Dieter Blumenwitz

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Dieter Blumenwitz (* 11. July 1939 in Regensburg , † 2. April 2005 in Würzburg ) was a German national and international law . He was a professor at the University of Augsburg and the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg .

biography

Blumenwitz spent a year in high school in Pasadena , California (USA) on a scholarship from the American Field Service (AFS) in 1956/57 . After graduating from high school , he spent three months in Strasbourg (France) with the support of the EC Commission .

From 1957 to 1962 he studied law and political science at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Munich School of Politics . In 1962 he passed the first state examination and, after completing his legal traineeship in the district of the Munich Higher Regional Court in 1967, the second state examination. In 1965 he was with the international lawyer Friedrich Berber at the law faculty of the LMU Munich with the dissertation The basics of a peace treaty with Germany. A contribution under international law to future Germany policy to the Dr. jur. (summa cum laude) doctorate .

From 1964 he was a research assistant at the Munich Institute for Comparative Law under Murad Ferid . In 1970, Berber completed his habilitation in the subjects of public law , in particular international law and international private law (work: The protection of domestic legal communities when concluding international agreements ). Subsequently, he was initially a private lecturer and professor (1970–1972) for international law, legal and state philosophy at the LMU Munich.

From 1971 he was a member of the teaching staff at the Munich School of Politics (departments “Law and State” and “ International Politics ”). From 1976 he was repeatedly elected to the Senate there. In 1978 he became a member of the board of trustees and in 2002 the university's prorector. In 1972 he was appointed to the chair for public law, in particular international law and European law, at the University of Augsburg , which was founded in 1970 . He was also responsible for Anglo-American law and private international law . From 1973 to 1975 he was a member of the Senate and from 1974 to 1976 Dean of the Legal Department and Director of the Institute for Public Law . Karl Meessen took over the chair in 1976 .

He turned down the offer in 1975 at the Free University of Berlin . At the same time he was offered a professorship at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg . From February 4, 1976 to 2005, he was the successor to Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, who held the chair for international law, general political theory , German and Bavarian constitutional law and political science. He was also Managing Director of the Institute for International Law, European Law and European Private Law and from 1986 to 1990 Vice Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Law. Blumenwitz was also a liaison professor of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (from 1978) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (from 1983) and supervised over 100 doctoral students and three post-doctoral students, including many foreign scholarship holders. His academic students included a. Winfried Bausback , Marten Breuer , Gilbert Gornig , Wolfgang Götzer , Michael Hakenberg , Hendrik Hoppenstedt , Tobias H. Irmscher , Tilo Klinner , Rainhardt von Leoprechting , Kerstin Liesem , Renate Oxenknecht , Johannes-Jörg Riegler , Burkhard Schöbener , Daniel Volk , Dirk Hermann Voss , Anja Weisgerber and Otto Wiesheu .

He was also active as an international arbitrator and speaker, as well as a consultant, litigator and expert. In 1973 he represented the Free State of Bavaria ( basic treaty ), in 1977/78 the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag (conscription amendment) and in 1993/94 the federal government ( AWACS deployment) before the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG). In addition, he was counsel before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the Principality of Liechtenstein .

Blumenwitz was the publisher of constitutional and international law as well as the magazine Law in East and West and the magazine for politics . For almost two decades he was a member of the scientific advisory board of the House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany . He was also a founding member of the Universidad Autonóma del Sur in Temuco (Chile), member of the board of trustees of the International Institute for Nationality Law and Regionalism , chairman of the steering committee of the study group for politics and international law, member of the advisory board of the European Academy of Bolzano (Tyrol) and of the Center against Expulsion . He was also a board member of the German section of the Research Society for the World Refugee Problem (AWR).

Blumenwitz was married in 1967 and had a daughter. He died in 2005 after a short, serious illness.

His work for international and constitutional law

Blumenwitz was the representative of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft under international law and a member of the board of trustees of the “ Center against Expulsions ” foundation .

