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Gustav Radbruch and Hermann Kantorowicz: Two Friends and a Book - Reflections on Gnaeus Flavius’ Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft (1906)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Frank Kantorowicz Carter

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Gustav Lambert Radbruch (1878-1949) and Hermann Kantorowicz (1877-1940) were undoubtedly two of the greatest legal scholars in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century; for some of this time arguably the greatest. It is a happy coincidence that they both attended the seminar of the criminologist Franz von Liszt in Berlin at the same time in 1903. Although very different in temperament and not always in agreement, they were immediately drawn to each other, highly respectful of each other's undoubted intellect, never jealous of the other's achievements but always altruistically supportive. Though together for only four months initially, they maintained regular contact through letters and quickly forged a close and life long friendship.

Type
Articles
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 7 , 01 July 2006 , pp. 657 - 700
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 This extract from Tennyson's poem Ulysses and the extract from the same poem at the head of the Epilogue, discussed below, were quoted by Radbruch in a 60th birthday greeting to Kantorowicz. It is not known from which edition Radbruch's quote came, but see Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses, in Victorian Prose and Poetry 416-418 (Lionel Trilling and Harold Bloom eds., 1973).Google Scholar

2 Kantorowicz only had one first name, though from 1904 to 1922 he regularly added the initial “U.” to distinguish himself from another Hermann Kantorowicz. Most authors recently have interpreted this as “Ulrich,” which is totally unfounded and seems to have been “invented” by Adolf Berger in his otherwise fine tribute to Kantorowicz. See Adolf Berger, In memoriam - Hermann Ulrich Kantorowich (1877-1940), 68 Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte (Romanistische Abteilung) 624 (1951).Google Scholar

3 Gnaeus Flavius, Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft (1906). See also Hermann Kantorowicz (Gnaeus Flavius), Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft (With an Introduction by Muscheler, Karlheinz, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 2002). See also Gnaeus Flavius, Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft, in Rechtswissenschaft und Soziologie 13-39 (Thomas Würtenberger ed., 1962).Google Scholar

4 Hermann Kantorowicz, The Definition of Law (Arthur Goodhart ed., 1958). See also Hermann Kantorowicz, The Definition of Law (Octagon Books 1980); Hermann Kantorowicz, La Definizione del diritto (Enrico di Robilant trans., 1962); Hermann Kantorowicz, Der Begriff des Rechts (Werner Goldschmidt and Gerd Kastendieck trans., 1963); Hermann Kantorowicz, La Definiíción del Derecho (J.M. de la Vego trans., 1964). Kantorowicz intended this essay to serve as an introduction to a proposed Oxford History of Legal Science, a project which had to be abandoned on his death in 1940.Google Scholar

5 Gustav Radbruch, Der innere Weg 38 (1951).Google Scholar

6 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to his parents (4 June 1903) (GRGA.17.24). Most of the letters from Radbruch to Kantorowicz referred to in this article (and some to his parents) have been published, with a comprehensive commentary in 17 Gustav Radbruch Gesamtausgabe (Günter Spendel ed., 1991) [hereinafter “GRGA.17”] (the letter referred to here is no. 24 in that volume and is thus indicated as GRGA.17.24). See also Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (22 January 1907) (GRGA.17.109).Google Scholar

7 Habilitation, , Habilitate: formal admission of an academic as a lecturer (Privatdozent), into a faculty where he or she hopes to be granted venia legendi (authority to lecture) in specified subjects.Google Scholar

8 Radbruch, Gustav, Nachruf Hermann Kantorowicz, 60 Schweizerischen Zeitschrift für Strafrecht 262-276 (1946).Google Scholar

9 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch, (21 November 1937) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

10 The personal statements here and elsewhere in the article are based on my own recollections and conversations with family members, supplemented by extensive memoirs written by my mother, Hilda Kantorowicz, which I have on file. I also rely on a biographical sketch of Kantorowicz, written by his son, my brother Tom Carter, which is available at www.Kantorowicz.com. As one of the few people still alive who was personally acquainted with both Gustav Radbruch and Hermann Kantorowicz, I feel my personal recollections are worth recording.Google Scholar

11 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (10 January 1904) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University) (Kantorowicz describing his farewell to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)).Google Scholar

12 Letters from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (27 November1903 and 11 October 1904) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University). In the first of these letters, at the age of 26, Kantorowicz wrote, “My main work, ‘The Study of Legal Science’, will also have an historical basis.” Thirty-five years later he was on the point of achieving his ambition when the war broke out, see infra notes 105 and 106. In the second of these letters, Kantorowicz wrote: “I will only be able to achieve something really worthwhile if I familiarise myself thoroughly with the spirit of jurisprudence in all its epochs.”Google Scholar

