Alfred Carlebach
1887 - 1974

Alfred David Carlebach was born in January 1887 in Frankfurt on the Main, the son of Julius Carlebach (1852-1931), a Jewish merchant from Mannheim, and Mathilde Benario (1863-1931), also from a Jewish family, who was born in Obernbreit (Bavaria). At that time, his parents lived at Kirchner street 4. Alfred had three siblings: Max Carlebach, who died shortly after birth in 1888, Irma Jeanette, married Cobliner, born in 1890, who was able to emigrate to Palestine with her family in 1936, and Fanny Flora, married Stern, born in 1892, who came to Great Britain with her family in 1939. Alfred Carlebach went to the Lessing Gymnasium in Frankfurt on the Main and passed his Abitur there in 1905.

In 1914, Alfred Carlebach lived at Blumen street 3 in Frankfurt's Nordend district, incidentally at the same address as his father Julius Carlebach, who, according to the Frankfurt address book of that year, ran a banking business there. An addendum to the 1914 address book shows that Alfred Carlebach was registered as a lawyer at Kirchner street 4, the address at which he had his law firm again from January 1919. This proves that he moved out of the house where his parents lived in 1914.

After serving in the Bavarian Army during the First World War (Reserve Field Artillery Regiment 1, deployed in France), Alfred Carlebach returned to Frankfurt on the Main in December 1918. In February 1919, he married the divorced "concert singer" Elisabeth Wachsmuth, née Posen, daughter of the Jewish factory owner Dr. Eduard Posen (1857-1916) and Friederike Mayer (1868-1946), both from Frankfurt. In October 1919, Carlebach's first child Peter Andreas Carlebach, who later called himself Peter Andrew Carson in Great Britain, was born. From her first marriage to Wolfgang Wachsmuth (1891-1953), Elisabeth Carlebach had a daughter named Dorothee Schmoller, née Wachsmuth (1916-1948), who lived with them. The Carlebachs also had a daughter named Susanna.

At the beginning of 1919, Alfred Carlebach worked as a lawyer in Frankfurt (Kirchner street 4), but by 1920 he was already working in Berlin-Grunewald at Hubertusallee 31 and from 1929 in a partnership with Erich Koch-Weser. Mr. Koch-Weser was Reich Minister of the Interior from 1919 to 1921 and Reich Minister of Justice from 1928 to 1929 and also Chairman of the German Democratic Party from 1924 to 1930. He emigrated with his family to Brazil at the end of 1933 because of his Jewish mother and lived on a coffee plantation near Rolandia, where the lawyer Max Hermann Maier and his wife Mathilde Maier, both also members of the Frankfurt section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club, later ran a coffee plantation. Alfred Carlebach went to Great Britain with his family in the mid-1930s.

After graduating from high school at Easter 1905, Alfred Carlebach studied law at the universities of Lausanne (Switzerland), Berlin, Munich and Marburg. In 1909, he received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg with the thesis "Der Entlastungsbeweis des § 831 BGB in der Rechtsprechung" (Proof of exoneration under Section 831 German Civil Code in case law). Shortly before the First World War, Dr. Alfred Carlebach opened a law firm at Kirchner street 4 in Frankfurt on the Main. After his military service, he worked there as a lawyer again from 1919, but moved to Berlin the following year to run a law firm at Hubertusallee 31.

In 1927, Alfred Carlebach published among other things a book entitled "Gebührenordnung für Rechtsanwälte. Mit Erläuterungen und Gebührentabellen sowie den verwandten reichsrechtlichen Kostenbestimmungen und der preußischen Gebührenordnung für Rechtsanwälte" (Fee Schedule for Lawyers. With explanations and fee tables as well as the related cost regulations under German Reich law and the Prussian scale of fees for lawyers), a fundamental work on lawyers' fees. Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, who was finally executed in January 1945 as an opponent of the National Socialists, completed his legal clerkship at Carlebach's Berlin law firm.

Dr. Alfred Carlebach joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1911. He remained a member of this section during his time in Berlin. At the annual general meeting on 23 February 1937, Dr. Alfred Carlebach (like Dr. Arthur Marum) was awarded the Silver Edelweiss for 25 years of membership by the Frankfurt section, even though he was already living in London at that time. This was possible because he had already been a member of the Section before 1914 and was therefore able to remain in the Section due to the exception that applied to this group of people, despite the so-called "Arierpagraf" (Aryan paragraph) introduced in the statutes in 1934. The award also proves that Alfred Carlebach did not resign from the Frankfurt on the Main section after the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship.

After the National Socialists came to power, Dr. Alfred Carlebach, a former "Frontkämpfer" (front-line fighter) in the First World War, was re-admitted as a lawyer and notary in 1933. In 1935, however, his notary's office was revoked. Finally, his license to practice law was revoked in May 1936. He then emigrated to Great Britain with his family. Alfred Carlebach's daughter Susanna reports on this:

"Da er in Großbritannien nicht im Rechtswesen arbeiten konnte, wandte er sich einem anderen Interesse zu: der Fotografie. Er hatte schon immer ein Gespür und eine starke Neigung für dieses Hobby. In London etablierte er sich schnell, baute ein Studio auf und, nach einem lästigen Jahr der Internierung [als feindlicher Ausländer] auf der Isle of Man, legte er sich ein schönes Portfolio zu und wurde ein gefragter Porträt- und Kunstfotograf." (As he was unable to work in law in the UK, he turned to another interest: photography. He always had a flair and a strong inclination for this hobby. He quickly established himself in London, built up a studio and, after a troublesome year of internment [as an enemy alien] on the Isle of Man, he amassed a fine portfolio and became a sought-after portrait and fine art photographer.)

Around 1940, the following photo studio can be traced to him: Alfred Carlebach Studio. Fine Art Photography. The White House. Randolph Crescent. London, W. 9. He published photographs in numerous publications, for example:

K. T. Parker: The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle. Published in Oxford and London, by The Phaidon Press Ltd.; 1945. Second Edition.

A. E. Popham/ Johannes Wilde: The Italian drawings of the XV and XVI centuries in the collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle. London: Phaidon Press 1949.

Theatrical Figures in Porcelain. Publisher: The Curtain Press, London 1949: First Edition. Cover design and decoration by Joan Hassall, colour photography by Alfred Carlebach. Introduction by William King. German 18th century. Series The Masque no 9.

Alfred Carlebach passed away in 1974 at the age of 87 in Bromley, a southern borough of Outer London.