Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig, 1895-1963

Born in Posen (now Poznan, Poland) on May 5, 1895, Kantorowicz was a historian, who specialized in the Middle Ages. After serving in World War I, he fought with the Freikorps against the Poles in Posen, and against the Spartacist uprising in 1919. He received his doctorate at Heidelberg in 1921, and began teaching at Frankfurt am Main in 1930, receiving a chair in 1932. He was a member of the Stefan George Kreis, and is best known for his biography of Emperor Frederick II. He took a leave of absence to protest the antisemitic regulations instituted after the Nazis came to power, and was dismissed in 1934. He emigrated to Great Britain in 1938 and to the United States in 1939, where he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. He left as a result of the loyalty-oath controversy in 1951, and then served as professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton until his death on September 9, 1963.

From the guide to the Ernst Kantorowicz Collection, 1908-1982, (Leo Baeck Institute)