Herbert A. Strauss Explained

Herbert Arthur Strauss (1 June 1918, Würzburg, Germany – 11 March 2005, New York, NY) was a German-born American historian.

Life

Strauss spent his youth in his home town of Würzburg, Bavaria. After school he began a commercial apprenticeship. In 1936 he moved to Berlin, where he headed the Nationale Jugendbüro at the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden. From 1936 until its closure in 1942, he studied at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin to prepare for his emigration to Palestine. In March 1942 he obtained his Abitur.[1]

The planned and already approved emigration to Britain failed due to the outbreak of war in September 1939, and from autumn 1940 onwards he worked for the Jewish community in Berlin as auxiliary Rabbi alongside his studies. In January 1942, he was obliged to do forced labor as a street sweeper. In order to escape the impending deportation, he went underground in October 1942 with his fiancée Lotte Kahle,[2] his later wife. In June 1943 he managed to escape with the help of in Berlin, and Josef Höfler from Gottmadingen across the green border into the canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland.[3] Both he (Über dem Abgrund[4]) and his wife (Über den grünen Hüge[5]) describe the years of persecution in a book. At the University of Bern he studied history and received his doctorate in 1946 under with the topic Staat, Bürger, Mensch. Die Grundrechtsdebatte der Deutschen Nationalversammlung zu Frankfurt 1848/49.

In 1946 he went to the USA and taught there as professor of history at the City College of New York. In 1982, he was appointed to Technische Universität Berlin to become the founding director of the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung. In 1990 he returned to the USA; his successor at the Centre was Wolfgang Benz.

His social science research focused on Jewish emancipation, the history of science and emigration, and the politics of persecution.Strauss died in New York at the age of 86.

Writings

Books about Strauss

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Andreas W. Daum. Hartmut Lehmann. James J. Sheehan. The Second Generation. Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians. With a Biobibliographic Guide . Berghahn Books . New York . 2016 . 978-1-78238-985-9 . 463–465.
  2. https://www.gedenkstaette-stille-helden.de/biografien/bio/kahle-spaeter-strauss-lotte/ "Lotte Kahle (Strauss) (1913)"
  3. Carsten Arbeiter: Kleine Leute als große Helden. In Südkurier dated 4 April 2015.
  4. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/75952263 Über dem Abgrund : eine jüdische Jugend in Deutschland 1918-1943
  5. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/925539100 Über den grünen Hügel : Erinnerungen an Deutschland
  6. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1071713881 Staat, Bürger, Mensch die Debatten der deutschen Nationalversammlung 1848/1849 über die Grundrechte
  7. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1091994575 The Second Generation : Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians: With a Biobibliographic Guide