Erwin Fischer (lawyer)

Erwin Fischer (born August 7, 1904 in Reutlingen , † July 15, 1996 in Donaurieden ) was a German lawyer . He is an advocate of a secular orientation in state church law and a consistent separation of state and church .

Life

Erwin Fischer studied law in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin from 1922 to 1925 .

In 1919 Fischer left the church and in 1926 became a member of the SPD and the Association of Social Democratic Lawyers.

From 1930 he worked as a lawyer in Berlin , from October 1930 also as managing director of the German University of Politics . In 1933, after a review by the Reich Chamber of Culture and the SD, he was dismissed from this office, and because of his SPD membership, he was banned from lectures. However, since he had joined the NSDAP in 1935 , he was reinstated after a review process and was initially safe from further pursuits by the authorities.

During his work as a lawyer he represented a. a. Paul Hindemith . Because of his overly independent cultural policy, he made himself so unpopular with the KdF and Reich Youth Leadership that his dismissal was demanded again. In February 1943 his position in the UK was canceled and Fischer drafted into the Wehrmacht . As a lieutenant in the reserve, he was taken prisoner on the Eastern Front, from which he was released in June 1945.

After returning from captivity in 1945, Erwin Fischer settled in Ulm, where he was sentenced to a fine in 1947 as a fellow traveler. From March 1950 he practiced his profession as a lawyer again. From 1950 Fischer devoted himself increasingly to civil rights organizations and journalism.

In early 1946, Fischer rejoined the SPD, which he left at the end of 1950. He later became a member of the FDP , which was particularly active in the area of ​​church politics. On October 4, 1982, Fischer left the FDP. He worked for civil rights organizations and free spirited associations. He was a founding member of the Humanist Union . For the Humanist Union, he led several trials before the Federal Constitutional Court on the relationship between state and church.

In 1929 he married Lucy Antoine, with whom he had two children. In 1940 he married the opera singer Katharina Hoheisel, with whom he had three children, one of whom was killed in bombing raids.

effect

As a lawyer, Erwin Fischer represented clients whose freedom of ideology he saw violated by an inadequate separation of church and state. B. in lawsuits due to church tax liability of the non-religious spouse, against religious instruction as a promotion subject, against the Christian community school as compulsion for all, against institutional and military pastoral care , against concordat chairs .

With his book Separation of State and Church , first published in 1964 , he formulated his vision of a society in which there should no longer be any privileges for certain religious communities. He saw himself as a thought leader for a reform of the state church law.

Erwin Fischer founded the Society for Civil Rights in Ulm , was a founding member of the Humanist Union and a member of the scientific advisory board of the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists , whose position in the field of "separation of state and church" was largely determined by Erwin Fischer. Erwin Fischer was awarded the Fritz Bauer Prize of the Humanist Union in 1993.

From 2000 to 2006, the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists awarded the Erwin Fischer Prize to people and organizations that “excel in the freedom of ideology, the separation of church and state, the promotion of reasoned thinking and education about nature, function, structures and Deserved rulership claims by religions ”. The award was discontinued after Erwin Fischer's NSDAP membership became known in 2007.

Fonts

• My rights against the state ; Self-published, 1951, in later editions: Your rights in the state .
• Separation of state and church. The endangerment of religious freedom in the Federal Republic ; Munich: Szczesny Verlag, 1964. From the 4th, completely revised. Edition under the title: Goodbye Volkskirche! Separation of state and church. The threat to freedom of religion and belief in the Federal Republic of Germany ; Berlin: IBDK-Verlag, 1993; ISBN 3-922601-17-0 .
• Confessional or Community School? Munich: Szczesny Verlag, 1966.
• State and church in united Germany ; ed. by the Standing Working Committee for the Separation of Church and State in the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists (IBKA); Berlin: IBDK-Verlag, 1990; ISBN 3-922601-07-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Erwin Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Institute for Contemporary History, Archive, Fischer, Erwin holdings (PDF; 147 kB)