Philanthropin
Philanthropin is a Frankfurt building with a history spanning Jewish education, community life, and cultural use. Mayer Amschel Rothschild founded the school in 1804. Siegmund Geisenheimer formally established it, while government support and admission of non-Jewish pupils marked its early years. Its motto named enlightenment and humanity.
The institution became a centre of liberal Judaism, and many teachers supported the Jewish reform movement. Economic difficulties followed in the late nineteenth century. The building standing here was constructed in 1908 and later served Jewish offices, a public community centre, and cultural institutions. Otto Driesen led the school during its renewal under the Weimar Republic.
Nazi policies closed the gymnasium in April 1941 and the elementary school in June 1942, ending the institution’s original educational work. The Jewish community sold the building to Frankfurt in 1978. The Hoch Conservatory occupied the site from 1986 to 2004, before the I. E. Lichtigfeld-Schule brought Jewish education back to the building. The school remains known as Philanthropin.
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