Ernst C. Stiefel was born in 1907, in Mannheim, Germany. The son of Karl Stiefel, a religion teacher, he had two siblings, his brother Rudy and sister Luise. Ernst Stiefel studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin, and was admitted to practice law in Germany in 1933, two weeks before Jewish lawyers were disbarred. He emigrated to Strasbourg, France, and worked for a French insurance company while studying for his French license to practice law, which he received in 1934. In 1938, Stiefel went to England, where he was admitted as a barrister to the High Court in London. Ernst Stiefel emigrated to the United States in 1939.
In spite of his law degrees, Stiefel found it difficult upon his arrival in the United States to procure work in the legal field, and worked as a dishwasher and a chaffeur before becoming a clerk in a law office in 1940. During World War II Ernst Stiefel worked in the Office of Economic Warfare, where he analyzed insurance company records to identify potential German industrial targets. In 1943 Stiefel was drafted into the army, and served in the Office of Strategic Services, later working for the U.S. military government in Germany. His work there helped found the system of restitution and reparation for Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He became an American citizen in 1944.
Ernst Stiefel returned to the United States in 1947, and was admitted as an attorney to the Southern District of New York. At first he worked with the legal firm Cleary & Gottlieb, and from 1971 onward with the firm of the Coudert Brothers. Beginning in the 1950s, he began advising business enterprises interested in investing in Europe. Since his legal work often focused on German-American concerns, he maintained an office in Düsseldorf. In 1995 the German government decorated him for his contributions to German law and German-American understanding.
In addition to his legal work, Ernst Stiefel was active in academia and research. He wrote several books and articles on legal issues, and taught comparative law and related topics at the New York Law School for twenty years. Stiefel also endowed the school with a professorship in comparative law as well as restoring a reading room on its campus. Another area of his research was the work of Jewish lawyers who fled Nazi Germany; he co-authored the book Deutsche Juristen im amerikanischen Exil (1933-1950), which documents the activities of these individuals.
Ernst C. Stiefel died in 1997 while in Baden-Baden, Germany.
From the guide to the Ernst C. Stiefel Collection, 1913-2001, bulk 1944-1994, (Leo Baeck Institute)
