Foundation / Founder

Franz D. Lucas (1921 - 1998)

Franz D. Lucas, who was born on 4 March 1921 in Glogau, and died on 9 June 1998 in London, was a businessman and historian.

The son of the rabbi and historian Leopold Lucas, he was forced to abandon his studies at the University of Königsberg in 1938, and emigrated to Bolivia, where he later founded a major trading company.

In 1983, he settled in London, where the work of his father, who perished in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943, and the history and legacy of German Jewish scholarship became his primary interest. In 1972 already, he had endowed the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize for exceptional achievements in this field. It is one of Germany's most important academic prizes, and is awarded annually by the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

Lucas was an honorary senator of the University of Tübingen, and remained an active member of the Lucas Foundation's prize committee until his death.

Contact

For more information please contact the Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology: The Dean's office.