Brandt, Oskar Ludwig, 1889-1943

Born in Berlin on December 18, 1876, Oscar Meyer was a lawyer and politician active in the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP). He served in the Berlin City Council, the Prussian Landtag, and from 1924 to 1930, in the Reichstag. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1933, to Great Britain in 1939, and to the United States via Columbia in 1941. He was active in exile organizations, and died in Berkeley on January 1, 1965.

Born in Vienna on August 10, 1877, Hilferding studied medicine and became active in the socialist movement. In 1906, he moved to Berlin, wrote for and edited various socialist journals, and published Das Finanzkapital in 1910. After World War I, he was a leader of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) and a member of the Reichstag, serving as minister of finance in 1923 and again 1928-1929. He fled to France in 1933, and died in Paris, under mysterious circumstances, on February 12, 1941.

Hugo Heimann (1859-1951) was a German publisher and high ranking politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party in Germany (SPD). Shortly after the Nazis’ rise to power he immigrated to New York via England.

From the guide to the Oscar Meyer Collection, 1902-1946, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)