Because of the family's Jewish ancestry, the Fränkels fled to the United States during the Nazi Party's rise to power in the early 1930s.

They settled in Palo Alto, California, where Hermann Fränkel became a professor of Classics at Stanford University.

[1] During World War II, Frankel worked for the US military as a translator of German, Spanish, and Italian.

While at Peking University, Frankel met Chang Ch'ung-ho, a well-known poet, calligrapher and kunqu opera singer.

He published a large number of books and articles on Chinese poetry and literature, and his translation of the Ballad of Mulan was used in Disney's 1998 animated film.