’s family in Sacramento and long-time friends in the South Bay;
in Vienna for the 4th consecutive summer; and
in Berlin for the 1st time in 4 years, as set up for a repeat in the new year.

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