13 Zulueta, Francis de, Dr.Hermann Kantorowicz, CCXXII Law Quarterly Review 171 (April 1940).Google Scholar

14 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (3 April 1906) (GRGA.17.84).Google Scholar

15 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (27 May 1906) (GRGA 17.93).Google Scholar

16 See Radbruch, supra note 5, at 96.Google Scholar

17 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to his parents (3 July 1903) (GRGA17.23).Google Scholar

18 Letters from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (22 September 1903 and 27 November 1903) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

19 For a brief overview of the position at the turn of the century, see J.M. Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory (1992). Vivian Curran has expounded on the continuing impact of formalism and the Code Civil. Vivian Curran, Fear of Formalism: Indications from the Fascist Period in France and Germany of Judicial Methodology's Impact on Substantive Law, 35 Cornell International Law Journal 273 (2002).Google Scholar

20 See Ibbetson, David, Hermann Kantorowicz (1877) and Walter Ullmann(1910-1983), in Jurists Uprooted 273 (Jack Beatson and Reinhard Zimmermann eds., 2004).Google Scholar

21 Franz Adickes, Grundlinien durchgreifender Justizreform (1906). For Kantorowicz's critique, see Hermann Kantorowicz, 31 Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft im deutschen Reich 375-376 (Gustav Schmoller ed., 1907) (hereinafter “Schmollers Jahrbuch“). In the critique Kantorowicz states that Adickes's “youthful writing (Zur Lehre von den Rechtsquellen) was passed over when it appeared (1872!) without a trace, and has only now been noted again.”Google Scholar

22 See Flavius, supra note 3, at 12.Google Scholar

23 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (8 January 1906) (GRGA17.78).Google Scholar

24 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (11 October 1904) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

25 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (19 December 1904) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

26 Muschler, Karlheinz, Introduction, in Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft p. X (Karlheinz Muscheler ed., Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 2002).Google Scholar

27 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (24 October 1905) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

28 The author has a copy of the list.Google Scholar

29 This card of 23 July 1905 was not published and the author is grateful to Manfred Stange (editor of the comprehensive Nachlaβverzeichnis Gustav Radbruch (2001) for making available to him his provisional transcripts of Radbruch's unpublished letters to Kantorowicz from 1903-1907.Google Scholar

30 See Kantorowicz, supra note 4, at xvii.Google Scholar

31 See Curran, Fear of Formalism, supra note 19, at 162. See also Vivian Curran, Rethinking Hermann Kantorowicz, Rethinking the Masters of Comparative Law 80-82 (Annelise Reles ed., 2001).Google Scholar

32 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (29 December 1905) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

33 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (8 January 1906) (GRGA.17.78).Google Scholar

34 See Radbruch, supra note 5, at 97.Google Scholar

35 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (19 January 1906) (on file in the Archives of Frieburg University), For Karlheinz Muscheler's comments, see supra note 3, at pp. XI, XII.Google Scholar

36 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (28 February 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University). Kantorowicz sent Radbruch his proposed Press Notice (see section D.1.) with this letter.Google Scholar

37 For a reproduction of the title page and preface from the original manuscript (see section C.1. below), see Curran, Rethinking Kantorowicz, supra note 31, at 62-64. The handwriting style shows that it was written by Kantorowicz himself and not (like most of the text) by his wife Thea. Note the two distinctly different ways of writing the letter “r”.Google Scholar

38 Muscheler, Karlheinz, Introduction, in Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft, supra note 3, at p. XII.Google Scholar

39 See e.g. Arthur Goodhart, Introduction, in The Definition of Law, supra note 4, at p. xiii.Google Scholar

40 Kantorowicz uses this Latin phrase in the introduction to his book Goblers Karolinen Kommentar, Geschichte eines Buches. See Hermann Kantorowicz, Goblers Karolinen Kommentar, Geschichte eines Buches. Guttentag 9 (1904).Google Scholar

41 Letter from Herman Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (4 December, 1905) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

42 The Press Notice was enclosed with Kantorowicz's letter to Radbruch, supra note 36.Google Scholar

43 See supra note 29. Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (20 December 1905) (on file in the Archives of Heidelberg University).Google Scholar

44 See Radbruch, supra note 5, at 97.Google Scholar

45 See Flavius, supra notes 3, at 46.Google Scholar

46 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (21 February 1906) (GRGA17.80).Google Scholar

47 See Flavius, supra note 3, at 35.Google Scholar

48 See Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (29 December 1905) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

49 See Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Racbruch (12 January 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University). Kantorowicz had not undertaken the normal Referendardienst, which would have given him practical experience with a Solicitor or Barrister.Google Scholar

50 See letters from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (22 and 23 February 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

51 The list of supporting authors in the annexe to the original edition is unfortunately not included in either of the later reprints of the Manifesto.Google Scholar

