Max Rothfels

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Max Rothfels in 1879 as a student in Göttingen

Max Rothfels (born June 10, 1854 in Cassel , † October 22, 1935 in Kassel ) was a German lawyer and notary.

Life

Max Rothfels came from an influential Jewish banker family that had been based in Kassel with one branch since the end of the 18th century. His grandfather Rothschild had made a considerable fortune as a banker in Kassel. The Kassel branch of the family changed the family name from Rothschild to Rothfels in 1840. The financial situation enabled his father, Jeremias Rothschild / Rothfels (1800–1873), after studying mathematics at the University of Marburg , to work for Carl Friedrich Gauß in Göttingen and then to settle in Kassel as a private scholar.

After graduating from high school in Kassel, Max Rothfels studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin. In Heidelberg he became a member of the Corps Suevia , then in 1873 in Göttingen also a member of the Corps Hannovera . During his time in Göttingen, he initially served as a one-year volunteer with the 2nd Kurhessian Infantry Regiment No. 82. Because of his father's illness, as a one-year-old he was transferred to the Infantry Regiment "von Wittich" (3rd Kurhessisches) No. 83 in Kassel , where he later also became a reserve officer. Rothfels completed his studies in Göttingen after the death of his father with the first state examination and the doctorate to Dr. jur. from. In 1881, after completing his legal traineeship in Kassel, he first became a court assessor, and later a lawyer and notary in Kassel. In 1900 he was awarded the title of Counselor . He held voluntary functions in the Jewish community of Kassel and, like his father, was its head for almost 50 years. He was one of the founders of the German Red Cross in the city and volunteered in a number of other charitable organizations. In the First World War he served from 1914 to 1918 as a captain of the Landwehr in the Deputy General Command of the XI. Army Corps . He was in charge of the hospitals in Kassel and was awarded the Iron Cross for his work. The large family fortune fell victim to inflation after the war. It has not yet been determined whether he was persecuted by the National Socialists in his old age in 1933 .

Rothfels family grave in Kassel

Max Rothfels was married to Clara Wallach from Kassel since 1881. The two sons and two daughters were no longer raised in the Jewish faith by the two of them. One of the sons was the later historian and Bismarck biographer Hans Rothfels . Both sons were forced out of government service in 1934. The tomb of the Rothfels family is in the Jewish cemetery in Kassel- Bettenhausen .

Fonts

  • Kaiser Wilhelm I and Kaiser Friedrich: two memorial speeches; held in the funeral boxes on March 16 and June 24, 1888; Manuscript for the brothers of the Lodge for unity and steadfastness in the Orient by Cassel , Findel, Leipzig 1888 (digitized version)
  • The trade advance and savings association in Cassel. 1898. Kassel 1899.

literature

  • Werner Conze : Hans Rothfels. 1983.
  • Heinrich Ferdinand Curschmann : Blue Book of the Corps Hannovera zu Göttingen, Volume 1: 1809–1899 Göttingen 2002, p. 221, No. 717.
  • Armin Danco: The Yellow Book of the Corps Suevia zu Heidelberg, 3rd edition (members 1810–1985), Heidelberg 1985, No. 655
  • Jan Eckel : Hans Rothfels. An intellectual biography in the 20th century , Göttingen 2005 ( ISBN 3-8924-4975-9 ), 479 p. ( Review by Volker Ullrich. In: Die Zeit No. 4 of January 19, 2006, p. 54).
  • Theodor Schröder : Obituary for Max Rothfels. In: Corps report of the Corps Hannovera zu Göttingen, No. 105/106, SS 1935 / WS 1935/36, p. 15 ff.

Web links

Commons : Max Rothfels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Neugebauer :  Hans Rothfels. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 123 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Kösener Korps-Lists 1910 , 121 , 703; 70 , 406.
  3. ^ Federal Bar Association (Ed.): Lawyer without law. The fate of Jewish lawyers in Germany after 1933 . 2007 Berlin p. 338 f. (P. 341)
  4. ↑ The obituary is remarkable insofar as the Kösener Corps had to break up at the beginning of October 1935 due to the pressure of the Reich student leadership due to the refusal to separate from their Jewish members . At the same time, it is proof of the continued existence and cohesion of individual corps in illegality.
personal data
SURNAME Rothfels, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and notary
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1935
Place of death kassel