DERNBURG

DERNBURG, German family of jurists, editors, bankers, and statesmen. HEINRICH DERNBURG (1829–1907) was a jurist. He studied law at Giessen and Berlin and from 1854 to 1862 was professor of law at Zurich. In 1862 he became professor at Halle University which, in 1866, he represented in the Upper House of the Prussian parliament. In 1871 he became professor of Roman and Prussian law in Berlin. One of the outstanding exponents of the "Pandectic" in Roman law, his three-volume work Pandekten (1884–87) is still considered a classic. His books on Prussian private law, Lehrbuch des preussischen Privatrechts, und der Privatrechtsnormen des Reichs   (1877–80; 3 volumes), in which he emphasizes the importance of social and economic factors in the development of law, and Das buergerliche Recht des Deutschen Reichs und Preussens (1889–1915; 5 volumes), had a great influence on German jurisprudence. He was baptized when a child. His brother FRIEDRICH (1833–1911) was editor of the Berlin Nationalzeitung and coeditor of the Berliner Tageblatt. He wrote travel sketches, plays, and novels. Friedrich's son BERNHARD DERNBURG (1865–1937) was trained to be a banker and began by working for the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft. Later he went to New York to join ladenburg , Thalman & Co., where he familiarized himself with U.S. business methods. Returning to Germany, he joined the Deutsche Bank. He became head of the bank's trust company and acquired a reputation as a reorganizer of companies in difficulties and as an efficiency expert. He then moved on to the Bank für Handel und Industrie and the Darmstaedter Bank. In 1906 he was appointed head of the German government department for the colonies and devoted his efforts to Germany's colonial expansion and, with the cooperation of leading German banks, to ensuring its financial basis. He traveled a great deal in order to increase his detailed and local knowledge of colonial problems. In 1912 he became a member of the Prussian upper house and in 1919, following Germany's collapse after World War I, served for a short time as cabinet minister. From 1920 to 1930 Bernhard Dernburg was a member of the Reichstag. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Kipp, Heinrich Dernburg (Ger., 1908); E. Seckel, Gedaechtnisrede auf Heinrich Dernburg (1908); H. Sinzheimer, Juedische Klassiker der Deutschen Rechtswissenschaft (1938), 93–105a; S. Kaznelson, Juden im deutschen Kulturbereich (1959), 551–2, 747; Wininger, Biog, 2 (1927), 32–34; NDB, 3 (1956), 607–8, includes bibliography. (Joachim O. Ronall)