Rabbeinu Azriel Munk was born in 1867 in Altona where his father, Rav Eliyahu, was a dayan. He learned in Berlin under his uncle Rav Azriel Hildesheimer. In 1893 received a rabbinical position in Koenigsberg, where he led the Kehilla in their battle against the Reform. In 1900, he was appointed to succeed the position of Rav in the Adass Yisroel Shul in Berlin, which had been led by Rav Hildesheimer (who had passed away in 1899). In this position, Rav Munk championed the great issues which faced German Jewry such as the ban on shechita, and founded numerous organizations to promote and protect German Orthodoxy. In 1938 he fled Germany and settled in Yerushalayim, where he passed away two years later.