Arthur Philipp Nikisch

This article deals with the legal scholar; for the conductor of the 19th century with the same first and last name, see Arthur Nikisch

Arthur Philipp Nikisch (born November 25, 1888 in Leipzig , † June 17, 1968 in Kiel ) was a German legal scholar and professor of civil law and labor law . Alongside Hans Carl Nipperdey and Alfred Hueck, he is considered an influential labor lawyer of the 20th century.

Life

Arthur Nikisch was born in Leipzig in 1888 as the son of the later Gewandhauskapellmeister Arthur Nikisch and the actress Amélie Nikisch . He grew up in Boston , Budapest and from 1893 in Leipzig. From 1898 he attended the St. Thomas School in Leipzig . After graduating from high school in 1907, he studied law at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , from 1907 to 1908 at the Humboldt University in Berlin , in 1908 at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and from 1908 to 1909 at the University of Leipzig . In 1911 and 1915 he passed his state law exams. The doctorate to Dr. jur. with the dissertation The legal character of the assumption of guilt followed in 1911 with Emil Strohal .

After graduating, he worked as a Saxon administrative lawyer . He became a legal assessor in 1915 and a town clerk in Dresden in 1920 . In 1923 he was Councilor in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior . From 1923 to 1933 Nikisch was Syndic of the Association of the Metal Industry in Saxony.

He completed his habilitation in 1926 on the subject of the basic forms of employment contracts and employment contracts at the Technical University of Dresden . In 1927 he became a private lecturer , in 1931 an associate professor and in 1935 a full professor in Dresden. In 1938 he was offered a professorship at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel , in 1941 at the Reich University of Strasbourg and in 1945 at the University of Leipzig.

The so-called “Reich University of Strasbourg” (1941–1944) and in particular the law and political science faculty were to become an elite institution of National Socialism. It arose in a constellation in which the legal affiliation of Alsace (and Lorraine) to France should not be formally affected, but at the same time with the establishment of a German civil administration and, above all, the introduction of German law, the final integration into the planned after the war German Reich was anticipated. It was planned to appoint as many members of the fascist “ Kiel School ” as possible to this “Reichsuniversität” , who had been leading in the development of a Nazi “jurisprudence” since 1933. Along with Nikisch, such appointments were successful with Ernst Rudolf Huber , who was the first to run personnel policy; with Friedrich Schaffstein , who became dean in Strasbourg, and with Georg Dahm .

Nikisch had previously been a member of the DDP during the Weimar Republic and was allegedly aloof from National Socialism. He did not join the NSDAP and the Academy for German Law. In 1934 he was a member of the Nazi Legal Guardian Association, since 1935 he was a member of the NS Reich Colonial Association , and since 1936 of the NS Altherrenbund . He signed the confession of professors at German universities and colleges about Adolf Hitler .

From 1945 to 1950 he was a full professor of labor law and in 1947/48 dean of the law faculty at Leipzig University. In 1950 he left the German Democratic Republic and followed a call to Kiel University, where he taught until his retirement. From 1949 he was co-editor of the archive for civilist practice .

Arthur Philipp Nikisch was married to the opera singer Grete Merrem-Nikisch .

literature

• Joachim Rückert :  Nikisch, Arthur. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , pp. 257-259 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Arthur Philipp Nikisch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Arthur Philipp Nikisch in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Arthur Philipp Nikisch in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herwig Schäfer: Legal teaching and research at the Reich University of Strasbourg 1941-1944. Mohr Siebeck , Tübingen 1999 ISBN 3161470974
2. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 .