Michael Sontheimer – författare

If you wanted to buy a top-quality condom in prewar Germany, you bought Fromms Act, the first brand name condom and still a leading brand in the German market. The man behind this "pure German quality product" was Julius Fromm, a Jewish entrepreneur who had immigrated from Russia as a child. Fromm was in the right place at the right time: he patented Fromms Act in 1916, when the combination of changing sexual mores, awareness of sexual health, and the lack of reliable prophylactics meant a market primed for his product. In 1922 he began mass production and opened international branches. Sixteen years later, after building the brand into a best seller and the company into a model business, he was forced to sell Fromms Act for a fraction of its worth to a German baroness. In 1939 he emigrated to London.Aly and Sontheimer trace Fromm''s rise and fall, illuminating the ways Jewish businesses like his were Aryanized under the Nazis. Through the biography of this businessman and the story of his unusual and fabulously successful company, we learn the fascinating history of the first branded condoms in Germany and the sexual culture that allowed them to thrive, the heretofore undocumented machinations by which the Nazis robbed German-Jewish families of their businesses, and the tragedy of a man whose great love for the adopted country that first allowed him to succeed was betrayed by its government and his fellow citizens. This captivating account offers a wealth of detail and a fresh array of photographic documentation, and adds a striking new dimension to our understanding of this dark period in German history.From the Hardcover edition.

+++Die Geschichte von Julius Fromm, der das Kondom erfand und 1938 als Jude von den Deutschen enteignet wurde – eine Jahrhundertfigur+++Hauchzarte, dreifach geprüfte Kondome – damit versorgte der Erfinder Julius Fromm in den 1920er Jahren deutsche Paare. Der Historiker Götz Aly und der »Spiegel«-Journalist Michael Sontheimer erzählen erstmals die Geschichte des Unternehmens und seines Gründers.Wöchentlich verließen Millionen »Frommser« die gläserne Fabrik in Berlin-Köpenick - architektonisch so revolutionär wie das Produkt. Binnen kurzer Zeit war der mittellose ostjüdische Zuwanderer zum angesehenen Großfabrikanten aufgestiegen, bis ihn der deutsche Staat 1938 verjagte und ihn »arische« Volksgenossen seines Lebenswerks beraubten. Hermann Göring ließ das florierende Unternehmen seiner Tante zukommen. Julius Fromm überlebte den Holocaust im Exil - doch nach dem Krieg enteigneten deutsche Kommunisten ihn ein zweites Mal. Eine bewegende Geschichte, in der sich das 20. Jahrhundert spiegelt.