- Julius Fromm
Julius Fromm (
1883 -May 12 ,1945 ) was aJewish -German entrepreneur, chemist, and inventor of thelatex condom .Fromm was born as Israel From in
Konin , which was part of theRussian Empire at the time. When he was ten years old his family left forBerlin in search of a better life there. There, the family made a living by rollingcigarette s as many Eastern European Jews of Berlin did at the time. Julius's parents died young, so he was forced to take care of himself and his six siblings from the age of fifteen. As mechanization gradually replaced manual production, Fromm started attending evening classes inchemistry .With
World War I , Germany experienced a rapid liberalization of sexual values andsexually transmitted disease s spread rapidly. During this time, the majority of condoms were still made of "skin": chemically treated intestine or bladder).cite book | first=Aine | last=Collier | year=2007 | title=The Humble Little Condom: A History | publisher=Prometheus Books | location=Amherst, NY | pages=134-135,157,219 | id=ISBN 978-1-59102-556-6] Rubber condoms were also available; they were made by wrapping rawrubber sheets around molds, then dipping them in a solution to vulcanize the rubber. [Collier, p.148] In 1912, Fromm invented the "cement dipping" method, which made a thinner, seamless condom. cite web | title = Rubbers haven't always been made of rubber | work = Billy Boy: The excitingly different condom | url = http://www.billy-boy.com/english/info/ | accessdate = 2006-09-09 ] Instead of working with rubber as a solid material, it was mixed with gasoline or benzene. This made it a liquid in which molds could be dipped.Collier, p.200] Fromm patented his invention in 1916. Mass production started in 1922 and was a great success - "Fromms Act", as they were called, becoming the first brand-name condoms - which allowed the entrepreneur soon to open up branches inDenmark , theUnited Kingdom ,Poland , and theNetherlands . "Fromms" became a synonym for "condom" in Germany. In 1928, the first condomvending machine s were installed by Fromm's company, but the interior ministry only allowed it to advertise thehygienic advantages of condoms, not the condom's use as acontraceptive , because it feared a further decrease of thebirth rate .In 1938, however, under Nazi rule, the government forced Fromm to sell his factories for 116,000
Reichsmark , a fraction of their real value, to BaronessElisabeth von Epenstein ,Hermann Göring 's godmother. In return Epenstein had two castles built for Göring. A year later he emigrated to London, where he died onMay 12 ,1945 - four days after the Allied victory in Europe - from aheart attack , possibly a result of his excitement at returning to Germany and getting back to his business. Fromm's estate, which was worth the equivalent of approximately 30 millionEuro s, had already been auctioned off onMay 17 ,1943 for 2,255Reichsmark , though many items including agrand piano , plates, and his library had already been bought or stolen before.After the war, Julius Fromm's son
Herbert Fromm was forced to pay a cousin of Göring's 174,000 Marks for the rights to the name "Fromm". He licensed aBremen company to produce "Fromms" condoms, which - now called Mapa produces them to the present day.In 2007,
Götz Aly andMichael Sontheimer published "Fromms -- How Julius F. Fell Prey to German Robbers" retelling Fromm's story.References
*Paulick, Jane: " [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2378337,00.html Book Tells Little-Known Tale of Revolutionary Condom-Maker] " in
Deutsche Welle . RetrievedMarch 12 ,2007 .
*" [http://www.markenmuseum.com/cms/index.php?id=578 Fromms] " in "Das virtuelle Markenmuseum". RetrievedMarch 12 ,2007 .
*Flemming, Beate: " [http://stern.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/maerkte/583598.html?q=fromm Kondome: Die Geschichte der Fromms] " in "Stern". RetrievedMarch 12 ,2007 .
*" [http://www.netzeitung.de/feuilleton/576470.html Wenn’s euch packt, nehmt Fromms Act] " innetzeitung.de . RetrievedMarch 12 ,2007 .
*Ditfurth, Christian v.: [http://www.welt.de/kultur/literarischewelt/article732112/Wie_die_Nazis_einen_Kondomhersteller_pluenderten.html?print=yes Wie die Nazis einen Kondomhersteller plünderten] " indie Welt . RetrievedMarch 12 ,2007 .
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