Lesch, Michael

Adolf Leschnitzer, scholar, historian, and teacher was born on February 3, 1899 in Posen, Germany (now Poznań, Poland). He was the son of the pharmacist Dr. phil. Oscar Leschnitzer and Natalie Leschnitzer, née Fuchs.

He began his schooling at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Posen. He then continued his studies at the Kaiserin Auguste Gymnasium, Berlin, Charlottenburg, which he graduated with honors in 1917. Upon graduation Leschnitzer served in the German Army until 1918

He resumed his studies in 1918 at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, concentrating on German philology, history, philosophy, and education and in 1923 received his Doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg. By 1926 Leschnitzer also passed First and Second State Examination for High School Teachers. Between 1925 and 1933 he was an instructor, and later a professor in a number of municipal high schools in Berlin.

IIn 1933 Adolf Leschnitzer was asked by Leo Baeck, then the head of the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (National Federation Of Jews in Germany), to head the Department of Education, one of the most important positions there. The following six years, until his immigration in 1939, Leschnitzer dedicated his work to organizing and supervising Jewish schools throughout Germany in addition to collaborating with other agencies involved in organizing teacher’s seminars and adult education.

In 1939, Adolf Leschnitzer and his wife Maria Leschnitzer, née Bratz left Germany and after a brief stay in England arrived in the United States in 1940.

Upon arrival to the United States, Prof. Leschnitzer organized the American Institute of Modern Languages, an organization aimed at helping immigrants from Central Europe, mostly from Germany, to learn the language and to get acclimated to the new environment. In 1943 he became an instructor in the German Section of the Foreign Area and Language Curriculum of the Army Specialized Training Program at Rutgers University and in 1944 he got a position of a field representative of the Office of the War Information and also became a consultant to the War Department.

In 1946 Dr. Leschnitzer became an instructor at the Department of German and Slavic Languages at City College of New York, of which he was elected chairman in 1958. He retired from City College in 1966.

In addition to his work at City College, starting in 1952 and until 1972, Prof. Leschnitzer taught one term each year at the Freie Universität Berlin . As it was said, Prof. Leschnitzer was trying to bring his mostly Jewish students at City College closer to German literature and culture, whereas he was concerned with exposing his German students at the Freie Universität to Jewish history and culture and making them understand better German-Jewish culture and life. During his lengthy professional career, Prof. Leschnitzer was awarded numerous honors and awards, among them a Bollingen Fellowship (1951-1953), a Fulbright Fellowship (1961-1962), the Order of merit of the German Federal Republic, and an honorary Ph. D. degree from the Freie Universität, all to acknowledge his efforts in improving German-Jewish relations.

Additionally, to commemorate Leschnitzer’s 60’s birthday in 1959, a Festschrift, edited by Drs. Erich Fromm and Hans Herfeld, as well as by Kurt Grossman, was published in Heidelberg.

Adolf Leschnitzer was a member of a number of professional organizations and served as President of the New York Society of Teachers of German, (Verein deutscher Lehrer von New York, 1950-1956) and was a founding member and a member of the Board of Directors of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York.

Prof. Leschnitzer wrote a number of works on German-Jewish history, Anti-Semitism, Heinrich Heine and other German-Jewish writers, as well as on Goethe. His works include Das Judentum im Weltbild des Mittelsalters (1935), Die deutsche-judische Symbiose, Goethe and the Myth of the Birth of the Hero and other essays and articles on Goethe. His major work, The Magic Background of Modern Anti-Semitism, a study that examines the causes of modern Anti-Semitism, was first published in Germany in 1954 under the title Saul und David; die Problematik der deutsch-jüdischen Lebensgemeinschaft . Additionally, Prof. Leschnitzer was a regular contributor to the New York Aufbau and other professional and other newspapers and journals. He also contributed to a number of Festschrifts as well as to the Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Juden, that was published in cooperation with the Historische Komission zu Berlin.

Professor Leschnitzer was one of the first German-Jewish academicians to realize the importance of the dialogue between the new post-war Germany and the German Jews, who lived in Germany as well as those who were forced to leave. He was immediately involved with the reconstruction of the German school system right after the war ended and authored, in 1945, a memorandum entitled An Immediate Program for the Reconstruction of the German School System. He recognized the importance of bringing the next generation of German students closer to understanding German history in relation to Jewish history and culture as a way for bringing the two peoples together.

Adolf Leschnitzer died on July 24, 1980, in Centerport, Long Island, NY.

From the guide to the Adolf Leschnitzer Collection, 1886-1986, bulk 1937-1973, (Leo Baeck Institute)