Erich Lewinski

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Erich Lewinski (born January 1, 1899 in Goldap / East Prussia ; † February 16, 1956 ) was a German lawyer , socialist and president of the regional court in Kassel .

Life

Lewinski came from a Jewish family of doctors and merchants and studied law and social sciences in Königsberg and Breslau with a doctorate . From 1917 to 1919 he was a soldier in the Army and a participant in the First World War , after which he passed the two state exams. From 1923 to 1933 he practiced as a lawyer in Kassel . He became politically active as a member of the International Socialist Fighting League (ISK) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

After the seizure of power in 1933, Lewinski emigrated together with his wife Hertha, b. Voremberg, Switzerland and France to avoid arrest by the National Socialists after he had dealt with Roland Freisler while defending the politically persecuted . In Paris , with the support of his wife, among others, he ran the "Restaurant Végétarien des Boulevards (d'aprés Bircher-Benner) 28 Boulevard Poissonniére", which became a meeting place for many emigrants and after a short time served 500 guests a day and twenty waitresses and kitchen assistants work bot. The money earned served the émigré women as a livelihood and to finance their political work in exile. As employees also were here Gretel Ebeling and Marta Rodensteinstraße busy.

Lewinski's sister Eva Lewinski headed the Paris ISK local association in 1938/39.

1940–1941 Lewinski was part of the Emergency Rescue Committee in southern France. In Marseille he coordinated rescue operations for threatened SPD functionaries together with Fritz Heine . In 1941 he managed to escape to the USA via Spain and Portugal , where he was, among other things, an office worker and a member of the executive board of the German-American Council for the Liberation of Germany from Nazism.

Lewinski returned to Kassel in 1947, where he became director of the regional court and, since 1949, president of the Kassel regional court . He advocated a comprehensive reform of the German judiciary and a democratic renewal. He was also involved in cultural politics and became a member of Club 53 of the Kassel Documenta .

literature

  • Antje Dertinger : The three exiles of Erich Lewinski. Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen 1995.
  • Antje Dertinger: Lewinsky, Erich . In: Manfred Asendorf, Rolf von Bockel (eds.): Democratic ways. German résumés from five centuries . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1997, ISBN 3-476-01244-1 , pp. 385-386.
  • Ewald Grothe : Lewinski, Erich. In: Kassel Lexicon. Vol. 2, ed. from the city of Kassel, Kassel 2009, p. 39.
  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Vol. 1: Politics, economy, public life . Saur, Munich 1980, p. 441.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antje Dertinger: The three exiles of Erich Lewinski, Gerlingen 1995, p. 103.
  2. ^ Antje Dertinger: The three exiles of Erich Lewinski, Gerlingen 1995, p. 108.
  3. ^ Antje Dertinger: The three exiles of Erich Lewinski, Gerlingen 1995, p. 104.
  4. Antje Dertinger: The three exiles of Erich Lewinski, Gerlingen 1995, p. 123.