JUST AROUND THE CORNER are the Frankfurt cathedral and St. Paul’s Church, where European history was made a hundred and more years ago. A block farther west, is the Roemer, where 17th century kings were crowned.

And at 41 Kurt Schumacherstrasse is a neon-fronted, picture-windowed, pink gymnasium.

Vic Tanny has come to Europe.

To most Americans his name is a household word, his Progressive Conditioning course and Brave New World-style health salons are accepted wonders of the age. There are some 300 Vic Tanny gymnasiums scattered across North America.

But this is his first appearance in the Old World, and Europeans — at least opening day visitors — have been astounded, to say the least.

To people who have spent generations getting places on bicycles, riding one indoors, going nowhere, to keep in condition is unheard of. Small wonder, then, their awe at 41 Kurt Schumacherstrasse.

First, in the foyer, there was Vic Tanny, himself rather awesome for two reasons:

¶ Even if he couldn’t afford to, he’d definitely have to get his suits custom tailored. He looks about three yards wide at the shoulders. And, at age 53, there is only one bulge below the latissimus dorceps — which brings up the second reason:

¶ He can afford the custom tailoring, and then some. The bulge is at the hip pocket.

Since 1940, when he borrowed $200 to open a small gym in Santa Monica, Calif., he has built body building into a $50 million-a-year-operation. He now surveys the world with the calm knowledge that both his body and bank account are in great shape.

"I spent a lot of the past year aboard my yacht," he noted as he led the way into the gym. "I also have some investments in oil now, but health and conditioning are still my main interest."

The first things to hit the eye-and foot-in the main room are blush-pink walls and a creamy white, wall-to-wall carpet about the thickness of golf course rough. Scattered over it is a collection of most unusual apparatus, all of gleaming chrome.

"This," he said, waving to a rectangular affair of shining tubes that looked like the product of a Quiz Kid gone mad with an erector set, "is my six-position pulley exerciser. This and all the other equipment, excepting the bicycle and the electronic massager, I designed and manufacture myself. We’ve sold and donated quite a bit of it to the Armed Forces. In fact, my equipment is used by SAC in their conditioning program."

FLANKING the six-way pulley machine were other devices of equally mystifying, if lesser structure. To explain them, Tanny introduced three other impressive sights.

The first was Mike Sanzone, manager and proprietor (Tanny does not own his gyms, but leases his name and equipment). Some 15 years and 75 pounds of muscle ago, Mike was a promising New York welterweight who quit the ring to join Tanny. He is a bit over 6 feet, and all sinew.

The other two obviously weren’t as strong as Mike, but were equally as impressive. Renate Stein and Karola Koch, Frankfurt misses who handle women’s conditioning (Tanny’s gyms are for the whole family), were obviously very much in shape as well as charming and helpful.

"This is our leg exerciser," explained Mike as Renate bounced nimbly onto what looked like a sawed-off operating table, slipped her feet under a padded, weighted bar and lifted it by straightening her lithesome limbs.

"That stuff over there (he indicated a row of variously shaped objects covered with corrugated wooden rollers) is the electrical massage equipment. It doesn’t do much in the way of muscle building, but it makes some people feel good.

"Back there (in a corridor reaching off the mirrored back wall) are the dressing rooms and the sauna room.

"This isn’t as big as a lot of the Tanny places in the States, but almost everything in here, including the carpeting, has been brought over to make it the same in operation and furnishings," he said.

Actually, bigger things are coming. As you read this a second Tanny gym may have opened across the city at the Frankfurt Fairgrounds — with a swimming pool, yet. And that’s only the beginning. Vic Tanny plans to condition the rest of the Continent and build up the British as well.

"We’re hoping to open 100 health centers in Europe and Britain," said the muscle master. "We’re already looking for locations in Bonn, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, as well as in London.

"We think we’re offering the people of Europe a new and, with so many people now driving cars over here, needed service. We’re not in business to make weightlifters out of our customers. Our aim is to make people healthier, stronger and physically younger."

HE explained further that, with gyms operating in scores of European cities, there will be no need for the traveling businessman to neglect a Tanny health course because he has to go out of town.

"A membership at one of these places is good for any Tanny gym in the world," he said. "A businessman from Hamburg or London can drop in here and continue his program."

While the Kurt Schumacherstrasse gym has been flooded with curious sightseers, it is still too early to tell how things will develop for the Tanny gyms in Europe.

This may be one reason why Tanny selected Frankfurt, with its heavy American military population, as a starting point. He hopes to reclaim some old American customers there, as well as gain some new ones.

And, while they are awaiting Europe’s reaction, what do Tanny & Co. think of Germany?

"I can’t understand it," moaned Sanzone. "I’ve lost more than 10 pounds on this German food!"

"Ah well," said Tanny, escorting the newsmen to the door and casting an eye at the Henninger Brewery tower looming a mile to the south. "1 think I’ll stay on for a bit to see how things work out — the beer’s very good."