Funding: Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Doctoral Scholarship
The dissertation project examines the life and work of the lawyer Henry Ormond (1901–1973), a central figure in establishing a democratic order in post-war Germany. As a »lawyer for the victims« of the National Socialist regime, Ormond became one of the most renowned lawyers in the Federal Republic of Germany during the 1950s and 1960s. Ormond himself, who had worked as a judge until 1933, was persecuted by the National Socialists due to his Jewish heritage and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. After fleeing to British exile in 1939, he returned to Germany in 1945 with the British Army. As a licensing officer, he was responsible for establishing a democratic cultural landscape in Germany and was, for example, one of the co-founders of the news magazine Der Spiegel. In 1950, Ormond settled in Frankfurt am Main, where his law firm gained recognition beyond the borders of Germany. He intensively campaigned for the compensation of Nazi victims and represented the relatives of those murdered by the Nazi regime as a joint plaintiff in large-scale criminal trials, such as the first Auschwitz trial. Due to his own experience of persecution, he also became an influential advocate for the newly founded state of Israel as a refuge for Jews.
Drawing from Ormond’s legal work and publications, the aim of the dissertation is to develop a new perspective on post-war German history and the transformation process from a post-dictatorial to a democratic society. The project focuses on the following questions: To what extent did Ormond, as a former victim of the Nazi regime, directly shape the development of the Federal Republic, and what role did his public perception as a »Jewish lawyer« play in this context? In which networks did he operate, and how could he initiate legal and societal debates through his actions? To explore these questions, Ormond’s extensive estate and his largely unknown publications will be analyzed.
