The History of the Family of Anne Frank from Frankfurt am Main

Confined to her cramped hiding place, Anne imagined the life her forebears had led in Frankfurt. She wrote in her diary:
"Father was born in Frankfurt am Main to very wealthy parents: Michael Frank owned a bank and became a millionaire, and Alice`s Stern parents were prominent and well-to- do.
(…) In his youth Father led the life of a rich man’s son. Parties every week, balls. Banquets, beautiful girls, waltzing, dinners, a huge house, etc. After Grandpa died, most of the money was lost, and after the Great War and inflation there was nothing left at all."
Diary of Anne Frank, 8 May 1944

Alfred Stern (1846-1936) was an historian and family chronicler. Fascinated by the everyday life of his forbears and their cultivation of traditions, Alfred Stern wrote down the history of his family. The mohel book kept by his family over generations served as an important source in this undertaking.

Anne’s grandmother Alice was also born a Stern. Born in 1865 as the only daughter of August Heinrich Stern and Cornelia Cahn, she grew up in imperial Germany. Like her second cousin Alfred Stern, she also decided to write her memoirs as a keepsake for her children.

Alice’s father, August Heinrich Stern (1838-1878), first made his living as a spice merchant and later as a dealer in silverware. His businesses were located on Frankfurt’s Zeil boulevard and Rossmarkt square.

Porcelain cup with a photo of Alice Stern aged nine.

Alice and Michael Frank (center) and their Frankfurt circle of friends: Bernhard Firnberg (left), Réno Uzzielli (top), Georg Samuel (center right) and Emma Steger (bottom right), later collage of photographs from the 1880s.

The founding of the German Empire in 1871 had made it possible for Michael Frank and his brothers to leave Landau in the Palatinate and move to more prosperous regions. In 1872 Michael’s brother Jacob founded a banking business bearing the family name in Frankfurt, while his other brother, Léon, together with his business partner Willy Wolfsohn, founded the bank Frank, Wolfsohn & Co in Paris. Michael moved to Frankfurt in 1879 and became a securities trader on the stock exchange. In 1901 he opened the private bank Michael Frank on Frankfurt’s Hochstrasse.

The brothers Michael and Léon Frank with their families in the garden of the newly built villa in Jordanstrasse in 1901. The photograph includes Alice and Michael’s four children: Helene, Robert, Otto and Herbert.

Michael Frank and his brother Léon in Paris remained in close contact, and they and their families took holidays together in the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps. Léon and his wife, Nanette Frank, had three sons: Oscar, George and Jean-Michel. The photo shows Nanette, (first, back row left) and next to her George along with Michael’s daughter, Helene. In the front row (from left to right) are Jean-Michel, Herbert, Oscar, Alice und Michael.

Alice und Michael Frank took a loving and liberal approach to their children’s upbringing. They placed great importance on education and played many parlor games with their children, such as the board game Jeu de Loto comique pictured here.
“You […] had a sunny and happy childhood. We did everything in our power to ensure that your young lives were wonderful and joyful experiences.”
Letter from Alice Frank to her children, 1935.

Invitation to a Carnival party of the Frank family, 1890s: "Carnival time it should be fun,/And therefore friends you should all come/To Michael Frank and his dear wife,/And join a party full of life./ Now children they are always best/ At knowing how to joke and jest/ And so the nineteenth, Saturday, /Please dress as children out to play,/ And come along from west and east,/ To join our merry children’s feast."

On 15 June 1907 Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the building site of the Taunus officers’ rest home in Falkenstein . Helene Frank was among the festively dressed girls in attendance.

In 1909 Michael Frank died suddenly at the age of 59. Following his death, the Michael Frank banking house was initially run by his wife Alice, his nephew Arnold Frank and the bank’s long-serving general manager Felix Uhry. From 1914 onwards, inflation triggered by war bonds and public debt made it difficult for the private bank to conduct business.

Otto and Robert Frank (back center) with their cousins Oscar (back left) and George (back right), Helene Frank (center left) and Jean-Michael (front).
On 3 August 1914 Germany declared war on France. Apart from Jean-Michel, who was still a minor, all the sons in the Frank family went to fight in the war. While Otto and his brothers fought for Germany, their cousins from Paris fought on the French side.

Drawing by Robert Frank: “Cross-section of my shelter under the churchyard wall."
During the war the brothers Otto, Robert and Herbert remained in close contact by letter. The family was concerned above all about Herbert, whose battalion was fighting in the west. In a letter of 28 August 1917 to his mother Alice, Robert referred to the “wonderful surprise that Herbert can now remain at home.” His letter contained a surreal drawing of his “shelter under the churchyard wall.” Depicting a subterranean space surrounded by skeletons, the drawing indicates the constant sense of threat felt by the soldiers even while sleeping.

“Dear Mother, that is a wonderful surprise that Herbert can now remain at home. I had just thrown in the letter to him when the news came and I immediately retrieved it in order to send it to this address. I hope that Grandmother will soon be better. I will congratulate [Bitz]. I’m not sure whether one can also congratulate her on her “release” from Max. Nothing new to report here, and so, for today, I send hasty greetings and a kiss. Your Robert”

The mother of Otto, Robert and Herbert, Alice, volunteered during the war as a nurse for wounded soldiers. She was a member of the National Women’s Association of the Red Cross and worked at a private military hospital known as the “Kyffhäuser Hotel.” Her daughter, Helene, also worked voluntarily as a hospital orderly and radiographer in the Friedrichsheim Clinic in Frankfurt’s Niederrad district. Alice and Helene were awarded the Medallion for Voluntary Nursing for their service.

Wooden toy from the Frank-Elias family household, 1930s.

In Basel the nine-year-old Buddy Elias made a game of Happy Families with drawings portraying and characterizing his family. He selected a typical quality for each family member, characterizing himself as “sometimes jealous,” his brother Stephan as “choleric,” his cousin Margot as “can’t bear kisses,” and Anne as “the rascal.” His view of the adults was more pragmatic: Otto Frank is characterized as a “capable businessman,” his father Erich as distinguished by “scrupulous cleanliness” and Grandma Elias as “cooks very well.”

Anne Frank, described by her cousin as “the rascal,” began writing a diary on 12 June 1942, on her thirteenth birthday. She dreamed of becoming an author and wrote not only diary entries but also prose and poetry.

On 5 July 1942, Margot Frank, Anne’s sister, received notification that she was to be sent to the East for work. The family knew that this meant deportation to a concentration camp and saw no other option than to go into hiding. Earlier than planned, Edith, Otto, Anne and Margot hid themselves in the rear building at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam, where the Dutch offices of the Opekta firm were located. Their hiding place became a refuge for a total of eight people, with the Frank family being joined there by Hermann and Auguste van Pels with their son Peter and by Fritz Pfeffer.

While in hiding the group of eight received help from Otto’s employees: Johannes Kleimann, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. A greengrocer who was a member of a resistance group supplied them with potatoes and other foods. After he was arrested it was unclear where food would now come from. On 24 May 1944 Anne wrote: “That means hunger. But nothing could be as bad as being discovered.”