Julius Fromm (4 March 1883 – 12 May 1945) was a Polish-German chemist and entrepreneur who invented the seamless rubber condom. Owing to his Jewish heritage, his company and personal property was stolen by the Nazis in aryanization when he left Germany for England in 1939. His legacy was not easily reclaimed by his relatives after the war however.
Biography
Fromm was born in the town of Konin, Kalisz Governorate, the Kingdom of Poland.[1] His parents were both Polish Jews and when Julius was ten years old his family left for Berlin in search of a better life.[1] There, the family made a living by rolling cigarettes 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 in chemistry.
With World War I, Germany experienced a rapid liberalization of sexual values and sexually transmitted diseases spread rapidly.