Blumenwitz became famous in 1973 when he represented the Free State of Bavaria and its lawsuit against the German-German Basic Treaty as an agent before the Federal Constitutional Court . He managed to win a judgment that largely undermined this basic contract. In 2002 he prepared an expert opinion for the European Parliament in Strasbourg on behalf of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft , the content of which essentially claimed that the Beneš decrees stood in the way of Czech EU accession and were contrary to international law. The ongoing law on impunity is a violation of European and global human rights . On behalf of the protection of ethnic groups, Blumenwitz called for the Czech legal system and the national property system of this country to be subordinate to the requirements of the EU . Blumenwitz also demanded that the Czech Republic give up the "follow-up to the Beneš decrees" against the German minority, which is also discriminated by the current restitution legislation, and, as a candidate for EU accession, unconditionally submit to the "community order", i.e. the "written and unwritten community law" . Blumenwitz's report was the answer to the report by Jochen Frowein , professor of international law in Heidelberg , who had prepared one on behalf of the European Parliament. Frowein saw no legal obstacle in the Beneš decrees for the Czech Republic's accession to the EU.

Blumenwitz also worked for decades on the scientific legitimation of German claims against the former eastern territories of the German Reich . In principle, he was of the opinion that the resettled people had a right to a “return to their old hometown and their property”. Where this so-called "repatriation" approach is no longer possible, property claims should be kept open in any case. In 1997 he created his book “International Protection Mechanisms for the Enforcement of Minorities and Ethnic Group Rights” on behalf of the Cultural Foundation for German Expellees . The main thesis of this work was to overcome the " sovereignty reservation of the states hosting the minorities and ethnic groups". In 1979 Blumenwitz traveled to Chile and advised the dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime on drafting a new constitution. In 1980 he also assisted the Chilean Colonia Dignidad in the trial against the human rights organization Amnesty International , which had accused the sect of human rights violations and torture, and visited the settlement.

Works

Introduction to Anglo-American Law (1971)

The book "Introduction to Anglo-American Law " is one of his best known, it was published in 2003 in the 7th edition. It is difficult for students , doctoral candidates and practitioners to get started on this topic.

The development of the Anglo-American legal system is based on the specific individual case, so generally applicable principles are difficult to name. The book therefore describes less the substantive law than the method of legal finding. In addition, an insight into working with legal sources , literature and the interrelationships between domestic and foreign law is given.

Basically, one can distinguish between two different types of law, the case law ( judges' law ) and the Statute Law ( statutory law ). The laws drawn up by the legislature are mostly viewed as a "second-rate source of law". It is very often the case that the judgments interpreting them first determine the content. In contrast to Germany , where textbooks are quoted at the Federal Court of Justice , the English and Americans owe their law to the judges and not to the legal scholars.

An important difference between England and the USA is the number of cases the highest court has to deal with. While the US Supreme Court manages 2,000–3,000 cases annually, the English House of Lords limits itself to the 50 most important. In the US, the court can reject cases if they are too politically charged. This can sometimes be an advantage compared to Germany : In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court usually still has a politically directional character in matters of principle.

Overcoming the Division of Germany and the Four Powers (1990)

In this book, Dieter Blumenwitz dealt with the ideas and proposals published since 1945 to overcome the division of Germany and the responsibility of the four victorious powers towards Germany as a whole . These are always Blumenwitz 'research reports, which were commissioned by the Cultural Foundation for German Expellees .

The first part presents a comprehensive consideration of proposals to overcome the division of Germany since 1945, both from the side of the Four Powers and from the German point of view. Blumenwitz divided it into four phases:

Phase 1 (1945/46) discusses the time of the German division.

After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , the Potsdam Protocol declared that it wanted to preserve Germany as a unified legal and economic entity, but it was placed under territorial trusteeship. It soon turned out that the interests of the victorious powers were too “contrary” to each other and that a unified government on the part of the Allied Control Council was therefore impossible. The division of Germany took place as a result of the different interests of the four allied great powers.

