Siegfried Loewenthal (lawyer)

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Memorial plaque on Loewenthal's birthplace
Grave site, Hüttenweg 47, in Berlin-Dahlem
Stumbling block at the house, Bergengruenstrasse 57, in Berlin-Zehlendorf

Siegfried Loewenthal (born August 16, 1874 in Heiligenstadt , † March 18, 1951 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer.

Life

Siegfried Loewenthal, son of the banker Louis Levy Loewenthal (1844–1922) and his wife Regina Loewenthal b. Mosheim (1847–1914) studied law and received his doctorate in Erlangen in 1899 with the thesis The company law according to the new commercial code . After that, from 1902 onwards he was assessor , assistant judge and presidential judge in Magdeburg . He lived at 19 Augustastraße , today's Hegelstraße in Magdeburg's old town . Between 1922 and 1927 he was regional court director in Magdeburg and from 1927 to 1933 regional court president in Oels . Loewenthal was forced to retire in 1933. After the war he was a sought-after unencumbered specialist in Berlin and on August 7, 1945, he became chief president of the Berlin II regional court (in the American sector) and, for a short time, also vice-president of the higher court . From October 15, 1945, he was President of the Berlin Regional Court until his death. He made a contribution to the reconstruction of the Berlin judiciary after the Second World War.

Loewenthal was appointed to the Berlin city council by the Allied Command . Loewenthal was also the editor of the Juristische Rundschau .

Loewenthal's refusal on February 4, 1949 to reinstate the Vice President of the Berlin Regional Court, Jakob Blasse , indirectly led to the division of the Berlin judiciary into East and West. Blasse was suspended on November 8, 1948 following accusations of enrichment by the President of the Chamber Court, Georg Strucksberg . While the three Western powers supported this position, the Soviet court officer ordered the reinstatement. On the grounds that such an instruction could only be issued jointly by all four powers, Siegfried Loewenthal refused this order on February 4, 1949. After the threat of arrest and with the tacit support of the Western Allies, the President of the Court of Appeal Strucksberg moved the seat of the Court of Justice on February 5, 1949 to West Berlin. The Kammergericht (East) Berlin existed until 1959 and was then replaced in its duties by the Supreme Court of the GDR .

Loewenthal was buried after his death on March 18, 1951 in the forest cemetery in Berlin-Dahlem .

family

His brother, the banker Alexander Loewenthal (* 1872) and his wife Gertrud geb. Fränkel were murdered in 1943 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt and Auschwitz ghettos.

Honors

Siegfried Loewenthal became an honorary citizen of his native Heiligenstadt in 1948 ; However, his honorary citizenship was revoked on February 22, 1951 at the instigation of the communist city administration, since in their opinion he was working as a West Berlin lawyer in the service of the class enemy . On May 23, 2019 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former home, Berlin-Zehlendorf , Bergengruenstraße 57 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Loewenthal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annual directory of the publications published at the German universities. Bibliobazaar, 2009, ISBN 978-1-110-97549-5 . Google Books
  2. ^ Magdeburg address book 1916, part I, page 213
  3. ^ Friedrich Scholz: Berlin and its justice: the history of the chamber court district 1945 to 1980. de Gruyter, 1982, ISBN 3-11-008679-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Loewenthal, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Heiligenstadt
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1951
Place of death Berlin