• You are here:

• Home
• History
• Philanthropin
• 1945 – today

1945 – the present day

After the war the Philanthropin was passed over to the trustee organisation, the JRSO (Jewish Restitution Successor Organisation) , which was assigned by the American military the task of taking over the property of Jewish organisations in the American zone of occupation (which encompassed Frankfurt). Until 1948, when the Philanthropin was re-established as a Jewish organisation, the building served as a residential home for those disabled during the war, and as a school.

In May 1954 according to a treaty with the JRSO the Philanthropin came back into the occupation of the Jewish community of Frankfurt. For the next 32 years, the administration and the office of numerous other Jewish establishments were located here.

In 1979 the Jewish community sold the building to the city, in order to finance the building of the new community centre in Savignystraße. After leaving the Philanthropin, the ground floor was converted into a centre for the local community in 1986. The higher floors were taken over by ‘Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium’, a school for music and the arts.On the 10th November 2000, Mayor of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, and the Hessen Prime Minister, Roland Koch announced the all clear for the basis of the sale of the Philanthropin back to the Jewish community of Frankfurt.

On the 9th February 2004, Mayor Petra Roth symbolically handed over the Philanthropin building in a ceremonial act to the chairman of the community, Salomon Korn. She spoke about it being a “memorable hour”. The city of Frankfurt will always remember the injustice that was inflicted upon the Jews of Frankfurt when the school was closed 68 years previous by the Nazi’s. Hessen Prime Minister Roland Koch described in his speech the reestablishment of a Jewish school in the Philanthropin as a “courageous project” and a “symbol of great meaning”. After an extensive clean up operation, the I.E. Lichtigfeld School moved back into the Philanthropin in the summer of 2006. The pupils could then celebrate their first school day in the Philanthropin on the 29th August 2006.

On the 31st October 2006 the Philanthropin was dedicated in a ceremonial act in the presence of the Hessen Prime Minister Roland Koch and the Frankfurt Mayor Petra Roth as the new building of the Lichtigfeld School.