Jakob Altmaier, a Social-Democratic representative to the parliament (Bundestag) in the Federal Republic of Germany, was born on November 23, 1889 in Flörsheim. He was a soldier in World War One and was severely wounded. Thereafter he worked as a journalist for various social-democratic and left-wing papers, and after 1933 was a foreign correspondent in Paris and Belgrade. In 1940, he fled the advancing Nazi army for Cairo, and he spent World War Two in north Africa with the British army. A lifelong member of the Social Democratic Party, in 1949 he became a member of the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) representing Hanau-Gelnhausen, a position he held until his death. One of his main accomplishments was his participation in negotiations regarding the restitution treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel in 1952. He died on February 8, 1963 in Bonn.
From the guide to the Jakob Altmaier Collection, undated, 1918-1996, bulk 1947-1963, (Leo Baeck Institute)