Phase 2 (1946–1955) dealt with the development of the status quo and with the reunification plans emerging during this period.

The Byrnes Plan, named after US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes , was proposed by the US. Although this did not envisage reunification of Germany as a state reorganization, it would have been a basis for an effective policy for Germany as a whole . With its own plan for the reorganization of Germany, the Soviet Union had rejected American efforts. This would have resulted in the victorious powers breaking up into two parties.

Efforts on the part of the Allies to agree on a unified concept for Germany's policy have come to a standstill. The conflict has been shifted to the German political level. However, even at the end of 1951, the chance of an agreement failed because of the different ideas of how “free elections ” should be defined. Germany should in the opinion and role model GDR national democratic be organized, for the Federal Republic of Germany which had German reunification but only come in the form of a federal democratic rule of law in question.

Phase 3 (1955–1969): Attempts to overcome the status quo.

During this phase, Blumenwitz considered, among other things, reunification plans on the part of the Western Allies, for example he describes the importance of the German question at the Geneva Foreign Ministers Conference and the plan of US Foreign Minister Christian Herter , the Herter Plan. Blumenwitz also deals with the Heusinger Plan, the Eckhardt Plan, the Fechter / Meissner Plan, the "Austria Solution" for the GDR (which comes from Konrad Adenauer ), the Globke Plan, the "Burgfrieden Plan" and finally with the peace note . All of these concepts came from the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviet Union, too, had been concerned with finding a solution to the issue of German division. During this time the two-state theory emerged, the draft of a pan-European collective security pact and another draft peace treaty that was published on January 10, 1959. The GDR itself also developed reunification plans, the so-called confederation plans, and the idea of ​​reunification by transforming the Federal Republic into a socialist state with a Marxist-Leninist character. As can be seen, there was no lack of proposals. However, all of the above-mentioned plans to overcome the status quo established in 1955 had failed due to the different ideas of the victorious powers about a restructured Germany. The Soviet Union would not have wanted to accept a Germany that was democratic under the rule of law; the Western victorious powers would have rejected a Germany shaped by communism.

Phase 4 (1969–1985) deals with the status quo policy and efforts to overcome the division of Germany through cooperation.

The Federal Government had designed at this stage a "new German Ostpolitik" which would have had the goal of a new European order of peace based on the status quo. The Eastern Treaties are fundamental to this new form of Ostpolitik .

Finally, in the last phase mentioned, Blumenwitz referred to the considerations since 1985. He briefly summarized the positions and, on this basis, created an outlook on how the considerations on overcoming the German division could develop. According to him, the federal government has not changed its German policy strategies despite the call for an "operational Germany policy". The process of national unification of Germany is accompanied by the two-plus-four talks . Here the still quite large influence of the Allied powers becomes clear. The German governments can agree on internal issues in the negotiations, but the outcome of the negotiations will remain open on important issues such as security and Germany's borders.

Other works

  • 1966 The foundations of a peace treaty with Germany
  • 1972 Enemy State Clauses
  • 1972 The protection of the domestic legal community upon conclusion of international treaties
  • 1975 United States Citizenship Law Volume 7 of the Compilation of Applicable Citizenship Laws (Revised)
  • 1978 conscription and community service
  • 1980 The German-Polish town twinning agreement
  • 1980 The representation of the borders of Germany in cartographic works
  • 1982 The Eastern Treaties in the light of international contract law
  • 1982 What is Germany? Principles of constitutional and international law on the German question (3rd edition 1989)
  • 1983 Constitutional Development of the Third World
  • 1985 The Prague Treaty
  • 1989 I think of Germany
  • 1989 What is Germany? Exploring Germany's status after World War II
  • 1992 State succession and unification of Germany
  • 1992 Keeping the question of property open in German-Polish relations
  • 1992 minorities and ethnic group law. Current development
  • 1994 This is Germany - Germany's legal status after unification
  • 1995 ethnic groups and minorities. Political representation and cultural autonomy
  • 1996 The legal status of divided nations
  • 1997 International protective mechanisms for the implementation of minorities and ethnic group rights
  • 1998 reconciliation of interests between Germany and its eastern neighbors
  • 1999 Right to vote for Germans in Poland? On the possibility of the German population group in Poland participating in the elections to the German Bundestag
  • 2000 positions of the Catholic Church on the protection of minorities and ethnic groups in the international peace order
  • 2000 The Fundamental Right to Property: Principles and Current Problems
  • 2001 cases and solutions to international law
  • 2001 Proposal for a minority protection provision in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
  • 2005 Occupation and Revolution in Slovenia (1941–1946): An International Law Investigation

