Max Rheinstein (July 5, 1899 − July 9, 1977) was a German-born American

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

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

. He was for many years a professor at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

Biography

Max Rheinstein was born on July 5, 1899, in

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in th ...

, the only son of wine merchant Ferdinand Rheinstein (1842-1904) and Rosalie Bernheim (1858-1928). He fought in the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

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 subsequently studied law at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

. In the spring of 1919 Rheinstein participated in the overthrow of the

Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic, or Munich Soviet Republic (german: Räterepublik Baiern, Münchner Räterepublik),Hollander, Neil (2013) ''Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I''. McFarland. p.283, note 269. was a short-lived unre ...

. Becoming an assistant of

Ernst Rabel Ernst Rabel (January 28, 1874 – September 7, 1955) was an Austrian-born American scholar of Roman law, German private law, and comparative law, who, as the founding director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign and International Pri ...

, Rheinstein received his doctorate in law in 1924. He subsequently followed Rabel to Berlin as a research lecturer at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign and International Private Law, where he supervised the institute library. He joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD) in 1928. Unlike other SPD-members and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Rheinstein was not dismissed from his position after the

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

, due to the fact that he had fought the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919. In February 1933, he received a scholarship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, and emigrated to the United States, where he began working at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

. In 1936 he was appointed Max Pam Professor of American and Foreign Law and Professor of Political Science at the

, a position he held until his retirement in 1968. Rheinstein became an American citizen in 1940. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Rheinstein returned to Germany, where he was a member of the Legal Division of the Office of Military Government and served in a division of the

Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of Wo ...

in Berlin. In 1953, Rheinstein was awarded the

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

and the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954. Until 1968 he was a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. Rheinstein moved to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

in 1976 for health reasons. He died in

Bad Gastein Bad Gastein (; formerly ''Badgastein''; Southern Bavarian: ''Bod Goschdei'') is a spa town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau District, St. Johann im Pongau, in the Austrian state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg. Picturesquely situated in a hig ...

, Austria on July 9, 1977.

References

* Oliver Lepsius: Rheinstein, Max. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, , S. 493 f.

External links

Guide to the Max Rheinstein Papers 1869-1977
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
* 1899 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century Freikorps personnel Aix-Marseille University alumni American jurists Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) faculty Columbia Law School faculty Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German Jewish military personnel of World War I Jurists from Rhineland-Palatinate Goethe University Frankfurt faculty Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Legal scholars of the University of Cambridge Louisiana State University faculty Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni People from Bad Kreuznach Stockholm University alumni University of Basel alumni University of Chicago Law School faculty University of Freiburg faculty University of Michigan faculty University of Strasbourg faculty University of Tokyo faculty {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub