CK - Law and Administration

2005

CK -- Law and Administration

Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1871-1945 [Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service, 1871-1945]. Ed. Maria Kiepert for the Auswärtiges Amt, Historischer Dienst. Paderborn: Schöningh. 25 cm. [05-1-205]

Bd. 2. G-K. 2005. xvi, 715 p. ill. ISBN 3-506-71841-X: EUR 158

Volume 1 of this title appeared in August 2000 (see RREA 6:265). While the number of contributors is lower for volume 2, the selection criteria, sources, and layout remain the same as for volume 1. Included are all officials of the Foreign Ministry in higher service and comparable outside persons paid by the Ministry (thus, honorary consuls are not included). Primary Foreign Office documents are included. The biographies are factual but not evaluative and include names, life dates, citizenship, religious affiliation, marriages and families, level of education and profession before entering the Ministry, career after leaving the Ministry, bibliography and personal archives, and personal photographs (but not for the first 50 years). The index of abbreviations is repeated from volume 1 but not the notes on the organization and personnel structure of the Foreign Ministry (vol. 1, p. xxi-xxxix).

Browsing through the volume one encounters famous names not normally associated with the Foreign Ministry, for example, Harry Graf Kessler (who served two years, 1916-1918) and Kurt-Georg Kiesinger (a specialist in radio and communications, 1940-1943). Overall, the biographies are of less well known persons. The editorial staff had forecast one new volume every two years, which did not happen, although volume 3 was scheduled to appear in 2006. No decision has yet been made on the inclusion of indexes. This reviewer urges that they be included, e.g., along the model of the Handbücher zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien [Handbooks on the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties] (RREA 8:217). [sh/ga]

Juristinnen: Lexikon zu Leben und Werk [Women Jurists: Dictionary on their Lives and Work]. Marion Röwekamp. Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, 2005. 463 p. ill. 23 cm. ISBN 3-8329-1597-4: EUR 48 [05-2-401]

Juristinnen in Deutschland: die Zeit von 1900 bis 2003 [Women Jurists in Germany from 1900-2003]. Ed. Deutscher Juristinnenbund. 4th newly rev. ed. Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, 2003. 256 p. ill. 23 cm. (Schriftenreihe / Deutscher Juristinnenbund, 1). ISBN 3-8329-0359-3: EUR 19.50 [05-2-402]

In the first work editor has collected brief biographies of 132 early women jurists in the German-speaking countries into one separate volume, rather than allowing this work to remain in obscurity as an appendix to her dissertation. The earliest biography dates back to 1872, when law schools first opened their doors to women (Switzerland 1872, Germany 1900, and Austria 1919). However, only since 1922 in Germany have women officially been able to practice in all aspects of the law, to say nothing of women being restricted to being attorneys during the Third Reich (and Jewish women completely excluded and driven out). One of these women, Janna Katz, is the subject of the editor’s article "Die letzte deutsch-jüdische Konsulentin im Dritten Reich?" [The Last German-Jewish Counsel in the Third Reich?], published in Streit 22 (2004).

The earliest biography is of Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853-1901), the first female student (and magna cum laude) at the Zürich State Higher School in 1887. Her career in Switzerland was made so difficult that the family chose to emigrate to the United States, where she established her successful "Emily Kempin’s Law School."

The biographies range from one to six pages (Hilde Benjamin) and are on average three pages long. They include dates and places, ancestors and relatives, and usually a small photographic portrait and describe the person’s origins, education, and professional career. They conclude with a brief bibliography of primary and secondary works, as well as archival sources (including in some cases interviews with the subjects). The glossary contains two entries about the German Association of Women Jurists and excerpts from their bylaws. The volume concludes with a personal name and a subject index. This volume belongs in all libraries with a collection of law materials. [sh/ga]

The second provides a good history of women jurists in Germany. Chapter one is entitled "Women Jurists and the Association in their Historical Development." Chapter two is headed "Women Jurists and Politics and Law". Chapter three contains the biographies, which follow no prearranged scheme but rather stem in part from women colleagues, part from other professionals. Some from interviews, or, in the case of justices in the highest German federal courts, from archives and papers. [sh/ga]

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