Felix Lesser

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Felix Lesser (born September 18, 1887 in Berlin , † April 29, 1974 in Wiesbaden ) was President of the Hessian State Court and the Hanau Regional Court .

family

The son of Jewish parents was baptized as a Protestant in 1910 . On June 10, 1925, he married Margarete Werschmidt in Berlin and adopted her daughter Margarete, who was born in 1917.

Career

Beginnings

Felix Lesser studied law in Freiburg and Berlin . He passed the second state examination in 1909 with a very good result ("Prädikatsexamen"). In 1910/11 he did his military service with the fusilier regiment "Prince Heinrich of Prussia" (Brandenburgisches) No. 35 of the Prussian Army . In 1914 or 1915 he was appointed court assessor.

At the beginning of the First World War he was drafted as a deputy officer and seriously wounded on August 19, 1914. What remained was a stiffening of the left arm with which he was 30% damaged in the war . He was promoted to lieutenant and awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . After his recovery, he served as a judge- martial from October 1, 1915 to May 15, 1920 .

After retiring from military jurisdiction , Felix Lesser initially became a “permanent unskilled worker”, and from February 1929 a public prosecutor's office at Public Prosecutor III in Berlin. From June 22, 1923 to March 31, 1926 he was seconded to the Upper Reich Prosecutor's Office in Leipzig . Here, together with the head of the authority, Ludwig Ebermayer , he represented the charges in 1924 in a trial for femicide against the then Gauleiter of the NSDAP in Berlin, Joseph Goebbels , and in a press criminal case against Georg Strasser . When he left the Upper Reich Attorney, Ludwig Ebermayer gave him an excellent certificate. On August 11, 1930 he was appointed to the chamber judge.

persecution

As part of the National Socialist persecution of Jews , Felix Lesser was given a temporary leave of absence on April 1, 1933, but was then allowed to continue working as a "front-line fighter" in the judicial service. On November 1, 1933, he was transferred to the Hanau District Court as a district judge due to the law to restore the civil service . Here he was the instructor of the then referent Adam von Trott zu Solz .

On January 1, 1936, Felix Lesser was retired and was banned from working under the Reich Citizenship Act . He moved to Wiesbaden , where he was persecuted and harassed: in 1939 he had to pay the Jewish property tax twice , 10,800  RM and 2,700 RM. From March 30 to July 16, 1939 he was in " protective custody " in the Wiesbaden police prison . After the Jewish Star Ordinance was enacted on September 1, 1941, he initially refused to wear the Jewish star and negotiated with the authorities as to whether he could be exempted. That failed, so that he too wore the Jewish star from April 12, 1942 until the end of the war. His "mixed marriage" provided a relative protection from persecution because his wife was classified as " Aryan " according to the Nuremberg Laws . He initially worked in a cardboard factory and was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in February 1945 . Here he experienced the liberation by the Allies on May 7, 1945 and returned to Wiesbaden in June 1945. After the Second World War he received 900 DM for imprisonment under the Federal Compensation Act .

post war period

Felix Lesser was appointed and sworn in as President of the Hanau District Court on August 23, 1945 by the local military commander of the American military government . The judiciary was resumed on September 1, 1945. He held this office until he retired on March 31, 1960. For years he was chairman of the Grand Criminal Chamber and the Appeals and Appeals Chamber of the Regional Court. He was also a member of the examination boards for the two legal exams . The reconstruction of the Hanau court building , which had been badly damaged by air raids, was also part of his area of ​​responsibility.

From 1951 Felix Lesser was a member of the State Court of Hesse in Wiesbaden. From November 30, 1955 until his retirement on March 31, 1960 he was its president.

In 1953, as part of the reparation process, it was faked that Felix Lesser had been appointed Reich judge on October 1, 1940 , which had positive effects on his salary and retirement benefits. He was also allowed to use the title “Reichsgerichtsrat a. D. “lead.

On the occasion of his 70th birthday on September 18, 1957, on September 16 or 17, 1957, he received the Grand Cross of Merit with a star from the Hessian Prime Minister Georg-August Zinn , which was awarded to him by Federal President Theodor Heuss .

