Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/744

708 F K A N K F K T ally governed by a royal officer or actor dominicus, and down even to the close of the empire it remained a purely imperial or royal town. It gradually acquired various privileges, and by the close of the 14th century the only mark of dependence was the payment of a yearly tax. Louis the Pious dwelt even more frequently at Frank fort than his father had done, and about 823 he built himself a new palace, the basis of the later Saalhof. In 822 and 823 two great diets were held in the palace, and at the former there were present deputies from the eastern Slavs, the Avars, and the Normans. The place continued to be a favourite residence with Louis the German, and he died there in 876. By the rest of the Carlovingian kings it was less frequently visited, and this neglect was naturally greater during the period of the Saxon and Salic emperors from 908 to 1137. Diets, however, were held in the town in 951, 1015, 1069, and 1109, and councils in 1000 and 1006. From a privilege of Henry IV, in 1074, granting the city of Worms freedom from tax in their trade with several royal cities, it appears that Frankfort was even then a place of some commercial importance. In 1217 we find mention made of an imperial mint and a corn market in the town. About 1227 it was already in possession of a yearly fair. Between 1140 and the beginning of the interregnum it saw 21 diets, and that of 1142 gave rise to the Guelph and Ghibelline parties. No fewer than 10 new churches were erected in the 50 years from 1220 to 1270. It was about the same period, probably in 1240, that the Jews first settled in the town. In the contest which Louis the Bavarian maintained with the papal throne Frankfort sided with the emperor, and it was consequently placed under an inter dict for 20 years from 1329 to 1349. On Louis s death it refused to accept the papal conditions of pardon, and only yielded to Charles IV., the papal elect, when Gimther of Schwarzburg thought it more prudent to abdicate in his favour. Charles granted the city a full amnesty, and confirmed its liberties and privileges. By the famous bull of 1356, called by way ot distinction the Golden Bull, or, after the emperor, Sulla Carolina, Frankfort is declared the seat of the imperial elections (Wahlstadt Reiches), and it still pre serves an official contemporaneous copy of the original document as the most precious of the eight imperial bulls in its possession. In the 17th and 18th centuries, says Kriegk, the bull was regarded as the most notable sight of the city, and was only exhibited to persons of high rank. From the date of the bull to the close of the empire, Frankfort retained the position of " Wahlstadt," and only five of the two-and-twenty monarchs who ruled during that period were elected elsewhere. In 1388-89 Frankfort assisted the South-German towns in their wars with the princes and nobles, and in a consequent battle with the troops of the Palatinate, the town banner was lost and carried to Kronberg, where it was long preserved as a trophy. On peace being concluded in 1391, the town had to pay 12,562 florins, and this brought it into great financial difficulties. In the course of the next 50 years debt was contracted to the amount of 126,772 florins. The diet at Worms in 1495 chose Frankfort as the seat of the newly instituted Imperial Chamber, or " licichs- Kammergcricht," for the settlement of discussions between the dif ferent states of the empire ; and it was not till 1527 that the chamber was removed to Spires. At the Reformation Frankfort heartily joined the Protestant party, and in consequence it was hardly treated both by the emperor Charles V. and by the archbishop of Mainz. It re fused to subscribe the Augsburg Recess, but at the same time it was not till 1536 that it was prevailed to join the Smalkaldic League. On the failure of this confederation it opened its gates of its own accord to the imperial general Biiren on 29th Dec. 1546, although he had passed by the city, which he considered too strong for the forces under his command. The emperor was merciful enough to leave it in possession of its privileges, but he inflicted a fine of 80,000 gold gulden, and the citizens had to endure till Oct. 1547 the presence of from 8000 to 10,000 soldiers. This resulted in a pestilence which not only lessened the population but threatened to give the death blow to the great annual fairs ; and at the close of the war it was found that it had cost the city no less than 228,931 gulden. In 1522 Frankfort was invested for three weeks by Maurice of Saxony, who was still in arms against the emperor, but it continued to hold out till peace was concluded between the principal combatants. Between 1612 and 1616 occurred the great Fettmilch insurrection, perhaps the most remarkable episode in the internal history of Frank fort. The magistracy had been acquiring more and more the charac ter of an oligarchy ; all power was practically in the hands of a few closely-related families ; and the gravest peculation and malversation took place without hindrance. The ordinary citizens were roused to assert their rights, and they found leaders in Fettmilch, Gerngross, and Schopp, who carried the contest to dangerous excesses, but lacked ability to bring it to a successful issue. An imperial commis sion was ultimately appointed, and the three principal culprits and several of their associates were executed in 1616, with the