Martin Wolff (legal scholar)

Martin Wolff (born September 26, 1872 in Berlin , † July 20, 1953 in London ) was a German lawyer and university professor who was ousted from his chair at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin in 1934 due to his Jewish descent . In 1938 he was forced to leave Germany and then lived in Great Britain.

Life

Childhood and university education (1872–1903)

Wolff was born on September 26, 1872 in Berlin into a Jewish merchant family as the son of Wilhelm Wolff and Lehna Wolff (née Ball ) and raised in the Jewish faith. He attended the French Gymnasium Berlin and then studied in Berlin jurisprudence . In 1894 he received his doctorate from the law faculty with the thesis Das beneficium excussionis realis . In 1900 he completed his habilitation in Berlin with the work The building on foreign soil, in particular the border overbuilding according to the civil code for the German Empire on a historical basis.

University career (1903–1938)

In 1903 he was appointed associate professor there. His contribution to property law in Enneccerus - Kipp -Wolff, which became a standard work for almost half a century and was translated into Spanish in 1937, dates from this time . In 1907 his son Konrad Wolff was born, who later became a well-known pianist. It was not until 1914 that he received a full professorship in Marburg . In 1919 he moved to Bonn until he returned to Berlin in 1921; he received the chair for civil law, commercial law and private international law. Wolff was considered a gifted academic teacher whose lectures were always overcrowded. When the National Socialists came to power, his lectures were disrupted: On May 4 and 5, 1933, student SA men interrupted his lecture and threatened students who wanted to attend. When Wolff began to read he could not be heard. More than a hundred rioters whistled for house keys and shouted "Judah mad". Only after an intervention by the university rector Eduard Kohlrausch , who, according to his own statement, was the only university teacher to support Wolff, could the lectures run again undisturbed. But also in the following time there were lecture disruptions at Wolff.

Together with his colleague Ernst Rabel , Wolff was ousted from his chair in Berlin in 1935 because of his Jewish origins by the new dean of the law faculty, the fanatical National Socialist Graf von Gleispach , although neither of them fell under the exclusion of the Professional Civil Service Act because they had already been employed before 1914 had been. The dismissal was finally ordered by the Ministry of Education without any legal basis.

Emigration to England (1938–1953)

In 1938 he finally emigrated to England ; he should never enter Germany again. He became a Fellow at All Souls College , Oxford . In 1945 he published Private International Law there, a comprehensive account of English private international law. In 1947 he became a British citizen. In 1953 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. He died in London on July 20, 1953.

Works

Wolff wrote numerous treatises on commercial, stock, family, property and insurance law. Likewise in the field of private international law. His textbooks on family and inheritance law in particular had great success and were reprinted again and again. The textbook on property law was continued by his student Ludwig Raiser .

Property Law (1910)

Wolff's property law first appeared in 1910 and soon became a standard work. It appeared between 1910 and 1932 in nine editions with 37,000 copies sold and was republished in 1957 by Ludwig Raiser. It is characterized by dogmatic rigor and systematic unity. At the same time, Wolff was also accused of ignoring economic and historical contexts, as well as references to public law. Wolff noted methodical discussions as "rather bored".

Private International Law (1945)

Wolff's Private International Law was received very positively in England and widely accepted . Nevertheless, the typically continental, strict system was alien to English readers; In particular, the detailed treatment of problems that had not previously arisen in the English case law met with criticism:

“Dr. Wolff is more at home in discussing unsolved problems than in handling English case law. "

- JHC Morris

But it was precisely this that made it relevant for the English courts when it came to filling legal gaps. Wolff's book is also cited in decisions of the House of Lords.

Publications (selection)

• The construction on foreign soil, especially the border superstructure. According to the civil code for the German Reich on a historical basis (= treatises on private law and civil process of the German Reich. Vol. 6, no.2 , ISSN  0174-8106 ). Fischer, Jena 1900.
• Property law (= textbook of civil law. Vol. 2, section 1). Elwert, Marburg 1910.
• Imperial Constitution and Property. Mohr, Tübingen 1923.
• International private law (= Encyclopedia of Law and Political Science. Vol. 15). Springer, Berlin 1933.
• Private International Law. Oxford University Press, London et al. 1945.
• with Pierre Arminjon and Boris Nolde: Traité de droit comparé. 3 volumes. Pichon & Durand-Auzias, Paris 1950–1951.

Honors

• 1952: Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1952: Honorary Doctor of Civil Law, Oxford University.

literature

• Ulrich Falk : Martin Wolff . In: Michael Stolleis (Ed.): Juristen. A biographical lexicon. From antiquity to the 20th century (=  Beck'sche series . No. 1417 ). CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-45957-9 , pp. 676 .
• Dieter Medicus : Martin Wolff. A master of clarity . In: Helmut Heinrichs , Harald Franzki , Klaus Schmalz , Michael Stolleis (eds.): German lawyers of Jewish origin . CH Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-36960-X , p. 543-554 .
• Martin Wolff in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Gerhard Dannemann : Martin Wolff (1872–1953) . In: Jeack Beatson , Reinhard Zimmermann (Ed.): Jurists Uprooted. German-speaking Émigré Lawyers in Twentieth-Century Britain . Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2004, ISBN 0-19-927058-9 , pp. 441-462 .
• Gerhard Dannemann: Comparative Law in Exile. Martin Wolff and English Law. Inaugural lecture, July 1, 2003, Humboldt University Berlin, Great Britain Center (= Humboldt University Berlin. Public lectures. H. 135). Humboldt University, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86004-181-9 ( PDF; 304 kB ).
• Gerhard Dannemann: Martin Wolff (1872-1953). In: Stefan Grundmann u. a .: Festschrift 200 Years of the Law Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin. History, present, future. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3899496302 .
• Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.2. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 1263

Web links

• Literature by and about Martin Wolff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Martin Wolff  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Gerhard Dannemann: Martin Wolff (1872–1953) . In: Jeack Beatson, Reinhard Zimmermann (Ed.): Jurists Uprooted. German-speaking Émigré Lawyers in Twentieth-Century Britain . Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2003, ISBN 0-19-927058-9 , pp. 441-462 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Medicus: Martin Wolff. A master of clarity . In: Helmut Heinrichs, Harald Franzki, Klaus Schmalz, Michael Stolleis (eds.): German lawyers of Jewish origin . CH Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-36960-X , p. 543-554 .
3. ↑ s. Anna-Maria Countess von Lösch: The Naked Spirit. The law faculty of the Berlin University in upheaval in 1933 (= contributions to the legal history of the 20th century. 26). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, ISBN 3-16-147245-4 , p. 132, (also: Berlin, Humboldt-Universität, dissertation, 1998/1999).
4. ↑ Quoted from Gerhard Dannemann: Martin Wolff (1872–1953) . In: Jeack Beatson, Reinhard Zimmermann (Ed.): Jurists Uprooted. German-speaking Émigré Lawyers in Twentieth-Century Britain . Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2003, ISBN 0-19-927058-9 , pp. 441-462, here p. 451 .