Ludwig Herzfeld

Ludwig Herzfeld (1819–1911)

Ludwig Herzfeld (born September 12, 1819 in Guhrau , Silesia ; † August 24, 1911 in Halle (Saale) ) defended persecuted Social Democrats because of Bismarck's Socialist Law and became an honorary citizen of the city of Halle, where a street is named after him today is.

Life

Herzfeld was born in 1819 as the son of a Jewish merchant in the Silesian town of Guhrau. He attended grammar school in Glogau and studied law at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, where he was baptized in 1838. One of his fellow students was Karl Marx . In 1840 he passed the first state examination, worked as an auscultator at the regional court in Görlitz and part-time for the "Lower Silesian Branch Railway Company", later at the higher regional court in Glogau. In 1846 he passed the assessor examination in Berlin, where he experienced the revolutionary year of 1848 and in 1849 he settled in Sprottau as a lawyer and notary . In 1870 he moved to Halle an der Saale, where he set up a large law firm.

Above all, he showed moral courage in the defense of social democrats who were persecuted by Bismarck's Socialist Law. In 1888 he obtained the acquittals for all of his clients in the so-called “socialist trial”. For this and for his commitment to local politics, the city of Halle made him an honorary citizen of the city on January 1, 1900.

Herzfeld died in 1911 at the age of 92.

literature

• Willy Real (Ed.): Hans Herzfeld. From the memories. de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-013520-5 , pp. 19-23

Web links

• Herzfeld family chronicle
• Personalities in Halle (Saale)