Ernst Hellmut Vits

Early life (1903–33)

Ernst Hellmut Vits was born on 19 September 1903 in Barmen, Wuppertal.

His father, Ernst August Vitz, was an evangelical minister who later became General Superintendent of Neumark and Lower Lusatia.

His mother was Julie, née Schaefer.

He had three sisters and two brothers.

In 1912 his family moved from Düsseldorf to Berlin.

After graduating from the Royal Wilhelm Gymnasium in Berlin, he trained as a commercial assistant in a Berlin ironware factory.

At the same time he studied law and political science at the Humboldt University of Berlin, then in 1924 at the University of Münster.

He passed his first state examination in Law in 1925 and became a Doctor of Law in 1926.

In March 1929 he took the court assessor examination with the Prussian Ministry of Justice.

From April 1929 he was a legal adviser to the Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhand AG, an auditing firm.

He soon became a member of the board.

In 1929 he married his first wife, Eleonore, née Müller.

After a divorce he married Ingrid, née Molchin.

He was the father of three children.