Dr. Leo Jellinek

Leo Jellinek was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of the merchant Jakob Jellinek and his wife Karoline, née Jakobi. After elementary school, Leo Jellinek, who came from a Jewish family, attended the state grammar school at Taborstraße 24 in Vienna's 2nd district, where he graduated in 1899. In the same year, he enrolled in law at the University of Vienna and was awarded a doctorate in law in 1903.

In 1905, he converted to Catholicism. He subsequently married the Catholic Josefa Neuner. However, the marriage remained childless. He works as a notarial trainee, passes the notarial examination and becomes a candidate notary in Klosterneuburg. In 1916, he was appointed notary in Dobersberg in Lower Austria. In 1924, he transferred and was appointed notary of the district court district III Alsergrund in the 9th district of Vienna.

On March 12, 1938, Leo Jellinek witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which he was considered a 'full Jew' who was married to an 'Aryan woman'. On June 23, 1938, he was dismissed as a notary by the Chamber of Notaries, which had been brought into line in the meantime, and resigned as a notary on October 31, 1938.

After this, Leo Jellinek was unemployed. He and his wife were able to support themselves financially by renting out his wife's property and selling valuables. From September 19, 1941, Leo Jellinek has to wear the yellow 'Judenstern'. The fact that he was married to an 'Aryan woman' and she refused to divorce him saved him from deportation to a concentration camp. From 1943, he was conscripted to work in the company Rudolf Petru - Papiersäckeerzeugung and had to glue paper sacks at home.

Leo Jellinek and his wife witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. On May 9, 1945, one day after the capitulation of the Third Reich, Leo Jellinek's ban on working was lifted and he was assigned a notary's office in Vienna's 17th district. On August 1, 1946, he again took over the notary's office of the district court district III Alsergrund in the 9th district of Vienna. He held this office until his retirement in 1952, the same year his wife died.