Leon Zeitlin was a member of the SCHUFA Administrative Committee. We present his biography here, as documented in the report “An Institution Under the Radar? A Report on the SCHUFA During the Nazi Era”:

What was Leon Zeitlin's role at SCHUFA?

“Leon Zeitlin was born on February 23, 1876, in Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) as the son of a wealthy Jewish family. After his father’s early death, Zeitlin lost a large portion of his inheritance—“partly for his own pleasure, partly through the fault of others.” He studied economics in Leipzig, financing his studies by working as a private tutor and as a writer for the *Leipziger Tageblatt*. He earned his doctorate in 1902. Through his contacts as a tutor, he was able to work briefly as a consul for the United States in Frankfurt, while also continuing his writing career. In Berlin, he worked as an editor and publisher (including the trade journal “Die Textilwoche”) and as legal counsel for the Association for the Protection of German Writers. Later, as a representative of the “liberal professions,” he joined the “Provisional Economic Council” of the Weimar Republic, which was founded in 1920. Zeitlin traveled regularly to the U.S. to report on the latest economic and technical developments.

His unusual life story reveals a close connection between business and writing. He thus became acquainted with some of the most famous authors of his time, including Arnold Zweig. He was also very active politically and wrote numerous articles on social policy. In his essay “The Social Question—A Women’s Issue,” for example, he examined women’s consumer behavior. In it, he called for women from socially disadvantaged classes to be “better educated and trained” in the responsible management of money. Politically, he belonged to the left-liberal camp and was a prominent member of the DDP (from 1930, the German State Party), serving on its executive board. Between 1928 and 1932, he served as a member of the Prussian State Parliament. In his memoirs, he wrote that he was one of the few who had recognized Hitler as a threat as early as after the failed coup of 1923: “In the SDS [Protective Association of German Writers], as indeed throughout Germany, Hitler’s movement was still far from being taken seriously,” he noted in retrospect.”

What happened to Leon Zeitlin after the Nazis came to power in 1933?

“Zeitlin, along with Kauffmann, was most actively involved in the political resistance against the Nazis. The Nazis took correspondingly harsh measures against him. In April 1933, they had Zeitlin’s Berlin office and all its contents confiscated. Zeitlin did not initially plan to flee, but then left Berlin with his wife in August 1933. The Nazi authorities subsequently imposed the “Reich flight tax” on Zeitlin and also confiscated his six-room apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg, along with all the works of art, books, and other valuables located there.

Nevertheless, Zeitlin returned for a short time and was even active in business associations, such as the Reich Economic Council. There, he tried to advocate not only for Jewish business owners but also for non-Jewish colleagues who had come under the scrutiny of the Nazi regime. He wrote: “My time in Germany was coming to an end. I was [prevented] from entering my office [addition by MW], and attempts were made to persuade me to accept a severance payment that was downright ridiculous in light of my 25 years of service to the associations entrusted to me.” In September 1933, he finally accepted the severance payment of 1,500 RM and emigrated to London. There, he worked as a journalist and writer and, from 1941 to 1952, also as a consultant for the Institute of Export. Zeitlin died on June 21, 1967, in London from an overdose of the sleeping pill Veronal."