Michael Frank

Michael Frank was born in Landau as the son of Zacharias Frank en Babette Hammelfett. He was the second youngest son of a family made up of five girls and five boys, not counting a sister who died in infancy. His brothers were: Jacob (1843-1878), Emil (1847-1906), Arnold (1850-1872), and Leon (1853-1915). His sisters were: Rebecca (1842-1928), Rosalia (Rosa; 1844-1929), Sophie (1846-1927), Carolina (Lina; 1854-1930), and Caroline (1855-1929).^[1] Just two of them remained in their hometown of Landau. Four of the five sisters left their native region after marrying men from outside the Palatinate. Two of them moved to the United States, one to Frankfurt and another to Luxembourg.

Four of the five brothers chose to leave the Palatinate and move to more prosperous regions. With the establishment of the German Empire on 18 January 1871, a unified Germany came into being.^[2] This significantly improved the situation of Jews in Germany. Whereas previously the degree of legal equality varied from region to region, now everyone was a German citizen, regardless of their religious beliefs. However, this did not mean that German Jews were treated as equal citizens in practice. Some sectors of society remained restricted to Jews, and a career as a civil servant or judge was virtually impossible, but they were able to assert themselves in the artistic and intellectual spheres. They were also able to move freely within the financial sector, industry and politics.^[3] Taking advantage of these newly acquired freedoms, Michael's older brother Jacob had started a bank under the family name in Frankfurt in 1872, while his younger brother, Léon, together with his business partner Willy Wolfsohn, founded the bank Frank, Wolfsohn & Co in Paris in 1879. Michael Frank left for Frankfurt that same year and became a stockbroker on the stock exchange.^[4]

On 3 January 1886, Michael Frank, then 34 years old, married Alice Betty Stern, who was fourteen years his junior.^[5]  Around 1900, he founded the Bankhaus Michael Frank.^[6] In 1906, he searched the Dutch market for released bonds of the Peninsular Koper Maatschappij and was prepared to pay one thousand guilders each for them.^[7] Thanks to his successful investments, such as in the production of the cough drops Fay’s Sodener Mineral Pastillen, Michael Frank came into good money.^[8] In 1901 he purchased a property on Jordanstraße (renamed Mertonstraße in 1917) in Frankfurt’s Westend, a residential neighborhood for the upper middle class. Anne writes in het diary dagboek:

Daddy was born in Frankfurt am Main, his parents were immensely rich, Michael Frank owned a bank and became a millionaire and Alice Stern had very rich and distinguished parents. Michael Frank had not been at all rich when he was young, but he duly worked his way up. In his youth Daddy had a real little rich boy's upbringing, parties every week, balls, festivities, beautful girls, waltzing, dinners, a large hom, etc., etc.^[9]

Michael Frank and his wife had three sons: Robert, Otto and Herbert; and a daughter Helene (Leni).^[10] Shortly before his untimely death in the autumn of 1909, Michael Frank received an invitation from the königliche Kriegsministerium to an opening of an Offiziersheim on 20 August 1909.^[11] He died while his son Otto was in New York. Rabbi Caesar Seligman gave a eulogy, a transcript of which has been preserved.^[12]

After Michael Frank's sudden death, Alice continued his banking business with the support of his cousin Arnold Frank and the bank's long-standing managing director Felix Uhry. From 1914 onwards, inflation triggered by war bonds and public debt made it difficult for the private bank to conduct business. After the First World War, Otto and Herbert Frank took over the management of their father’s bank. Helene married Erich Elias, who also joined the bank. However, the bank suffered from the consequences of the First World War and the economic crisis of 1929, which ultimately forced it to close. An appeal by Otto and his mother to their cousin Jean-Michel Frank for financial support was unsuccessful: he refused to invest money in a bank that was irretrievably lost, although in 1932 he did transfer money to Frankfurt to extend the mortgage on the house in Mertonstrasse for another year.^[13]

Source personal data.^[10] Addresses: Landau: Kaufhausgasse 9; Frankfurt am Main: Gärtnerweg 58, Gärtnerweg 40, Jordanstrasse (later Mertonstrasse) 4.^[14]