The Philanthropin (Greek for "place of humanity") is a Jewish elementary school and gymnasium in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was founded in 1804 by

Mayer Amschel Rothschild Mayer Amschel Rothschild (23 February 1744 – 19 September 1812; also spelled ''Anschel'') was a German-Jewish banker and the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Referred to as a "founding father of international finance", Rothschild w ...

History

Formally, the school was established by Siegmund Geisenheimer, the chief accountant of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, with Rothschild's support. The school was supported financially by the government and was from the start also open to non-Jewish pupils. The school's motto was "for enlightenment and humanity." The school became a prominent centre of liberal Judaism in the 19th century; many of its teachers were active in the Jewish reform movement. In the late 19th century the school started to experience economic difficulties due to the fact that Jewish parents increasingly sent their children to non-religious public schools, and the Jewish community spent more than half of its budget on the school. The current school building was built in 1908. The school experienced a new golden era during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

under the leadership of Otto Driesen. At its peak it had around 1,000 pupils. The high school remained open until April 1941, while the elementary school had to close in June 1942. From 1954 the former school building served as offices for the Jewish community. In 1966 it was proposed to reopen the school, but the proposal failed. In 1978 the Jewish community decided to sell the building to the city to finance a new Jewish community centre in the Frankfurt West End. The building was then used by the city as a public

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

and was renovated during the 1980s. From 1986 to 2004 it was the seat of the

Hoch Conservatory Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for ...

and was additionally used by a theatre company. In 2006/2007 the building became the seat of the ''I. E. Lichtigfeld-Schule'', a Jewish school founded in 1966. The school is now commonly referred to as the Philanthropin.Hervorragend und jüdisch
''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', 30 October 2006 The school currently has around 400 pupils. Around two thirds have a Jewish background. The Philanthropin is a neighbour of the

Musterschule The Musterschule ("model school") is a gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded on 18 April 1803 by Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel as a ''Realschule'' and is Frankfurt's second oldest higher school after the Lessing Gymnasium. It received t ...

, a noted progressive gymnasium, which is found on the other side of Eckenheimer Landstraße.

References

Literature

*Albert Hirsch: ''Das Philanthropin zu Frankfurt am Main''. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1964. {{Authority control Schools in Frankfurt Buildings and structures in Frankfurt Jewish schools in Germany * Educational institutions established in 1804 Jews and Judaism in Frankfurt