Von der Eigenkirche zum Volkseigenen Betrieb: Erwin Jacobi (1884-1965)

Martin Otto has written the first scholarly biography of Erwin Jacobi. Jacobi, who was educated in ecclesiastical law, was not only one of the founders of modern labor law, he was also a respected teacher of constitutional law in the Weimar period and, together with Carl Schmitt, participated in the dispute on methodology. In 1933 he was dismissed by the National Socialists and in 1946 he returned to the University of Leipzig, with which he remained associated for the rest of his life. The author looks into Jacob's private and public life and also investigates the network of the most significant political scandal in which Jacobi was involved (Prussia versus Reich, 1932). He also describes the struggle for the autonomy of the university and of jurisprudence in the early GDR.