Frankfurt

Frankfurt is the urban setting of Heidi’s enforced stay in Clara Sesemann’s household, a place of wealth, lessons, and elaborate domestic order that cannot replace the mountain home she has left. Its walls and windows make her separation visible, while the city’s household eventually becomes the source of the help she carries back to the mountains: first the white rolls for Peter’s Grandmother, and later the comfortable bed Heidi asks for on her behalf.

Frankfurt as Destination and Household

Dete’s decision to take Heidi to Frankfurt is shaped by employment as well as by her claim that the child’s grandfather must assume responsibility for her. Dete says that a particularly good position awaits her there with people whose rooms she had attended during a previous summer at the Baths. Their offer had been renewed, and she intends to accept it. The move therefore begins not as Heidi’s choice but as the consequence of Dete’s opportunity and her judgment about where the child should be placed.

The destination acquires a second purpose through Dete’s connection to her employers. Their wealthy relatives have a daughter, Clara, who is young, physically frail, and obliged to travel in a wheeled chair. Clara spends much of her time alone and has no companion with whom to share her lessons. Her father has asked for a suitable child, and Dete proposes Heidi because she seems simple and unspoilt. The arrangement makes Frankfurt a place where Heidi is expected to serve as a companion, but Dete also imagines that the household’s affection might bring Heidi extraordinary future good fortune. That speculative hope contrasts with the immediate fact of the journey: Heidi is being sent away from the people and landscape she regards as home.

The City Seen from Heidi’s Room

The first morning in Frankfurt gives the setting its most concentrated image. Heidi wakes in a high white bed in a large room, with long white curtains, flowered chairs and sofa, a round table, and unfamiliar washing things. Remembering where she is, she goes from window to window in search of the sky and country outside. The curtains are too heavy for her to draw aside easily, and the windows are too high for her to see much from them. When she peers out, the view gives her walls and more windows rather than the open landscape she wants.

The physical details make the city feel like confinement without requiring the room to be poor or bare. Heidi is accustomed to getting up early and going straight outdoors to discover whether the sky is blue, the sun is above the mountains, the firs are moving, and the flowers have opened. In Frankfurt, she tries the windows one after another, even pushing her fingers beneath them to lift them, but they will not open. She remembers that the previous evening she saw stones outside the house and can find no route from her room to grass or mountain slopes. The bird-in-a-cage comparison that accompanies her restless search gives the scene its governing contrast: comfort and enclosure occupy the same space.

The household’s routines also mark the distance between Heidi’s habits and the city’s expectations. When Tinette announces breakfast, Heidi does not understand what the invitation requires. Reading Tinette’s expression, she draws a small stool from under the table, places it in a corner, and waits silently. Fraulein Rottenmeier then appears and calls her Adelheid, irritated that she has not understood what breakfast means. In this episode, Frankfurt is not simply a different landscape; it is a social environment whose customs Heidi has not been taught and whose adults often interpret her unfamiliarity as misconduct.

Home, Homesickness, and Departure

As Heidi remains in Frankfurt, the difference between the city and the mountain becomes a sustained emotional separation. After her attempt to go home is condemned as wicked and ungrateful, Heidi understands that she cannot return whenever she wishes, despite Dete’s assurances. She fears that Herr Sesemann, Clara, and Clara’s Grandmother would also regard her wish to leave as ingratitude. Because she cannot confide her longing without risking the anger of people who have treated her kindly, she keeps it to herself. Her appetite fails, she grows pale, and she lies awake thinking of the mountain. In sleep she dreams of its rocks and snowfield glowing in the evening light; on waking, she may briefly expect to be back at the hut before the large bed reminds her that she is still in Frankfurt.

The Doctor eventually identifies the connection between Heidi’s condition and her surroundings. He tells Herr Sesemann that Heidi is the sleepwalker responsible for opening the front door at night and that homesickness has left her dangerously emaciated. In his judgment, both problems require the same remedy: return to her native mountain air. Herr Sesemann is distressed that the child has become ill in his house without anyone noticing, and at first resists sending her away in such a weakened state. The diagnosis nevertheless changes the meaning of Frankfurt in the story. The household that was meant to provide Heidi with companionship has also become the place where her separation from home is expressed in sleeplessness, night wandering, and physical decline.

When Heidi leaves, Herr Sesemann allows her to take the belongings she wants, including kittens and tortoises, despite Fraulein Rottenmeier’s objections. He gives Heidi his hand and asks her to remember him and Clara; Heidi thanks him and sends her thanks to the Doctor. In the railway carriage she holds a basket tightly on her lap because it contains rolls for Peter’s Grandmother. Her return is thus not merely an escape from Frankfurt: even while eager to reach the grandfather, the mountain, and Peter, Heidi carries a practical gift from the city for someone else.

The City’s Continuing Connections

Frankfurt remains present after Heidi has returned to the mountains through letters and plans for reunion. When a letter from Clara arrives, Heidi carefully reads the address and runs to show it to Alm-Uncle. The letter reports that Clara and her Grandmother expect to travel after Clara completes a six-week cure at Ragatz, then stay in Dorfli so that Clara can be carried up the mountain on fine days. Frankfurt is the point from which Clara’s household prepares to set out, but the letter’s excitement is directed toward the mountain, Heidi, Peter, and the goats. The Doctor’s repeated visits to Clara during the winter have kept the mountain in conversation at home: he describes his time there and speaks of its air and quiet, while Clara looks forward to seeing it herself.

The final practical link is Heidi’s request for the bed she used in Frankfurt. She explains that its high pillows and thick coverlet would keep Peter’s Grandmother from lying with her head downhill and struggling to breathe, and would keep her warm enough not to need a shawl in bed. Frau Sesemann promises to have Fraulein Rottenmeier pack it and send it. The request transforms a remembered object of Heidi’s city stay into care for an elderly woman in the mountains. Frankfurt’s narrative significance rests in this double movement: its enclosed rooms intensify Heidi’s longing for home, while the household and possessions associated with the city later help connect the people who live there with those on the mountain.