Cornelius Schnauber

Who was Cornelius Schnauber?

Professor Cornelius Schnauber was a German-born scholar, historian, playwright, biographer and educator. At the time of his death, he was Emeritus Associate Professor of German at the University of Southern California.

Schnauber was born near Dresden, Germany. He received his doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1968 having studied German literature, phonetics, and political science. He was also an instructor in the Phonetics Institute of the University from 1963 to 1968. On a 2004 PBS "Life and Times" TV show, Schnauber says that his father "was an early member of the Nazi party ... He was not ambitious as though he didn't want to become one of the leaders, but when the Nazis took over, he had a good job first in the Nazi unions and then later on during the war in the Nazi Red Cross." When Schnauber's grandparents brought up the question of where the Jews were sent, his father said they were deported to another country.

After his education in Germany, Schnauber met his wife, Judith Docter, an American from Stanford, and they moved to Los Angeles.