Stiefel, Ernst C. b. October 29, 1907; Mannheim, Baden d. September 3, 1997; Baden, Baden
German American lawyer and jurist. Stiefel was a lawyer newly admitted to practice when the Nazis took power in 1933 and forced him to leave Germany because of his Jewish background.
Eventually establishing himself in the United States, he became something of the dean of German American Hitler-era refugee lawyers.Stiefel grew up in Mannheim where he graduated from the Gymnasium (academic high school) in 1926. He studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, and Paris. In 1929 he passed the first state examination and was awarded a doctorate in law by the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. His Doktorvater (doctoral supervisor) was the legal historian Heinrich Mitteis. He then published the first edition of what remains a leading commentary on automobile insurance law. After completion of professional training, he passed the second state examination and was admitted to the bar in 1933, only to be prohibited almost immediately from practicing by the newly installed Nazi government.
When Stiefel left Germany, at first he did not go far. He settled across the Rhine in Strasbourg, France, where he provided legal counsel to French firms on insurance law, which in formerly German Alsace- Loraine was still the old German law. He studied French law and obtained the necessary degrees for practice in 1934 and 1935. While living in Strasbourg, he was also admitted to practice in England. Two weeks after World War II began, he left Strasbourg for the United States, having out of caution a year before obtained immigration
papers. In his first years in America he worked in a variety of odd jobs outside his profession. Thanks to his English bar admission he was admitted to practice in New York without further formal study in 1943. That same year he joined the Office of Strategic Services. After the end of the war Stiefel worked for the Alien Property Custodian and later was active in Germany on behalf of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
From 1950 until his death he practiced as a lawyer in New York City and was associated with two of the city’s leading international law firms. The focus of his practice was advising American firms in Germany and, from the 1970s, German firms in the United States. He published numerous articles and books on issues of international commercial practice and taught at New York Law School.James R. Maxeiner
See also Intellectual Exile
References and Further Reading
Ebenroth, Carsten Thomas, and Ernst C.
Stiefel. Institutioneller Wettbewerb als Herausforderung fur die Globalisierung der Wirtschaft. Festgabe zur Verleihung der Ehrendoktorwurde an Ernst C. Stiefel. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1995.
Lutter, Marcus, Walter Oppenhoff, Otto Sandrock, and Hanns Winkhaus. Festschrift fur Ernst C. Stiefel zum 80. Geburtstag. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1987.
Stiefel, Ernst C. “Als judischer Jurist in Mannheim und Heidelberg: Bericht eines Zeitzeugen fur die Jahre 193—45 und heute.” In Max Hachenburg. Zweite Gedachtnisvorlesung 1996. Eds. Peter Hommelhoff, Heinz Rowedder, and Peter Ulmer. Heidelberg: C. F. Muller Verlag, 1997, pp. 1-12.
Stiefel, Ernst C., and Frank Mecklenburg. Deutsche Juristen im amerikanischen Exil (1933—1950). Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1991.