ALBERT FRANK 'FRANKONIA'

This lantern came to me with minor surface rust and was very easy to bring back its original finish.  Very high quality metal and workmanship.

The globe (the crowning glory) is embossed with the 'Munich Child-Angel' logo, which is original to this lantern.  'Müncher Kindl' is the 'Munich Child-Angel' logo used by Albert Frank. It is a beautiful globe that was hand blown using an oak mold.  Extremely heavy with 'bubbles', imperfections and turn marks.  It's actually an amazing globe.

The other unmarked globe is also an original replacement globe from Frankonia AG which is shown in the catalog above.   This globe has very heavy turn marks present and glass extrusions on the outside of the globe.The mechanical lift is very ingenious and unusual although there is a flaw in the design. When you lift the tab to insert the globe, the tab hits part of the mechanism and pushes the mechanism up.

With the generous help of a surviving descendant of Albert Frank, here is a brief Family Tree and a bit of interesting family information. Also, I was provided with numerous images of the factory, which still stands in Beierfeld, images from original catalogs and other historical photos of the Albert Frank 'Laternen Fabrik'.   See the architects building drawings of the house from 1899. There was some thought that the famous German architect, Erich Mendelsohn, designed the house, but there isn’t any available evidence that would corroborate that fact.   There are letters though, that say he was contracted to possibly design the house.

There are also images of Albert Frank's watch and cigarette case. Well worth your time to view the slide show.

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• Albert Frank is married to Bertha Pappenheimer

• Four sons came from this union:
  
  1. Ludwig
  2. Ferdinand
  3. Anton 
  4. Maximilian Frank
     Maximilian married an Italian wife. His last address in the official papers of city of Munich was in the Year 1933.
     
     

• Ferdinand Frank marries Alice Rosenheim. *Alice later dies in a Concentration Camp.

• Two children are produced from their marriage: Olly and Maria. *Maria later dies in a Concentration Camp.   In the slideshow below, you will see two statues (busts) on the building.  One is of Olly and the other is Maria.

• Olly Frank marries Richard *

• They produce 2 sons: Heinrich and Frank

 Please note:  The story below is solely conjecture and 'family lore'.  It may or may not be true, but fascinating nonetheless.

"Richard, a mechanical engineer (who married Olly Frank) worked at the factory for Ferdinand, his father in-law. Ferdinand was concerned that there was some industrial espionage going on and wanted Richard to ‘spy’ on the Nier brothers, who Ferdinand thought were stealing trade secrets. Richard wasn’t interested in doing this and left. It turns out that the Nier brothers had a falling out with Ferdinand and left Frankonia to start Nier Feuerhand just down the street. All very conspiratorial maybe trade secrets were stolen."

CIRCA: 1913 - 1927