Kelsen was born in Prague into a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family.
His father, Adolf Kelsen, was from Galicia, and his mother, Auguste Löwy, was from Bohemia.
Hans was their first child;  there would be two younger brothers and a sister.
 The family moved to Vienna in 1884, when Hans was three years old.
 After graduating from the Akademisches Gymnasium, Kelsen studied law at the University of Vienna, taking his doctorate in law (Dr. juris) on 18 May 1906 and his habilitation on 9 March 1911.
Twice in his life, Kelsen converted to separate religious denominations.
At the time of his dissertation on Dante and Catholicism, Kelsen was baptised as a Roman Catholic on 10 June 1905.
On 25 May 1912 he married Margarete Bondi (1890–1973), the two having converted a few days earlier to Lutheranism of the Augsburg Confession; they would have two daughters.
Kelsen was born in Prague into a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family. His father, Adolf Kelsen, was from Galicia, and his mother, Auguste Löwy, was from Bohemia. Hans was their first child;  there would be two younger brothers and a sister.  The family moved to Vienna in 1884, when Hans was three years old.  After graduating from the Akademisches Gymnasium, Kelsen studied law at the University of Vienna, taking his doctorate in law (Dr. juris) on 18 May 1906 and his habilitation on 9 March 1911. Twice in his life, Kelsen converted to separate religious denominations. At the time of his dissertation on Dante and Catholicism, Kelsen was baptised as a Roman Catholic on 10 June 1905. On 25 May 1912 he married Margarete Bondi (1890–1973), the two having converted a few days earlier to Lutheranism of the Augsburg Confession; they would have two daughters.
Hans Kelsen