A University for Frankfurt

The entry of two new figures into Frankfurt's public life heralds the end of the period investigated in this study: Franz Adickes (1846–1915), burgomaster of Frankfurt from 1891 to 1912; and the British-born Jewish industrialist Wilhelm Merton (1848–1916). Adickes was the initiator and organizer, and Merton one of the chief sponsors of the University of Frankfurt, founded in 1914. The university project illustrates the symbiosis between private patronage and municipal initiative characteristic of the cultural politics of Wilhelmine Frankfurt. While most features of nineteenth-century Frankfurt's cultural life survived into Adickes's era, a crucial factor divides it from the period investigated in this study: the municipal government's active intervention in the city's cultural politics.

Before 1891, the municipal government rarely subsidized or controlled local intellectual or cultural institutions, let alone orchestrated a foundation. Yet immediately after his appointment, Adickes started inviting leading scholars to Frankfurt. For instance, his active campaign brought Paul Ehrlich's (1854–1915) Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy (Königliches Institut für experimentelle Therapie) from Berlin in 1899. Adickes won local wealthy citizens for his project as well. Historians have noted the strong presence of Jews among those who answered his call.