barbarous devices of the times. It was not till 1801 that the last mouldering head of the Fettmilch company droppedunnoticed from that old tower which, from its position near the bridge, is known as the Briickcn- thurm. In the words of Dr Kriegk, who has furnished a detailed his tory of the whole period, the insurrection completely destroyed the political power of the guilds, gave new strength to the supremacy of the patriciate, and brought no further advantage to the rest of the citizens than a few improvements in the organization and adminis tration of the magistracy. The Jews, who had been attacked by the popular party, were solemnly reinstated by imperial command in all their previous privileges, and received full compensation for their losses. During the Thirty Years War Fiankfort did not escape. In 1631 Gustavus Adolphus garrisoned it with 600 men, who remained in possession till they were expelled four years later by the imperial general Lamboy. In 1792 the citizens had to pry 2,000,000 gulden to the French general Custine; and in 1796 Kleber bombarded the town, and exacted 8,000,000 francs. The independ ence of Frankfort was brought to an end in 1806, on the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine; and in 1810 it was made the capital of a grand-duchy of Frankfort, which had an area of 3215 square miles, with 302,100 inhabitants, and was divided into the four districts of Frankfort, Aschatfenburg, Fulda, and Hanau. On the reconstitution of Germany in 1815 it again became a free city, and in the following year it was declared the seat of the German Confederation. In April 1833 occurred what is known as the Frankfort Riot (Frankfurter Attentat), in which a number of German students, assisted by the peasants of the vicinity, attempted to break up the diet. The city joined the German Zollverein in 1836. During the revolutionary period of 1848 the people of Frankfort took a chief part in }>olitical movements, and the streets of the town wore more than once the scene of conflict. In the. war of 1866 they were on the Austrian side. On the 16th of July the Prussian troops, under General Vogel von Falken- stcin, entered the town, and on the 8th of October it was formally incorporated with the Prussian state. A fine of 6,000,000 florins was exacted. In 1871 the treaty which concluded the Franco- German war was signed in the Swan Hotel by Prince Bismarck and Jules Favre, and it is consequently known as the Frankfort Peace. See Bohmer, Urkundenbtich der Reichs&tadt Frankfurt, 183fi; KlrohncT, Ge- tchichteder Stadt Frankfurt, 1807-1810 ; Feyerlcin, Nachtrage, etc., zur GeschicMe Frankfurts, 1819 ; Tableau historique ct topoyraphifiue de Francfort, Frankfort, 1828; Mittheilungcn iiber Physisch-rjeorjrapliische, . . . . Vfrhaltnissf ran Frankfurt am Alain, 1839-41 ; Krug, Historitch-topogr. Bctchrcibung ran Frankfurt, 1845 : Mddingcr, Statistiscfie L cbersicht , 1841, and Zur Statittik Frantyurti, 1848. Battoun, Oerlliche fteschreibuny de.r Stadt Frankfurt, 1861, and Kaiferdom zu Frankfurt, 1809; Kriegk, Geschichte ron Frankfurt, 1871; Archiv fur Frankfurtt Gefchichtc vnd Kiinst, 18- i9-1874 ; Strieker, Neucrc Geschic/tte von Frankfurt, 1871-75; the MitthnH unr/en of the Society in Frankfort for History and Archieo- logy ; Ravenstein s Fuhrcr (lurch Frankfurt a. M. and L mnebumjen (no date). In 1864 Fr. W. Delkeskamp published a beautiful Afalerischer flan von Frankfurt a. il. ttnd seiner nachsten Umgebung; nath der ffatur au/genommen vnd auj geometrischer Basis in Vogelschau gezeichnet. (H.A.W.) FRANKFORT-ON-THE-ODER, in German Frankfurt- an-der-Odcr, a town of Germany at the head of a govern ment in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, about 50 miles in an easterly direction from Berlin. The town pro per, which has far outgrown the limits of its ancient walls, lies on the left of the river, but it is connected by a wooden bridge 900 feet long with the suburb of Damm. Among the more important buildings are the Protestant church of St Mary s (the Oberkirche), a handsome brick edifice of the 13th century, the Roman Catholic church, the Jewish synagogue, the Rathhaus, dating from 1607, and bearing on its southern gable the sign of the Hanseatic League, the city infirmary, three hospitals, an orphan asylum, a, work house, a theatre, the Frederick gymnasium, and the pro vincial industrial school. The university of Frankfort, which was founded in 1506 by the elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I., was removed to Breslau in 1811, and the university buildings are now occupied by the Realschule. As the chief town of a province, Frankfort is the seat of a court of appeal, a general commission, and a number of administrative boards. Its industry is mainly devoted to the manufacture of iron-wares, pottery, paper, silk and woollen goods, bone-dust, chocolate, and liqueurs. Being situated on the high road from Berlin to Silesia, command ing an extensive system of water communication by means of the Oder and its canals to the Vistula and the Elbe, and in modern times having become an important railway junction, it maintains no small commercial activity, which is further fostered and concentrated by its three annual fairs held respectively at Reminiscere or the second Sunday in Lent, at St Margaret s day, and at Martinmas. The popu lation, which in 1849 was 29,969, had at the census of 1875 attained to 47,176. The municipal existence of Frankfort goes back to 1253, when it was colonized by