52 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (28 February 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

53 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (12 March 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University). For the Greek passage in the Manifesto, see Flavius, supra note 3, at 34 (recording a saying attributed to the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Archimedes c. 287-212 B.C.).Google Scholar

54 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (29 March 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

55 Campbell, Archibald, Preface, in Definition of the Law, supra note 4, at x.Google Scholar

56 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (11 March 1906) (see supra note 29).Google Scholar

56 Id.Google Scholar

57 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to his parents (13 March 1903) (GRGA.17.20).Google Scholar

58 See supra note 36. The translation into English is by the Author, as are the translations of all other German texts.Google Scholar

59 The translation follows the Italian edition, see section E II below. Where this varies from the original German version, the changed wording is shown in italics.Google Scholar

60 The Preface (Vorwort) is in Flavius, supra note 3, at 5-6. The Conclusion (Schluß) is in id., at 48-49.Google Scholar

61 The Introduction (Einleitung) is in id. at 7-9.Google Scholar

62 See id. at 39. Compare id. at 44.Google Scholar

63 Id. at 45-46. According to Kantorowicz, this section of the Manifesto was misunderstood by his later critics and he altered it substantially in his revised Italian edition. See section E.I. below.Google Scholar

64 See id. at 44.Google Scholar

65 See id. at 45.Google Scholar

66 See id. at 47.Google Scholar

67 See id. at 48-49.Google Scholar

68 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (12 July 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University) commenting on the adverse reaction in some quarters, in particular with regard to the role of judges). Kantorowicz anticipated this, but he was particularly upset by the almost wilful misunderstanding of the role of the judge by Oskar Bülow whom he had regarded as one of his main supporters. For other critical comments on the Manifesto, see Joseph Unger, Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft, Allgemeine österreichische Gerichtszeitung 296 (1906); Franz Klein, Der Kampf um die Rechtswissenschaft, Allgemeine österreichische Gerichtszeitung 265 (1906). A selection of critiques of the Manifesto are conveniently reproduced in an appendix to a recent book. See Sebastian Silberg, Hermann Kantorowicz und die Freirechtsbewegung (2004).Google Scholar

69 See Flavius, supra note 3, at 34.Google Scholar

70 The Italian edition was published as: Hermann U. Kantorowicz (Gnaeus Flavius), La Lotta per la Scienza del Diritto (Remo Sandro 1908). Id. at 137.Google Scholar

71 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (undated letter, probably end January 1907) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

72 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (undated letter, probably end January 1908) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

73 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (4 June 1907) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

74 See id.Google Scholar

75 Donati, Donato, La Lotta per la Scienz del Diritto, Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie 286-288 (1909/10).Google Scholar

76 Karlheinz Muscheler, Relativismus und Freirecht, ein Versuch über Hermann Kantorowicz 125-135 (1984).Google Scholar

77 Mainly by Spendel, Günter, supra note 6). There are also three letters (from the relevant period) from Kantorowicz to Radbruch, (namely those of 2 January, 1904, 14 November, 1905 and 6 October, 1907 in Strafrechtigkeit (Festschrift für Arthur Kaufmann zum 70. Geburtstag 325-6 (Fritjof Hart et al. eds., 1993); also one letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (24 December 1904), in Gustav Radbruch Briefe 10 (Erik Wolf, 1968).Google Scholar

78 See supra notes 3 and 76.Google Scholar

79 Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (12 May 1906) (GRGA.17.89).Google Scholar

80 See Jurists Uprooted, supra note 20, at 23. See also Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Kantorowicz (3 April 1906) (GRGA.17.84).Google Scholar

81 See Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (21 February 1906) (GRGA.17.80)Google Scholar

82 See Karlheinz Muscheler, Hermann Ulrich Kantorowicz - eine Biographie 13 (1984).Google Scholar

83 See Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (3 April 1906) (GRGA.17.84).Google Scholar

84 See Letter from Gustav Radbruch to his parents (10 February 1908) (GRGA.17.118); supra note 28.Google Scholar

85 See Letter from Gustav Radbruch to Hermann Kantorowicz (3 April 1906) (GRGA.17.84). The “catch-22” situation was related to Radbruch by Karl von Lilienthal who was Dean of the Law Faculty at the time. This is incontrovertible proof of the strong anti-Semitic feelings in German and Austrian universities at the beginning of the 20th century.Google Scholar

86 See Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (5 May 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

87 See Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (27 May 1906) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

88 See ibid.Google Scholar

89 See supra note 9. See also Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (9 May. 1907) (On file in the Archives of Freiburg University)Google Scholar

90 See Card from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (16 February 1908) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

