Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/743

 leather is of great and growing importance. A horse fair has been held twice a year since 1862 under the patronage of the agricultural society ; and the wool market was re- instituted in 1872 by the German Trade Society. Frank fort has long been famous as one of the principal banking centres of Europe ; and throughout the city there are upwards of 220 banking oflices. The so-called &quot; Frank fort Bank&quot; was founded in 1854, with a capital of 10,000,000 gulden. The exchange occupies a building opposite the Paulskirche, erected since 1840 according to the plans of Stiller of Berlin; and it is remarkable for the large business that is done in Government stock. In the 17th century the town was the seat of a great book- trade ; but it has long been distanced in this department by Leipsic. The Frankfurter Journal was founded in 1615, the Postzeituny in 1616, the Neue Frankfurter Zeitunfj in 1859, and the Frankfurter Presse in 1866. The zoological garden company publish a monthly magazine devoted to the popularization of natural history; and the Senckenberg society have issued Transactions since 1854-5. There are four railway stations in Frankfort : by the Weser station the traveller leaves for Nauheim and Cassel, for Homburg, for Krouberg, and the north generally; from the Taunus station he proceeds along the right bank of the river to Mainz ; from the Neckar station he leaves for Darmstadt and the south, and for Mainz by the line along the left bank of the river; and from the Hanau station he pro ceeds eastwards. In Sachsenhausen there is the Offenbach- Hanau station. The Neckar railway crosses the river by a bridge erected in 1846-48, which is also used by the Offenbach and the &quot; Linksmainisch &quot; lines, Several other bridges across the river are projected in connexion with the scheme for centralizing the railway systems. Com munication within the town is facilitated by tramways ; and there is also a line rJl the way to Bockenheim. Frankfort has been the birthplace of not a few of the most celebrated men of Germany. J. G. Schlosser the his torian, Feuerbach the philosopher, Kirchner the scholar and naturalist, Clement Brentano, Bettiua vou Arnim, and Ludwig Borne, are all in the list ; but what the city con siders its highest literary distinction is the fact that Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born in 1749 at No. 23 Hirsch- grabeu. In 1863 the house was purchased for 56,000 florins by the Free German &quot;Hochstift&quot; (or Grand Asso ciation) for the sciences, arts, and general culture, and thus made for ever the common property of the German people. The society consists of members in all parts of the world, associated by admiration of the poet. Under the direction of Otto Volga the house has been as much as possible put into the state in which it was in Goethe s youth; and at the same time the rooms are turned into so many little museums of Goethe literature and art. On the high grounds to the south of the river there is a spot, now known as the Gothe Ruhe, or Goethe s Rest, where the poet is said to have admired the prospect of his native town, and there a tasteful wooden tower in the Swiss chfilet style was built in 1877 by the Verschonerungs-Verein, or associa tion for the beautifying of the city. The Goethe statue was erected in 1844 in what is now the Goethe Platz to the north of the Rossmarkt ; it was designed by Schwanthaler, and cast in the royal foundry at Munich. Of memorial monuments the largest and most elaborate in Frankfort is that erected in 1858 in honour of the early German printers. It was modelled by Ed. von der Lausitz and executed by Herr von Kreis. The statues of Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoffer form a group on the top ; an orna mented frieze presents medallions of a number of famous printers ; below these are figures representing the towns of Mainz, Strasburg, Venice, and Frankfort; and on the corners of the pedestal are allegorical statues of theology, 707 poetry, science, and industry. The Schiller statue, erected in 1863, is the work of a Frankfort artist, Dielmann. A monument in the Bockenheim Anlage, dated 1837, pre serves the memory of Guiollet, the burgomaster, to whom the town is mainly indebted for the beautiful promenades which occupy the site of the old fortification ; and similar monuments have been reared to Senckenberg (1863), Beth- niann, and Wiesenhiitten. A statue of Charlemagne adorns the old Main bridge. The new cemetery (opened in 1828) contains the graves of Arthur Schopenhauer and Feuerbach, of Passavant the biographer of Raphael, Ballenberger the artist, Hessemer the architect, Sommerring the naturalist, Dr Bohmer, and Stiidel. The Bethmann vault attracts attention by three bas-reliefs from the chisel of Thorwaldsen; and the Reichenbach mausoleum is a vast pile designed by Hessemer at the command of William II. of Hesse, and adorned with sculptures by Zwerger and Von der Lausitz. In the Jewish section, which is walled off from the rest of the burying-ground, the most remarkable tombs are those of the Rothschild family. The present municipal constitution of the town dates from 1867, and conforms to the Prussian system. The electors choose 54 representatives for a term of 6 years ; and every two years a third of the number retire, but are eligible for re-election. The 54 representatives elect twelve town councillors, six of whom receive a salary and serve for 12 years, while the rest receive no salary and serve for 6 years. The chief burgomaster is nominated by the king for 12 years, and the second burgomaster must receive the king s recognition. Since 1873 the town has been supplied with water from the Vogelsberg and the Spessart by the Frankfurter Quellwasserleitung Gesellschaft at the rate of about a million cubic feet per day, the natural pressure being sufficient to carry the water to the highest stories. The population of Frankfort has continued almost steadily to increase since the beginning of the century, the yearly percentage varying from O l in 1843 to 8 9 in 1872. In 1817 the civil population was 41,458 ; in 1840, 55,269; in 1849, 58,599; in 1855, 63,495; and in 1864, 77,372. The events of 1866 led to a decline, and in 1867 the number was only 75,918. By 1871 it had again risen to 89,265; in 1872 it was 97,230; in 1873, 102,680; and in 1875, 103,136. Including the suburban villages (Born- heim 10,085, Bockenheim 13,043, Oberrad 4609, and Rodelheim 3903), the total is 134,776. History. Though the Romans certainly had settlements in the valley of the Main, as at Mattiacum (Wiesbaden) and Novus Vicus (Heddernheim), there is no proof that the site of Frankfort was permanently occupied before the arrival of the Franks, from whom it derives its name. Father Fuchs of Mainz, indeed, asserted in the end of the 18th century that he had epigraphic evidence for the statement that Frankfort was founded by the Romans in the 2d century of the Christian era, and that by the 3d century it had become a great fortified city; but unfortunately none of the inscrip tions to which he referred have ever been shown to exist. Popular tradition connects the origin of the town with the history of Charle magne, asserting that the name Frankfort is due to the fact that once, when he was retreating from the Saxons, he and his Frankish army were safely conducted across the river by a doe, and that Sachsenhausen was so called because he settled there a colony of the Saxons whom lie had subdued. The first truly historical notice of the town occurs in 793, when Eginhard, Charlemagne s bio grapher, tells us that he spent the winter in the villa Frankonovurd. Next year there is mention more than once of a royal palace there, and the early importance of the place is indicated by the fact that it was chosen as the seat of an ecclesiastical council, which was attended not only by German but by French and Italian bishops, as well as by two papal legates. The name Frankfort is also found in several official documents of Charlemagne s reign ; and from the notices that occur in the early chronicles and charters it would appear that the place was the most populous at least of the numerous villages of the Main district. During the Carlovingian period it was the seat of no fewer than 16 imperial councils or colloquies. The town was probably at first built on an island in the river. It was origin-