Felix Lesser was a member of the church council of the Evangelical Peace Church in Hanau-Kesselstadt .

literature

Works

sorted by year of publication

  • The fund and treasure shelf in German law. Unpublished. Before 1914.
  • Employee at: Vocabularium iurisprudentiae Romanae. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1914.
  • War espionage in the world wars and their legal assessment. = Legal dissertation at the University of Rostock on May 15, 1920. Machinenschriftlich, Rostock 1920.
  • The court system of our homeland in the 19th century and the Hanau district court. In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home. Hanau 1954, pp. 181-185.

swell

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Hans Bergemann and Simone Ladwig-Winters: Judges and public prosecutors of Jewish origin in Prussia under National Socialism . Bundesanzeiger Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 2004, p. 239.
  • Georg Falk: Denazification and Continuity. The reconstruction of the Hessian judiciary using the example of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main = Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 86. Marburg 2017. 978-3-942225-38-0
  • Horst Göppinger: Jurists of Jewish descent in the “Third Reich”. Disenfranchisement and persecution . CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. Munich, 2nd edition 1990, p. 347.
  • h: Received the Grand Cross of Merit with a Star. A well-deserved lawyer. District Court President Dr. Lesser is 70 years old today . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse of September 18, 1957.
  • in: On his 70th birthday: Distinguished honor for Dr. Lesser . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of September 18, 1957.
  • Hans Katzer: Liberated from concentration camp. Dr. Felix Lesser - term of office from September 1, 1945 to March 31, 1960. In: Hanauer Anzeiger of December 31, 2001, p. 8.
  • Gerhard Lüdecke: Hanau Jewish lawyers in the time of the Third Reich. In: New magazine for Hanau history = messages from the Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 eV 2018, pp. 206-252.
  • NN: High honor for President Dr. Lesser . In: Hanauer Anzeiger from September 18, 1957.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Göppinger deviating: Hanau, which probably does not apply because of his place of residence in Wiesbaden at the time.
  2. ↑ According to information from Lüdecke, the trials took place before the “State Court”. However, the State Court of Justice for the German Reich had no criminal jurisdiction.
  3. ↑ After: h: Received the Great Cross of Merit : "Staatsgerichtsrat"
  4. ↑ Falk, p. 254, note 1079, gives “1935” for this; Bergemann; "Late 1935".
  5. ↑ Bergemann claims that he lived in Berlin in 1939, but no other source gives this.
  6. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 242, also mentions August 23, 1945.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 223.
  2. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 251.
  3. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 223.
  4. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 225.
  5. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 223.
  6. ^ Lüdecke, p. 223; h: Received the Great Cross of Merit ; NN: High honor .
  7. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 223.
  8. ↑ Bergemann.
  9. ^ Lüdecke, p. 223; h: Received the Great Cross of Merit .
  10. ^ Lüdecke, p. 225; NN: High honor .
  11. ↑ Bergemann.
  12. ^ Lüdecke, p. 225; Bergemann.
  13. ↑ Benigna von Krusenstjern: "That it makes sense to die - to have lived": Adam von Trott zu Solz 1909–1944. Biography " . Wallstein, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-0506-9 , pp. 234f.
  14. ↑ Falk, p. 254, note 1079.
  15. ↑ Falk, p. 254, note 1079.
  16. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 225.
  17. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 242.
  18. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 225.
  19. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 250.
  20. ↑ Göppinger; Lüdecke, p. 250.
  21. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 242.
  22. ↑ Göppinger; Lüdecke, p. 251.
  23. ↑ NN: High honor ; h: Received the Great Cross of Merit ; in: On the 70th birthday .
  24. ↑ h: Received the Great Cross of Merit ; NN: High honor ; in: On the 70th birthday .
  25. ↑ NN: High honor ; in: On the 70th birthday .
  26. ↑ Göppinger.
  27. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 250f.
  28. ↑ Lüdecke, p. 251.
  29. ↑ So: h: Received the Great Cross of Merit .
  30. ↑ So: NN: High honor .
  31. ↑ h: Received the Great Cross of Merit ; NN: High honor .
  32. ↑ NN: High honor ; h: Received the Great Cross of Merit ; in: On the 70th birthday .
  33. ↑ The Humboldt University of Berlin awarded him a prize for his work (Lüdecke, p. 223).
personal data
SURNAME Lesser, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and President of the Hessian State Court
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1974
Place of death Wiesbaden