SCHMITTHOFF, Clive Macmillan (1903-1990)

Scope and Content

Papers of Clive Macmillan Schmitthoff, c 1880-1990, including official and personal correspondence on topics including royalties, publisher contacts, conferences, obituaries of friends, wartime correspondence, references, academic societies, course notes, arbitration rules in the London Chamber of Commerce summer schools, c 1980-1995 and professional commercial treaties - correspondents include the Board of Trade, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Import and Export; press cuttings; appointment diaries; notebooks; lecture notes; articles; videos and cinefilm, c 1960-1985; photographs, including family photographs c 1890-1994; minutes of meetings and other papers relating to arbitration, Frankfurt, 1968-1969, Turkey, 1968 and Uganda, 1990; City of London College photographs and correspondence with London Chamber of Commerce Law Committee, c 1945-1990; personal papers including nationalisation documents, revocation right to practice in Germany and papers relating to his change of name and correspondence and papers relating to his wife's family (Ilse Auerbach).

Administrative / Biographical History

Born Maximilian Schmitthoff in Berlin, 1903; classical education at the Friedrichsgymnasium, Berlin; read law at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and later at the University of Berlin; doctorate in law at Berlin, 1927; joined his father's flourishing law practice and became a successful advocate in the Berlin Kammergericht (court of appeal); forced to leave Germany for England, 1933 where he assumed the name Clive Macmillan; obtained an LLM degree at the London School of Economics, 1936; called to the bar in Gray's Inn, becoming a tenant in the chambers of Valentine Holmes, where he had served his pupillage; part-time lecturer in German at the City of London College (later the City of London Polytechnic); wrote books on commercial German and German poetry and prose; married Ilse, daughter of leading Frankfurt lawyer, Ernst Moritz Auerbach, 1940; wartime service in the Pioneer Corps and Canadian Engineers as a warrant officer; naturalised, 1946; returned to City of London College, initially in the language department but later becoming a lecturer in law in the Department of Professional Studies, lecturer 1948-1958, senior lecturer 1958-1963, principal lecturer 1963-1971; retired, 1971; Gresham chair in law at City University, London, 1976-1986; became joint vice-chairman of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London, 1985, where he introduced and co-taught an LLM course on international trade law, at the same time establishing and organising a series of annual conferences on international commercial law; died, 1990.

Arrangement

Awaiting arrangement.

Access Information

The Archives are available for access in the Archives Reading Room located on the 2nd Floor of the Mile End Library. The Archives Reading Room is open Mondays to Fridays 9am-4pm by appointment only. Contact the Archives for more information: Archives, Main Library QMUL, 328 Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, telephone: 020 7882 3873, email: archives@qmul.ac.uk . For more information about the Archives see the website: library.qmul.ac.uk/archives

Acquisition Information

Unknown. Believed to have been donated to the College after Schmitthoff's death.

Other Finding Aids

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

Some items on video and cinefilm.

Archivist's Note

Compiled by Sarah Drewery. Sources: Oxford DNB.

Conditions Governing Use

Applications for copies for research or publication should be made to the Archivist: Main Library QMUL, 328 Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, telephone: 020 7882 7873, email: archives@qmul.ac.uk .