ABSTRACT

Ralf Roth Introduction: problems of defining an elite In the eighteenth century Frankfurt citizens would observe and comment on a doctor, Johann Christian Senckenberg, who walked absentmindedly in a zigzag line in the street. The explanation for Senckenberg’s strange behaviour was interesting: it was believed that he was attempting to avoid colliding with the invisible souls of his former patients. Senckenberg was a quiet and diffident person in unfamiliar surroundings. Despite this, he, and not his brother Johann Erasmus, a Frankfurt senator, shaped significantly the character of Frankfurt. Johann Christian Senckenberg did this by setting up a foundation in 1763 to create a hospital and a centre for the study of natural sciences to provide medical knowledge and poor relief. Additionally, the foundation later created a natural history museum and research institute. One hundred and fifty years later, the medical department of the University of Frankfurt was erected thanks to Senckenberg’s foundation. Although this famous civic philanthropist never held a single political position in Frankfurt in his entire life, he was regarded as a member of the elite class.1 This is an excellent example which aptly illustrates many of the inherent problems in defining an elite.