Ernst Leffmann

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Ernst Leffmann (born April 23, 1899 in Cologne ; died March 22, 1972 in Arnhem ) was a German - Dutch lawyer and manufacturer .

Immediately after the seizure of power of the Nazis Ernst Leffmann was arrested and ill-treated in detention. After his release he fled to the Netherlands . In 1943 he was arrested and deported to Westerbork transit camp and later to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Ernst Leffmann was one of the survivors of the lost train that was sent from Bergen-Belsen with prisoners to Theresienstadt in April 1945 .

Both before and after the Nazi era, Ernst Leffmann published numerous legal writings and commentaries on legal texts.

life and work

Ernst Leffmann was born as the eldest son of the Jewish entrepreneur Leo (Lesser) Leffmann and his wife Johanna (née Lohn) in Cologne. The father came from a widespread family of merchants and entrepreneurs and was managing director of the corset and tricot factory Löwenstein & Leffmann . After his father died in 1903 at the age of 38, Ernst Leffmann grew up in difficult financial circumstances.

He attended the Kreuzgasse grammar school , where he graduated from high school in 1918 . After graduating from school, he enrolled at the law faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . Before he could begin his studies, however, he was drafted into military service.

Ernst Leffmann completed his law studies on May 17, 1922 with a doctorate on the State Court of Justice at the Law Faculty of the University of Cologne . He opened a law firm. At the end of the 1920s he went to Berlin and published numerous legal publications, including a. the detailed commentary on the Second Republic Protection Act , which was published in 1931.

In 1931 he married the divorced Johanna Käthe Katzenstein (née Salinger), who brought two children into the marriage. The liberal Jewish lawyer gave regular lectures to Social Democratic union members in the early 1930s . Shortly after the seizure of power, on the evening of March 8, 1933, he was beaten up by SA men at a trade union event and arrested. The abuse resulted in permanent hearing loss. After his release, Leffmann decided to flee to the Netherlands. In August 1933 he emigrated to Arnhem. He returned to Berlin again briefly to celebrate his stepson Heinz's Bar Mitzvah . His wife followed him into exile, while the children in Kassel initially finished the school year with relatives. Leffmann founded the NV Chemie Fox factory in Arnhem and managed it until December 31, 1940.

After the occupation of the Netherlands by the Wehrmacht , anti-Jewish measures also began in Arnhem. When the deportations began, his in-laws, Siegmund and Antonie Salinger saw no way out and committed suicide in Arnhem on October 15, 1942 in order to evade the deportation. Leffmann was forced to move with his family into a smaller apartment together with relatives of his wife. In December 1942 the family went into hiding. However, they were discovered and deported to the Westerbork transit camp and later to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Four days before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, on April 11, 1945, 2,400 of the prisoners who remained in the camp, including Leffmann and his family, were deported on the last transport train to the Theresienstadt ghetto . The train wandered through Central Germany in the following 12 days and was liberated by the advancing Red Army on April 23, 1945 near the town of Tröbitz . Leffmann and his family were among the survivors of the journey of the Lost Train and the subsequently rampant typhus epidemic among the liberated.

After the end of the Second World War , Leffmann returned to Arnhem and built another factory. He received Dutch citizenship on May 27, 1948 .

In September 1952, he was admitted to the Berlin bar without a residence permit . In the 1960s he worked as a lecturer in the law faculty of the University of Cologne. In 1969 he published the revision and commentary of the law against unfair competition published by Alfred Rosenthal in 1930 .

Leffmann was an active member of the Liberaal Joodse Gemeente. He died in Arnhem on March 22, 1972.

souvenir

Stumbling block for Ernst Leffmann, laid in front of the Cologne high school Kreuzgasse in March 2019.
The artist Gunter Demnig in conversation with the family of Ernst Leffmann's grandson

On March 19, 2019, the artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block in front of the entrance to the Kreuzgasse grammar school in memory of Ernst Leffmann . The North Rhine-Westphalian School Minister Yvonne Gebauer and representatives of the Central Council of Jews and the Cologne Synagogue Community also took part in the memorial event, which took place in the presence of his grandson Ernst Numann .

In addition, stumbling blocks were laid for five of his relatives in Cologne, including his uncle Artur Leffmann and his cousin Edith Leffmann .

Works

  • The State Court of Justice , dissertation from the law faculty of the University of Cologne, 1921
  • The right of recourse of the social security agencies in the context of liability law , 1929
  • Driver's Handbook , 1930
  • Law for the Protection of the Republic , 1931
  • The civil liability of the members of the bodies of the health insurance funds and health insurance associations towards the insurance company , 1931
  • The Grain Storage Act, 1931 (together with Nikolaus Pennemann)
  • Milk Law: Hand commentary and detailed explanations, processing the Prussian and Bavarian implementing provisions , 1932 (together with Nikolaus Pennemann)
  • Law against Unfair Competition , 1969 (adaptation and commentary of the work by Alfred Rosenthal last published in 1930)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Susanne Esch: Memories of four former students at the Kreuzgasse grammar school . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . Cologne March 26, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b S. David: "Giving the victims their dignity and identity back - that's what we stand for." Retrieved on May 5, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ Number of employees at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich: winter half year 1918/19. (PDF) Ludwig Maximilians University, 1918, accessed on May 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Legal doctoral documents 1919 to 1930. (PDF) In: Findbuch der Universität zu Köln. University of Cologne, accessed on May 5, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Ernst Leffmann: Law for the Protection of the Republic of March 25, 1930 . In: Collection of German Laws . tape 139 . Bernheimer, Mannheim. Berlin. Leipzig 1931, p. 139 .
  6. ↑ Changes to the commercial register . In: Arnhemsche Courant . tape 128 , no. 16738 . Arnhem January 11, 1941, p. 3 .
  7. ^ Margo Klijn: De 'joodse sfeer' en vluchtelingen in Arnhem, 1933-1940 . In: Arnhem de Genoeglijkste . tape 20 , no. 4 . Arnhem 2000, p. 115 f .
  8. ↑ Antonie Leffmann memorial sheet. Yad Vashem, accessed May 6, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Siegmund Samuel Salinger memorial sheet. Joodsmonument, accessed May 6, 2019 (Dutch).
  10. ↑ Naturalization Ernst Leffmann . In: Staatsblad van het koninkrijk der Nederlanden . No. 1/213 , May 27, 1948, p. 2 .
  11. ↑ Lawyers of Jewish origin in Berlin without a residence requirement. (PDF) Senator for Justice, accessed on May 6, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Alfred Rosenthal; Ernst Leffmann: Law against Unfair Competition. Comment. 9th edition. Vahlen, Munich 1969, p. 636 .
  13. ↑ Death notice Ernst Leffmann . In: Nieuw Israelietisch weekblad . March 31, 1972, p. 16 .
personal data
SURNAME Leffmann, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Dutch lawyer and manufacturer
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1972
Place of death Arnhem