Friedrichsdorf - Philipp Reis

Friedrichsdorf, about 20 km north of Frankfurt, was founded by a group of Huguenots in 1687, who had fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were granted asylum by Landgrave Friedrich II. They named the town after the Landgrave. Friedrichsdorf flourished as the Huguenots brought new technolgies to this part of Hesse. Linen and later flannel were produced here. The services in the Protestant church
were held in French language up to the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1861 Philipp Reis, who worked as a teacher at the "Maison d’Education à Friedrichsdorf" (today known as "Philipp-Reis-Schule"), created a device that captured sound, converted it to electrical impulses which were transmitted via electrical wires to another device that transformed these pulses into recognizable sounds. Reis coined the term telephone to describe his device.

Reis lived and worked in this house, that today is a museum.