What Does The Frank Family Center Do?
The Frank Family Center collects and unites the estates of the Jewish Frank family from Frankfurt and the families related to them: Elias, Cahn, and Stern. The estates contain photos, letters, postcards, and written invitations as well as paintings, furniture, porcelain, and books. Thanks to these written records and material legacies, it is possible for the Frank Family Center to promote research on a German-Jewish family history and make this material publicly available.
Why Does the Frank Family Take Center Stage?
"We used to live in Frankfurt..." These are the opening words about her family that Anne Frank wrote in her now world-famous diary. The family roots of her Frankfurt ancestors can be traced back to the 16th century. This local connection is reflected in the family collection, which offers original documentation of a cross-generational Jewish family history that is unparalleled in its wealth and breadth. The focus is on everyday life in Frankfurt, upward social mobility, and bourgeois culture around 1900. At the same time, these testimonies describe the fate of a Jewish family caught up in repression, flight, and deportation. These unique family documents offer insight into the cross-border European-Jewish cultural history that was destroyed by the National Socialists.
How Did the Foundation of the Frank Family Center Come About?
The Frank Family Centre was founded as a collaborative project between the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and the Anne Frank Fonds (AFF) Basel. The starting point was the decision of the AFF and Buddy Elias, its president at the time, to bring together family documents and objects by presenting them on permanent loan to the City of Frankfurt.