Elsie Kühn-Leitz

Elsie Kühn-Leitz around 1940

Elsy Anna Grace Kühn-Leitz (* December 22, 1903 in Wetzlar ; † August 5, 1985 ibid) was a German lawyer and patron . Kühn-Leitz was the founding president of the Association of German-French Societies for Europe and comes from the Leitz industrial family based in Wetzlar .

Life

Elsie Leitz was born as the daughter of the industrialist Ernst Leitz II . Her grandfather, Ernst Leitz I , founded the Optische Werke Ernst Leitz (Leica) in Wetzlar in 1849, which her father took over. Her mother died when she was six years old. She attended the secondary school for girls in Wetzlar and the reform-pedagogical free school community Wickersdorf . Since it was not possible to take the Abitur in Wickersdorf, she switched to the Oberrealschule in Berlin-Mariendorf , where she graduated from high school in 1921 at the age of 17.

Elsie Leitz then began to study economics and languages at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . She moved to the Munich Business School and graduated with a degree in business administration at the age of 19 . She then studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and later at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin jurisprudence . She completed her legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main with a stage at the Bad Vilbel District Court .

At Frankfurt University doctorate in 1936. "cum laude" for Dr. iur. with a pamphlet on the question of how the spouses can help shape the marital partnership in legal transactions . The dissertation had already been written in 1931/1932. A year earlier, in 1935, Leitz had married Kurt Kühn, who had a doctorate in economics. The three children Knut († 2020), Cornelia and Karin emerged from the marriage. She was divorced again in 1948.

During the time of National Socialism , like her father, she worked as a so-called Jewish helper . When her activities became public, she questioned the Gestapo and finally arrested Kühn-Leitz for “exaggerated humanity” on September 10, 1943. She was imprisoned in the Frankfurt police prison on Klapperfeldstrasse and was released on November 28, 1943. After the Second World War she joined the CDU and co-founded the CDU Hessen in 1945 .

In order to rebuild the cultural life in her hometown after the end of the Second World War, Kühn-Leitz founded the Wetzlar cultural community in autumn 1945 , which shaped it for 30 years. To promote reconciliation between Germany and France, she founded the Association of German-French Societies for Europe (VDFG) in 1957 , of which she later became honorary president.

During her lifetime she maintained friendships with Albert Schweitzer and Konrad Adenauer . In June 1959, Kühn-Leitz visited Schweitzer's jungle hospital in Lambaréné . 86 letters are documented with Adenauer alone.

In addition, she was indirectly involved in the independence of the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) in 1960 . In 1959 she met Patrice Lumumba, who later became Prime Minister of the Congo, on a trip to Africa. In the spring of 1960, after the famous “Round Table Conference” in Brussels, she invited Lumumba and two of his party colleagues to Wetzlar, where she successfully brought them into contact with several government agencies and economic giants in the Federal Republic .

Kühn-Leitz died at the age of 81 in her hometown of Wetzlar. The funeral service took place in Wetzlar Cathedral .

Awards and honors

Elsie Kühn-Leitz was made an honorary citizen of the cities of Avignon (1966) and Wetzlar (1979). Both cities have now named a street after their name. In addition, she received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in officer level in 1965 , the Aristide Briand Medal in 1970, the Letter of Honor from the State of Hesse in 1974 and the Ring of Honor from the City of Wetzlar, and in 1984 the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe plaque from State of Hesse awarded.

In memory of its founding president , the VDFG has been awarding the Elsie Kühn Leitz Prize for services to Franco-German relations and European unification since 1986 .

literature

• Gereon Fritz: In the beginning there was the people - Franco-German societies and town twinning , Brilon 2015, p. 22ff. and p. 82
• Torben Gülstorff: Trade follows Hallstein? German activities in the Central African region of the Second Scramble . Berlin 2016.
• Irene Jung: Wetzlar women in the 20th century . Ed .: Women's Office of the City of Wetzlar. Wetzlar 2009, p. 37-42 .
• Knut Kühn-Leitz (Ed.): In Memoriam Dr. Elsie Kühn-Leitz , Wetzlar 2015.
• Margarete Mehdorn: French Culture in the Federal Republic of Germany: Political Concepts and Civil Society Initiatives 1945–1970 , Cologne 2009.
• Klaus Otto Nass (Ed.): Elsie Kühn-Leitz - Courage for Humanity. From the work of a woman in her time - documents, letters and reports. Preface by Bernhard Vogel . Europa Union Verlag, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-7713-0450-4 .
• Frank Dabba Smith: Elsie's War: A Story of Courage in Nazi Germany, London 2005.

Web links

• Kühn-Leitz, Elsie. Hessian biography. (As of October 29, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kühn-Leitz, Elsie. Hessian biography. (As of May 27, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
2. ↑ Gert Heiland: Obituary for the death of Dr. Knut Kühn-Leitz. In: Mittelhessen.de. VRM Wetzlar GmbH, June 5, 2020, accessed on June 8, 2020 (death date May 23 , 2020 ). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Katharine Florin: Citizens build bridges: The civil society commitment for the Franco-German rapprochement . Kassel University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89958-792-0 , pp. 56 ff .
4. ↑ Don't bow to evil - home to Lahn and Dill - Mittelhessen.de . ( Mittelhessen.de [accessed June 11, 2018]).
5. ↑ Elsie Kühn-Leitz. In: Klapperfeld - Former police prison in Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved January 13, 2018 . 
6. ^ Hans-Peter Schwarz: Adenauer, the statesman 1952-67 . DVA, Stuttgart 1991.
7. ↑ Torben Gülstorff: Trade follows Hallstein? German activities in the Central African region of the 'Second Scramble' . Berlin 2016, urn : nbn: de: kobv: 11-100241664 .
8. ^ One road for Elsie Kühn-Leitz - Wetzlar region - Mittelhessen.de . ( Mittelhessen.de [accessed on January 6, 2018]).
9. ^ Gießener Anzeiger Verlags GmbH & Co KG: Commitment to art and people in need . ( giessener-anzeiger.de [accessed on April 3, 2018]).
10. ↑ Bernd Lindenthal: "She lived to give" - ​​Elsie Kühn-Leitz was the first president of the German-French societies . In: Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung . August 14, 2015.
11. ^ Elsie Kühn Leitz Prize. Association of Franco-German Societies for Europe (VDFG), accessed on January 6, 2018 .