Hugo Sinzheimer
Hugo Sinzheimer (12 April 1875 – 16 September 1945) was a German legal scholar, and author of the Weimar Constitution. He was a leading proponent of the concept of social law. Biography. Sinzheimer was one of the first academics specialising in labour law; he published an introduction to this field ("Der korporative Arbeitsnormenvertrag") in 1907. He was one of the members of the Weimar National Assembly, which promulgated the Weimar Constitution. As a major influence on the drafting of the labour law section of the constitution, he is considered to be "the father of labour law" in Germany. He  was inspired by the ideals of the dignity and liberty of every human being, and was a humanist in the widest sense of the word. As a lawyer, he frequently represented political and union-related groups. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1914. From 1920 onward, he was professor of labour law and sociology of law at Frankfurt University. In 1933, Sinzheimer, who was Jewish, was forced to emigrate to the Netherlands. In 1940 he was captured and taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp for four months. He managed to secure release, and had to return to  hiding in the attic of friends in the Netherlands. After the liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945 he was exhausted and severely malnourished. He did not recover from his poor health and died several months later in September 1945. Legacy. The Sinzheimer Institute of the University of Amsterdam's Law Department is named after him in his honour. There is a moot court competition named after Sinzheimer. 13 European universities compete in an annual case competition - the Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court Competition. The Moot Court Competition is a competition in European Labour Law for law students across Europe. Archival  material relating to Hugo Sinzheimer's professional activity as a labour lawyer and professor is held by the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. A more extended biography is to be found at the Sinzheimer Repository website A complete list of Hugo Sinzheimer's publications is to be found at the Sinzheimer Repository website