In addition, Dieter Blumenwitz wrote around 250 newspaper articles and worked on 4 volumes of the Pol-educ series. He prepared legal opinions and made about 25 contributions (including "The Federal Council") Articles 50–53 GG in the Bonn Commentary on the Basic Law .

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Winfried Bausback, Gilbert Gornig , Tobias H. Irmscher, Burkhard Schöbener: In Memoriam Dieter Blumenwitz . In the S. (Ed.): Iustitia et pax. Gedächtnisschrift for Dieter Blumenwitz , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12745-0 , pp. 7–16, here p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Life stations of Dieter Blumenwitz . In: Winfried Bausback , Tobias H. Irmscher (Ed.): Law and humanity. Speeches and lecture at the academic commemoration for Dieter Blumenwitz , Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-89913-502-4 , p. 57 f.
  3. ↑ Burt: Senate elected at the School of Politics . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 9, 1994, p. 29.
  4. ^ A b Michael Stolleis : History of Public Law in Germany . Volume 4: Constitutional and Administrative Law Studies in West and East 1945–1990 . Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63203-7 , p. 412 f.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Winfried Bausback, Gilbert Gornig , Tobias H. Irmscher, Burkhard Schöbener: In Memoriam Dieter Blumenwitz . In the S. (Ed.): Iustitia et pax. Gedächtnisschrift for Dieter Blumenwitz , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12745-0 , pp. 7–16, here p. 8.
  6. ↑ a b c Winfried Bausback, Gilbert Gornig , Tobias H. Irmscher, Burkhard Schöbener: In Memoriam Dieter Blumenwitz . In the S. (Ed.): Iustitia et pax. Memorandum for Dieter Blumenwitz , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12745-0 , pp. 7–16, here p. 9.
  7. ^ Directory of the dissertations supervised by Dieter Blumenwitz at the Würzburg Law Faculty and directory of the habilitation theses supervised by Dieter Blumenwitz . In: Winfried Bausback , Tobias H. Irmscher (Ed.): Law and humanity. Speeches and lecture at the academic commemoration for Dieter Blumenwitz , Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-89913-502-4 , pp. 47–55 and 56.
  8. ↑ a b Norbert Beleke (Ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who , 42nd edition, Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2003, ISBN 3-7950-2036-0 , p. 128.
  9. ↑ Michael Wollenschläger : In memoriam University Professor Dr. Dr. hc Dieter Blumenwitz . In: AWR-Bulletin 43 (2005) 1, p. 71.
  10. ^ Winfried Bausback, Gilbert Gornig , Tobias H. Irmscher, Burkhard Schöbener: In Memoriam Dieter Blumenwitz . In the S. (Ed.): Iustitia et pax. Gedächtnisschrift for Dieter Blumenwitz , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12745-0 , pp. 7–16, here p. 16.
  11. ↑ amnesty journal October 1997
  12. ↑ An order for services to the Bavarian people . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 3, 1996, p. 45.
personal data
SURNAME Blumenwitz, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German constitutional and international lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH regensburg
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 2005
Place of death Munich