Arthur Kauffmann
1887 - 1943 (?)

Arthur Kauffmann was born on May 29, 1887, in Frankfurt am Main. His parents were Friedrich Kauffmann (1853–1920), a merchant from Baden, and his wife Rosa, née Mayer (1863–1942), who was born in Erbes-Büdesheim in Rheinhessen. Nothing is known about any siblings. Arthur Kauffmann remained unmarried. His mother died in Theresienstadt on October 11, 1942, just one month after her deportation from Frankfur

Arthur Kauffmann attended the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gymnasium (now Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium) in Frankfurt am Main from 1893 until he graduated in 1905. He then studied law in Heidelberg, Munich, Strasbourg, Berlin, and Marburg. In June 1908, he passed his first state examination, and his second in Berlin in 1914. As a war volunteer, he took part in World War I in France from 1915 to 1918. Here, he was awarded the Iron Cross II Class, the Wound Badge, and the Front Fighter's Cross of Honor, rising to the rank of reserve lieutenant.
In 1919, he was admitted to the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court as a lawyer. He dealt primarily with issues relating to the War Damage Act. A year later, he moved to the legal department of the Frankfurt branch of the Reich Compensation Office as a consultant. He gave up this position on September 30, 1921, in order to devote more time to his law practice. He was appointed notary in 1925.

As a so-called "front-line fighter," Arthur Kauffmann was allowed to continue practicing law for the time being in 1933 and retain his notary's office. However, the latter was revoked two years later. In the years prior, he had devoted himself particularly to the practice of his notary's office, so that its revocation resulted in serious financial losses. He wrote about this in his CV: "Infolgedessen traf mich die Entziehung des Notariats im Jahre 1935 besonders hart, zumal auch meine Anwaltspraxis seit 1933 naturgemäß empfindlich zurückgegangen war." ("As a result, the revocation of my notary's office in 1935 hit me particularly hard, especially since my law practice had naturally declined significantly since 1933.")
In 1936, he entered into a joint practice with the lawyers Fuld and Geiger. According to his own statements, he dealt exclusively with foreign exchange and emigration advice and with the settlement of property matters for emigrants. From December 1, 1938, he was banned from practicing law and, like the other remaining Jewish lawyers, was removed from the list of attorneys. Arthur Kauffmann then worked as a consultant to the Jewish community in Frankfurt from 1939 to 1942. In his "Application for Admission as a Jewish Consultant" dated November 3, 1938, addressed to the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, he briefly describes his family and financial circumstances: "Mein Vater ist im Jahre 1920 verstorben. Das von ihm hinterlassene Vermögen fiel der Inflation zum Opfer. Ich hatte infolgedessen für den Unterhalt meiner Mutter mitzusorgen und konnte keine Ersparnisse machen. Daher besitze ich kein Vermögen und bin dringend auf mein Berufseinkommen angewiesen. Ich bin unverheiratet. Meine 75 Jahre alte Mutter, die ich nicht im Stich lassen kann, lebt hier in Frankfurt a.M." ("My father died in 1920. The fortune he left behind fell victim to inflation. As a result, I had to help support my mother and was unable to save any money. Therefore, I have no assets and am urgently dependent on my professional income. I am unmarried. My 75-year-old mother, whom I cannot abandon, lives here in Frankfurt am Main.")
Together with his mother, he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on September 15, 1942. While Rosa Kauffmann died in October 1942 due to the catastrophic living conditions in Theresienstadt, Arthur Kauffmann was deported from there to Auschwitz on January 23, 1943. He is considered missing, but it can be assumed that Arthur Kauffmann was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.

Arthur Kauffmann had been a member of the Frankfurt Alpine Club since 1921. The section's records that have been examined so far do not indicate whether he actively participated in the section's activities. There is also no evidence of him resigning or being expelled from the Frankfurt section. As a "front-line soldier," he would have been able to remain in the section following the amendment to the statutes adopted at the beginning of 1934.