Herbert Walter Samuel

Herbert Walter Samuel (born December 26, 1901 in Hamburg ; † April 16, 1982 ibid) was a German politician of the FDP .

Life and work

After graduating from high school, Samuel became a member of the Bahrenfeld Freikorps , which took part in the Kapp Putsch by occupying Hamburg's town hall. He studied law and entered the law firm of his father Walter Ludwig Oscar Samuel am Neuen Wall in 1929 . Since he was considered a " half-Jew " as the son of a baptized Jew and a non-Jewish woman , his license to practice as a lawyer was withdrawn on April 25, 1933, but because of his freelance work he was re-admitted on July 10 of the same year. As a result, he was harassed by those in power, but was still able to practice his profession. On November 30, 1938, however, his father was banned from working. After his father was supposed to move into a Jewish apartment with his non-Jewish wife , the latter committed suicide on March 25, 1943. From November 1944 Herbert Walter Samuel was compulsorily committed by the Gestapo to the "Sonderkommando J", where Jews who were allowed to stay in Hamburg due to a privileged mixed marriage were forced to carry out particularly dangerous clearing and rescue work.

After the Second World War, in addition to his professional activity, Samuel became involved in the Alsterdorfer Anstalten , of which he was chairman of the board from 1964 to 1981, after having been a member of the board since 1958. This activity led to his nickname "advocate of humanity". He was also a member of the board of trustees of the "Foundation for the Promotion of Hamburg Art Collections" since 1956 and since 1969 a member of the supervisory board of the Hamburg State Opera . In addition, from 1955 to 1970, Samuel was a member of the panel of judges for the award of the Edwin Scharff Prize . Finally, in 1971 he was elected chairman of the Hamburg regional association in the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge .

Political party

In the Weimar Republic , Samuel was close to German national and anti-republic circles. His experiences with persecution under National Socialism made him a staunch democrat. In September 1945 he was a co-founder of the FDP Hamburg . After the electoral success of the Hamburg bloc in the state elections in 1953, he applied for a senatorial office, but was unable to prevail against the candidates for the state executive at the decisive meeting of the FDP state committee on November 8, 1953.

In 1981 he was elected honorary member by the state party congress.

MP

Samuel was a member of the Hamburg parliament from 1953 to 1966 . He was elected in 1953 as a candidate for the electoral alliance Hamburg-Block ( CDU , FDP, DP , GB / BHE ) and from 1957 as an FDP candidate. As early as 1954, he succeeded the late Harald Abatz as Vice-President of the Citizenship, an office he held until he left parliament.

From 1957 to 1978 Samuel was a deputy to the judiciary. At times he was also a member of the judges' selection committee and the deputation of the cultural authority.

Honors

Samuel was awarded the " Medal for faithful work in the service of the people " by the Hamburg Senate on December 17, 1971 . In 1979 the Hamburg Lawyers' Association awarded him the Emil von Sauer Prize .

literature

• Heiko Morisse : Jewish lawyers in Hamburg. Exclusion and persecution in the Nazi state . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 2003, page 156.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stumbling block for Walter Ludwig Samuel
2. ^ "An advocate for humanity: Herbert Samuel is 75 years old", in: Die Welt, December 24, 1976, p. 27.