The National Socialists planned to replace parts of the old town, until 1933 also a communist stronghold, with historicized new buildings. A citizens' initiative, the association of active friends of the old town founded in 1922 under the direction of art historian Fried Lübbecke, opposed these efforts. The federal government has had numerous old town buildings restored since 1926. However, as a pure association, it was limited in its resources, so that it was largely a matter of less substantial measures such as cleaning or repainting old buildings. Only with external financial help can comparatively important campaigns such as the purchase and renovation of the important Gothic patrician house Fürsteneck in Fahrgasse. Until the measures came to a complete standstill as a result of the war in the early 1940s, more than 600 buildings were thoroughly renovated, historically unsuitable extensions were removed and wells were repaired. Fried Lübbecke in particular described in detail how this made the old town into the good Stubb of Frankfurt within just a decade. Even facilities such as the unemployed kitchen, summer parties and Christmas presents for the old town children or the artist Christmas market made many old town residents feel proud of their homeland again.