Arthur Baumgarten

Following a stay in Frankfurt am Main, Baumgarten chose voluntary exile in Switzerland by returning to Basel, as the Nazis eventually took power in Germany in the summer of 1933.

As a legal philosopher, he sought to combine the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment and a Marxist interpretation of socialism.

Albeit briefly an important figure in legal affairs in young East Germany, his views were in content largely opposed by East German legal theory dominated by figures like Walter Ulbricht and Karl Polak.

Despite similar views having been popular among some of his contemporaries, such as Karl Bönninger and Hermann Klenner, they were suppressed early-on by Ulbricht and Polak, most notably at the Babelsberg Conference.

While Baumgarten was always held in high regard at a personal level, the influence of Ulbricht and Polak caused his ideas to gain little traction in the audience of the time.