91 See supra note 1.Google Scholar

92 Kapp, Wolfgang, born 1858 in New York returned to Germany in 1870. He was a reactionary Prussian politician who led a Putsch in 1920 which attempted to overthrow the young Weimar Republic and establish a rightist dictatorship. However, a general strike called by labour unions led to a collapse of the coup within four days. Radbruch's part in the events is fully described in volume 16 of the GRGA. See supra note 5, at 298-336.Google Scholar

93 Adolf Hitler as leader of the National Socialist Party organised the so called Bierkeller Putsch in Munich forcing his way into a right-wing political meeting, and “persuading” the leaders there to join in carrying a revolution to Berlin. However, the next day they met armed police resistance and 16 Nazis were killed leading the rebels to abandon their attempt. Hitler was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment of which he only served eight months in prison. During this time he wrote Mein Kampf.Google Scholar

94 Paul Johann Anselm Feuerbach. Ein Juristenleben, erzählt von Gustav Radbruch, Vienna, 1934. Note that Radbruch was not able to publish any legal books in Germany during the Nazi period, 1933-1945.Google Scholar

95 The “Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research” as it was called officially, was set up in New York by Alvin Johnson to give a refuge, icluding employment for refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria.Google Scholar

96 Letter from Hermann Kantorowicz to Gustav Radbruch (January 1940) (on file in the Archives of Freiburg University).Google Scholar

97 Gustav Radbruch was greatly admired in Japan, no doubt helped by the fact that Theodor Sternberg became a professor there in 1913. In a tribute to Radbruch on the 80th anniversary of his birth, Koichi Miyazawa wrote that his reputation increased after his death and a flourishing Radbruch Society was formed in Japan. Koichi Miyazawa, Rhein-Neckar Zeitung, at 7 (The main Japanese text book on law was greatly influenced by Radbruch's Einführung in die Rechtswissenschaft and his major work Rechtsphilosophie).Google Scholar

98 Gustav Radbruch Gesamtausgabe (Arthur Kaufmann ed., 1988).Google Scholar

99 Originally published: Gustav Radbruch, Gesetzliches Unrecht und übergesetzliches Recht, Süddeutsche Juristenzeitung 105 (1946). For a discussion of the contemporary relevance of the Radbruch formula to Germany, see, e.g., Russell Miller, Rejecting Radbruch: The European Court of Human Rights and the Crimes of the East German Leadership, 14 Leiden Journal of International Law 653 (2001).Google Scholar

100 Kurt Roßmann, Der Geist des englischen Rechts (1946). See a number of minor works in the Kleine Vandenboeck-Reihe, for example Lyrische Lebensgeleite (1946), Karikaturen der Justiz (1947). See also Der Innere Weg, supra note 5.Google Scholar

101 See Bismarcks Schatten. Gedanken zu Robert Riemanns “Schwarzrotgold”, Basler Nachrichten, November 13, 1921, at 183.Google Scholar

102 Hermann Kantorowicz, Gutachten zur Kriegsschuldfrage (edited with an introduction by Imanuel Geiss, 1967).Google Scholar

103 Hermann Kantorowicz, Der Geist der Englischen Politik und das Gespenst der Einkreisung Deutschlands (1929). The book was translated into English. See Hermann Kantorowicz, The Spirit of British Policy and the Myth of the Encirclement of Germany (William Johnson trans., 1931).Google Scholar

104 Hermann Kantorowicz, Studies in the Glossators of the Roman Law (with collaboration of William Warwick Buckland, 1938).Google Scholar

105 See supra note 9.Google Scholar

106 Kantorowicz, supra note 4, at p. xii.Google Scholar

107 See supra note 4. The book was also translated into German, Italian and SpanishGoogle Scholar

108 Bractonian Problems, being the ninth Lecture on the David Murray Foundation in the University of Glasgow, prepared but not delivered by Kantorowicz, H., M.A., with a short memoir of the Author by Doris M. Stenton, 1941.Google Scholar

109 Hermann U. Kantorowicz, Goblers KarolinenKommentar und seine Nachfolger, Geschichte eines Buches (1904).Google Scholar

110 Letter in German from Hermann Kantorowicz to his daughter Hilde (14 August 1937) (on file with the Author).Google Scholar

111 Letter in German from Hermann Kantorowicz to his daughter Hilde) (3 September 1938) (on file with the Author).Google Scholar

112 Letter in English from Hermann Kantorowicz to his daughter Hilde (23 September 1939) (on file with the Author). Many English families, especially in the academic world, were sending their children to North America for safety.Google Scholar

113 Letter in English from Hermann Kantorowicz to his daughter Hilde (10 December 1939) (on file with the Author).Google Scholar

114 See supra note 108.Google Scholar

115 Letter in English from Hermann Kantorowicz to his daughter Hilde (24 January 1940) (on file with the Author).Google Scholar