Rudolf Katz (23 November 1895 – 23 July 1961) was a German politician and judge. He was Vice President of the

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Federal Constitutional Court ( ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme court, supreme constitutional court for the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, Basic Law ...

Biography

Katz was born in Falkenburg,

Farther Pomerania Farther Pomerania, Hinder Pomerania, Rear Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania (; ), is a subregion of the historic region of Pomerania in north-western Poland, mostly within the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, while its easternmost parts are within the Po ...

(modern Złocieniec, Poland), to Leopold Katz, a teacher and

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Kantor, and Hulda Katz. The family moved to

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

in 1897, where Katz grew up. He began to study law at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

in 1913, but volunteered for the

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Katz served as a Lieutenant and was wounded several times, he finished his studies in 1919 and gained his doctorate in 1920.Deutsche Biografie
Katz joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

in 1920 and the

Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold The (, , simply in short) was an organization in Weimar Republic, Germany during the Weimar Republic with the goal to defend German parliamentary democracy against internal subversion and extremism from the left and right and to compel the ...

in 1924. Katz was elected a member of the city council of Altona in 1929 and became its chairman in 1932.Biography
at

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung The Federal Agency for Civic Education (FACE, (''bpb'')) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education. It is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Thomas Krüger has served as president of th ...

He worked as a lawyer (1924–1933) and

notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is distin ...

(1929–1933) in Altona. In 1930, he left the Jewish Parish. Katz pleaded for communist defendants in the aftermath of the

Altona Bloody Sunday Altona Bloody Sunday () is the name given to the events of 17 July 1932 when a recruitment march by the Sturmabteilung, Nazi SA led to violent clashes between the police, the SA and supporters of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Alt ...

of July 1932. After

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

took over power in Germany Katz fled to France in March 1933. Along with

Max Brauer Max Julius Friedrich Brauer (3 September 1887 – 2 February 1973) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the first elected First Mayor of Hamburg after World War II. Life In 1923, Brauer was mayor of the independe ...

, a Social Democrat and mayor of Altona, Katz became an envoy for municipal administration of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

in October 1933. In 1935 he moved to the United States and worked at the

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's Institute for Public Administration and as a journalist for the Neue Volkszeitung, a German-language newspaper of Social Democrat emigrants. Katz was a director of the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

in New York and of

The New Leader ''The New Leader'' (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine. History ''The New Leader'' began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It w ...

newspaper, he was active in the German Labour Delegation, part of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

, and the ''"German-American Council for the Liberation of Germany from Nazism"''. After Katz had lost his German citizenship because of the racialist Nazi laws, he became a

United States citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitu ...

in 1941. In July 1946 Katz returned to Germany along with Max Brauer and became Minister of Justice (1947–50) and Education (1948–49) in the State of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

. He regained his German citizenship in November 1947 and represented Schleswig-Holstein in the

Parlamentarischer Rat The ''Parlamentarischer Rat'' ( German for "Parliamentary Council") was the West German constituent assembly in Bonn that drafted and adopted the constitution of West Germany, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, promulgated on 23 M ...

, ("Parliamentary Council"), the predecessor of the West German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

. In the negotiations of the

German constitution The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany () is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came into effect on 23 May after having been approved by the oc ...

Katz successfully proposed the invention of the

Constructive vote of no confidence The constructive vote of no confidence (, ) is a variation on the motion of no confidence that allows a parliament to withdraw confidence from a head of government only if there is a positive majority for a prospective successor. The principle is i ...

, while his suggestion to limit the number of members of the Bundestag to 300 and to implement a minimum threshold of 10 percent of votes failed. In 1951 Katz became the Chairman of the second Senate and Vice President of the

. He was elected a member of the executive board of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...

at the New Delhi Congress in 1959. Katz was married to Agnes Kühl in 1933. He died in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Rudolf 1895 births 1961 deaths People from the Province of Pomerania Columbia University faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German Army personnel of World War I Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court 20th-century German lawyers People from Złocieniec Jurists from Hamburg Members of Parlamentarischer Rat