Guthmann, a German Jew, was the secular head of the Jewish community of Wiesbaden in its final years from 1938 to 1942 and was murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

Berthold Guthmann, born in 1893 in Eich, studied law in Freiburg and Gießen before volunteering for military service in the Imperial German Army after the outbreak of the First World War, as did his two brothers.

[2] After joining the Luftstreitkräfte, the Imperial German Air Service, Guthmann became an observer and gunner and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for his bravery,[3][4] serving in the Schutzstaffel 3 and attaining the rank of a Leutnant of the Landwehr.

[2] Guthmann served as the secular leader of the Wiesbaden community from 1938 to 1942 and was also second in charge of the Frankfurt Jewish congregation in the last month prior to its forced dissolution.

In 1940 Guthmann successfully appealed to Hermann Göring, himself a former World War I pilot, on behalf of fellow Jewish flying ace Fritz Beckhardt, allowing the latter to escape Nazi Germany.