Karl Rosenthal (lawyer)
Karl Samuel Rosenthal (born July 7, 1879 in Nuremberg ; died January 21, 1970 in Washington DC ) was a German lawyer who worked as a lawyer in Würzburg and was imprisoned several times during the National Socialist era .
Life
Karl Rosenthal was the son of the Nuremberg businessman Heinrich Rosenthal and his wife Babette. After attending elementary school, he switched to the humanistic grammar school. As a one-year volunteer, he did his military service in Erlangen from 1898 . He then studied law at the Universities of Erlangen, Würzburg, Berlin and Munich. At the University of Würzburg he received his doctorate in 1903 for Dr. jur. The subject of his dissertation was the legitimation of objects . Until 1905, Karl Rosenthal worked as a legal intern in the preparatory service in Würzburg and lived at Semmelstrasse 27 during this time.
Karl Rosenthal was admitted to the bar in 1906. His uncle accepted him into the firm. After the outbreak of World War I , he was drafted for military service. By the end of the war, he was promoted to first lieutenant . When he returned to Würzburg, he resumed his work as a lawyer and in 1919 became a member of the Würzburg Rescue Service. He also joined the German Democratic Party and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and worked as a Freemason . He headed the Würzburg branch of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith .
After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists at the end of 1934 he took over the defense of the wine merchant Leopold Obermayer as a lawyer . At that time he had complained to the head of the Würzburg Bavarian Political Police (BPP), Josef Gerum , about the control of his mail, whereupon he was taken into " protective custody " on the same day . Obermayer was accused of espionage, links to the illegal KPD and disseminating atrocity news, and proceedings were initiated for treason .
As Obermayer's lawyer, Karl Rosenthal was taken into “ protective custody ” on October 10, 1935 for just under three months . When he was released in January 1936, he was warned not to delve into the process. The University of Würzburg revoked his doctorate. Rosenthal stayed in Würzburg and was imprisoned again in the course of the November pogrom in 1938 and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp . Then his wife Claire Rosenthal committed suicide in Würzburg. Karl Rosenthal was able to return to Würzburg after a week in the concentration camp, but had to report to the Gestapo there every day . In July 1939 he managed to emigrate to his relatives in Switzerland and later to Chicago. Due to his increasing hearing loss and lack of language skills, he could not gain a foothold there as a lawyer, but worked in a factory and a department store.
After the end of the war he returned to Würzburg in 1949. Most recently he lived with his children in Washington, where he died in 1970. He was buried next to his wife in Würzburg.
literature
- Reiner Strätz: Biographical Handbook of Würzburg Jews 1900–1945 .
- Roland Flade: Die Würzburger Juden , 2nd, extended edition, 1996, pp. 322–327.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ According to the correspondence card addressed to him by his aunt Frieda Freudenthal from May 12, 1905.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rosenthal, Karl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rosenthal, Karl Samuel (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 7, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nuremberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 21, 1970 |
| Place of death | Washington DC |