Schwerin, Kurt, 1902-1995

Kurt Schwerin

Kurt Schwerin was born April 17, 1902 in Beuthen, Upper Silesia - then Germany but now part of Poland. He attended Jewish primary and secondary schools and studied at the University of Breslau from 1930 until forced to cease attending by the Nazi government in 1934. He taught at a Jewish secondary school from 1934 to 1938, marrying Herta Bernstein in 1937. In 1938, Schwerin and his wife came to the United States on travelers' visas; he managed to stay in the U.S. permanently, though she was deported back to Germany, eventually dying in the Lublin concentration camp.

Schwerin enrolled at the New School for Social Research in New York, a school directed at European émigrés, earning a Master of Social Science in 1940. As his degree from this relatively unknown school did not provide much help in gaining long-term employment, he entered the Columbia University School of Library Service. In 1944, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Library Science, though he had already been working as an assistant librarian at Columbia since 1942. In 1946, Schwerin finished the residence requirements for a Ph.D. in history from Columbia, as well as becoming an American citizen in November of that same year. He would eventually receive his Ph.D. in 1955, after having written his dissertation on the historiography of the German Revolution of 1848.

In 1946, Schwerin took a position at the University of Virginia Law Library. While there, in 1948, he wrote Classification for International Law, a book very well respected among librarians and that established Schwerin as a leading figure among American law librarians. In 1948, he came to the Northwestern University Law Library to help develop the foreign law collection. Under his supervision, the foreign law collection would become one of the leading collections of its kind in the country. In 1950, Schwerin married Gertrude Dosenheimer, a fellow Jew who had fled Germany in 1937. In 1953, Schwerin was promoted to the position of assistant librarian and in 1958 became an associate professor. Head librarian William Roalfe retired in 1964, leaving Schwerin as his successor. Though it was unusual that a head librarian be chosen from among Northwestern's own staff, Schwerin served successfully from 1964 to 1970. Also in that time, despite never having gone to law school, Schwerin served as a professor of law. In 1970, Schwerin retired as a professor, becoming a Professor Emeritus, and as a librarian - though he would return as an interim librarian from 1972 to 1973 after his successor, Igor Kavass, left the University.

Schwerin was very active outside of the University environment. He worked extensively on the issue of compensation for Holocaust survivors and others hurt by the Nazi regime, including writing German Compensation for Victims of Nazi Persecution in 1972. He received the Officer's Cross, Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 1965 for his efforts. Schwerin was a prolific writer, writing several books both concerning library matters and his own interests, as well as writing many articles and book reviews for scholarly periodicals. He co-authored, with James Rahl, Northwestern University School of Law - A Short History, 1859-1959 . Schwerin was an active member of the Leo Baeck Institute, a society devoted to the study of the history of Germany Jewry. He also served in a leadership position in Self help of Chicago, an organization originally created in 1935 to assist recent European refugees but that later focused on assisting elderly European immigrants.

In 1993, Schwerin's wife, Gertrude, passed away. They had no children. He died December 21, 1995.

From the guide to the Kurt Schwerin (1902-1995) Papers, 1902-1995, 1902-1995, (Northwestern University Archives)

Kurt Schwerin was born in Beuthen, Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Bytom, Poland), on April 17, 1902. After he attended public and high school he started working at a bank and a bookshop. During this time he also participated in several courses at the University of Breslau; after passing his Reifeprüfung als Nichtschüler (examination of maturity as non-school student) in 1930 he started studying history, German, art and civics as a fulltime student. However, due to Anti-Jewish legislation, he was not allowed to finish his doctoral dissertation after 1934.

During his time in Germany Kurt Schwerin also passed an examination for teachers of stenography and afterwards worked in that profession while writing articles for several newspapers. Moreover he had a job as a research assistant at the Press Bureau of the University of Breslau but he was forced to leave after the Nazis came to power. In 1937 he married Hertha Schwerin, née Bernstein; a year later he traveled to the United States in order to prepare for the quota immigration of his wife, his mother and himself. The events of the Kristallnacht prevented him from going back to Germany.; Hhe was unable to help his wife and his mother emigrate from Germany, and they perished during the Shoah.

In the United States, Kurt Schwerin succeeded in getting a tuition scholarship at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School for Social Research where he received a master's degree of social science. He also completed a bachelor in library science in 1943. In the following years he worked in several university law libraries, married Gertrude Dosenheimer and eventually finished his Ph.D. in history in 1955. At the same time he was author of several articles and worked as a lecturer on different subjects. Finally, after various teaching assignments, he was designated as professor of law. In these years he also became a very active board member of the Leo Baeck Institute and head of its Chicago Chapter until he died on December 21, 1995.

From the guide to the Kurt Schwerin Collection, 1841-1993, bulk 1931-1993, (Leo Baeck Institute)