Bernhard Kamnitzer (25 October 1890 – 15 July 1959) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

of the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...

Biography

Kamnitzer was born in Dirschau (modern Tczew, Poland), he studied law at the Universities of Danzig (modern Gdansk) and

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

(modern Kaliningrad). Kamnitzer served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was severely wounded, he later worked as a lawyer and a judge in Danzig. He was a member of the executive board of the ''Centralverein Danziger Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens'' (CV; Central Association of Danzig Citizens of Jewish faith), of the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Danzig parliament in 1924-28. He was Senator (minister) for Finances of the Free City of Danzig between 1928 and 1931. In 1938 Kamnitzer emigrated to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and later to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where he became President of the American Danzig Association. Kamnitzer died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Leo Baeck Institute
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamnitzer, Bernhard 1890 births 1959 deaths People from Tczew People from West Prussia German Jewish military personnel of World War I University of Königsberg alumni Free City of Danzig politicians Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States