Historical records matching Dr. jur. Theodor David Erlanger
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About Dr. jur. Theodor David Erlanger
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The son of a family engaged in the hops trade, he was a Freemason and a passionate collector of Bavarian peasant folk-art. He was a officer in the German Army during World War One and was captured and remanded to a prisoner of war camp in France, where he almost died of amoebic dysentery; upon his return to civilian life, he and his family lived in Munich with a summer home in Bad Tölz that housed his collection.
He was a lawyer, specializing in patent, trademark, and copyright law. Among his clients during the 1920s in Germany were the film director Fritz Lang, Lang's wife the screenwriter Thea von Harbou, and the actor Peter Lorre. He also represented some of the deposed royalty of Germany in their attempts to recoup their estates after World War One. (A side-note on the mysterious death of Fritz Lang's first wife, Lisa Rosenthal Lang: Theo had a brother-in-law surnamed Rosenthal and a brother-in-law surnamed Lang; it is unknown if lawyer and client were aware of a genealogical relationship they may have shared.)
After Krystallnacht, according to my mother, Liselotte Erlanger, "Grandfather Theo was captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in a detention camp, but he was only there for a few days. As soon as he arrived, he gave the Freemason's grand hailing sign of distress and that caused a Freemason among the guards to take him to the commander's office, where the commander, a war veteran who was also a Freemason, allowed him to place a phone call to the crown prince pretender of Saxony, who was Grandfather's lodge brother and also his law client, and the commander, who was a royalist at heart, agreed that the crown prince 'needed his Jewish lawyer for a very important court case,' and he released Grandfather from the camp on condition that he would depart at once for England."
Like many other family members, Theo stayed at his brother-in-law Bruno Kohn's home near London while awaiting papers. Eventually he was able to join his wife Ida and two daughters in the United States. After the war he successfully sued for the restoration of title to his summer-home in Bad Tölz, and from that point on, he and Ida spent their winters in New York and their summers in Europe. He died of a heart attack while visiting his niece Edith Collett in England.
-- catherine yronwode (with notes from my mother, Liselotte Erlanger)
For Nuremberg Jews in World War I see http://www.rijo.homepage.t-online.de/pdf_2/EN_NU_JU_wwi.pdf
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Dr. jur. Theodor David Erlanger's Timeline
| 1880 |
August 2, 1880
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Neustadt an der Aisch, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1913 |
June 6, 1913
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Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1915 |
June 12, 1915
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Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1956 |
October 7, 1956
Age 76
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London, England, UK
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