Friedrich Wolff (Lawyer)

Friedrich Wolff (left) in 1963 as a defender in the Globke trial

Friedrich Wolff (born July 30, 1922 in Berlin-Neukölln ) is a German lawyer and was chairman of the Berlin Bar in the GDR for over 20 years .

Life

The son of a Jewish doctor originally wanted to study medicine. As a “ half-Jew ” under the Nazis, he was denied that. He was trained as a merchant from 1941 to 1943 and then made his way through 1945 as a munitions worker. In 1945 he joined the KPD and became a member of the SED and later the PDS after the forced unification of the KPD and SPD . He first studied medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin , but gave up because he could not see blood. Then he studied law at the same university from 1946 to 1949.

At the Magistrate of Greater Berlin , Wolff helped to set up lawyers' colleges, now he was one of the founders of the Berlin college and became its chairman in 1954, which he remained until 1970. In the years from 1984 to 1988 and 1990 he received this position again.

In 1983 Friedrich Wolff received his doctorate from Humboldt University with a dissertation on the position of lawyer.

Wolff became prominent in the 1980s on television in the GDR , primarily through his series Alles Was Recht ist (follow-up to the series Ask Professor Kaul ).

He was a criminal defense lawyer in large GDR criminal trials, such as the trials against those involved in the uprising of June 17, 1953 , against the cultural functionary Walter Janka and against West German politicians such as Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer for alleged war crimes ( East Berlin show trials in absence).

He was involved in the defense of Günter Guillaume .

In the unified Germany he defended many former SED greats such as Hermann Axen , Hans Modrow and Erich Honecker .

Wolff is a member of the Association of Democratic Lawyers .

In 1982 he was awarded the Silver Patriotic Order of Merit in the GDR . In 2002 he received the human rights award of the historical revisionist society for the protection of civil rights and human dignity . V., which stands up for the interests of Stasi and SED cadres.

In 1995 the news magazine Focus reported that Wolff was under suspicion of the Stasi. He was accused of being an unofficial employee (secret informant) of the Ministry of State Security in the intelligence department under the code name "Jura". At a meeting with MfS employees, he allowed this insight into his clients' documents. In 1996 he had a heart attack and decided to cut back on his workload. From 2003, one of his three daughters continued to run his office together with four other lawyers.

Fonts (selection)

2000: Where do we come from, where have we arrived, where are we going? In: Reflecting on Socialism. Edited by Klaus Höpcke , Hans-Joachim Krusch , Hans Modrow , Harald Neubert , Wolfgang Richter and Robert Steigerwald ; GNN Verlag Schkeuditz.
2005: Unity and Law - The GDR and the German Justice , in the 2nd edition published by edition ost, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-360-01062-9 .
2009: Lost Processes. My defense in political proceedings , edition ost, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-360-01800-7 .
2013: One life - four times Germany , autobiography, PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-89438-520-0 .
2015: The Politburo of the GDR in court , Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-8305-3570-6 .