Leo Rosenberg

Leo Rosenberg (7 January 1879 – 18 December 1963) was a German jurist, a professor in Göttingen, Giessen, and Leipzig. In 1934 he was barred as Jew but managed to survive Hitler's regime. After World War II he lectured at the University of Munich until his retirement in 1956. Rosenberg's two-volume manual on civil procedural law remains a standard reference.[1]

Leo Rosenberg
Born(1879-01-07)7 January 1879
Fraustadt, Province of Posen, German Empire (Wschowa, Poland)
Died18 December 1963(1963-12-18) (aged 84)
Munich, West Germany
Alma materUniversity of Freiburg
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
University of Breslau (Wroclaw)
Occupationjurist
SpouseHedwig Peter
Children2 sons, 2 daughters

Biography

Rosenberg was born in Fraustadt, Province of Posen, German Empire (today Wschowa, Poland) to Michael Rosenberg, a cigar manufacturer, and Emma née Lichtenstein.

Rosenberg passed his Abitur in Fraustadt aged 17 after skipping one grade, he studied law at the Universities of Freiburg, Munich and Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland). He passed his first legal exam in 1899 and received his doctorate in 1900: his dissertation concerned the burden of proof in civil law ("Die Beweislast nach der Civilprozeßordnung und dem Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch"). The work was subsequently reprinted in five editions and strongly influenced the modern German Civil procedure law. Rosenberg served his Referendary in Posen (Poznań) and passed his second legal exam in 1904, he habilitated in Göttingen in 1906.[2][3]

In 1912 Rosenberg became an extraordinary professor at the University of Giessen (ordinary professor in 1916) and rector of the university in 1927/28. In 1932 Rosenberg moved to the University of Leipzig, but was dismissed in 1934 according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service for being Jewish. He managed to work for a lawyer at the Reichsgericht in Leipzig for another two years.

As a regular visitor to the Rosenberg home in Leipzig, Helmut Roloff, then a young law student, recalls Rosenberg's seeming stoicism in face of intensifying Nazi harassment. The experienced helped persuade Roloff to abandon law for a career in music where he might be less directly implicated in the crimes of the regime, and later to join the Schulze-Boyson/Harnack (Rote Kapelle) resistance group.[4]

The Rosenberg's took refuge in Stiefenhofen, Allgäu were they eked out a precarious existence during the war years.[2][5]

Rehabilitated at war's end, Rosenberg was appointed to a chair for civil law and civil procedural law at the University of Munich in 1946, teaching until his retirement in 1956. He played an important role, including as dean, in rebuilding the law school.

Rosenberg died in Munich on 18 December 1963.[2]

Family

Rosenberg was married to Hedwig Peter, daughter of Gustav Albert Peter, they had two sons and two daughters. One daughter died aged 19 in 1944. Two sisters of Rosenberg died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.[2]

Publications
  • Die Beweislast nach der Civilprozeßordnung und dem Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch (5 editions published in 1900, 1923, 1953, 1956, 1963)[2]
  • Lehrbuch des deutschen Zivilprozeßrechts (9 editions published in 1927, 1929, 1931, 1949, 1951, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1961); continued as Rosenberg/Schwab/Gottwald: Zivilprozeßrecht, 18th ed. 2018

Awards

References
  1. Biographie, Deutsche. "Rosenberg, Leo - Deutsche Biographie". www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  2. Schwab, Karl-Heinz; Grundmann, Stefan; Riesenhuber, Karl (2007). Deutschsprachige Zivilrechtslehrer des 20. Jahrhunderts in Berichten ihrer Schüler – Band 1 (in German). De Gruyter. pp. 373 ff. ISBN 978-3-89949-456-3.
  3. Bruno Rimmelspacher: biography (in German)
  4. "Oral history interview with Helmut Roloff - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  5. Karl Engisch: obituary, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (in German)
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