Helmut R. Külz

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Helmut Robert Külz (born July 27, 1903 in Meerane , † September 24, 1985 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer . He was President of the Senate from 1953 and Vice President of the Federal Administrative Court from 1970 to 1971 .

Life

Education and life until 1946

Helmut R. Külz was the son of Erna and Wilhelm Külz , who later became Minister of the Interior and Lord Mayor of Dresden. After attending grammar school in Zittau , he studied law and political science at the Philipps University in Marburg , the then Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and two semesters at Columbia University in New York . In 1928 he received his doctorate as Dr. jur. He then worked as a lawyer in Windhoek (then South West Africa , now Namibia ) until 1934 , before settling as a lawyer at the Berlin Court of Appeal . He took over in particular the defense of victims of Nazism , as of Ernst Thalmann , what a reference of the Bar Association and the threat of exclusion from the legal profession had the consequence. Between 1940 and 1945 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . His war effort on the Western Front ended in American captivity , from which he was released in 1946. His way led him via Berlin to Thuringia in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ).

Soviet Zone (1946-1948)

Like his father, who chaired the party between 1945 and 1948, he became a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD). From December 1946 on, Külz was State Director and Minister of Justice for the State of Thuringia in the Paul cabinet . In the following Eggerath cabinet , various conflicts arose from November 1947, for example with his deputy Karl Schultes ( SED ), the parliamentary group chairman Richard Eyermann (SED) and the Soviet occupying power, among others. a. because Külz was an advocate of the rule of law, the principle of the separation of powers . He resigned on April 9, 1948 and fled to the West Zone in June .

Western zones / Federal Republic (1948–1953)

In the west he immediately became a ministerial director , and from 1948 to 1950 he headed the central management of the economic administration of the Bizone in Frankfurt am Main . From January 1949 he was exposed to severe criticism from Konrad Adenauer ( CDU ), because he would have preferred to see an official close to the CDU in his key position in terms of personnel policy. In autumn 1949 Külz left the LDPD and openly sympathized with the SPD , which intensified the conflict with Adenauer.

In 1949, Külz helped found the Königsteiner Kreis , an association of lawyers and economists who had fled from the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR , and became a managing member of the board.

In 1951 Külz was taken over by the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi), but was immediately put on hold . In early 1951, Külz joined the SPD.

Berlin (1953–1985)

After the Federal Administrative Court was set up in West Berlin , Külz was elected President of the Senate on March 13, 1953 by the Bundestag judges' election committee. From 1970 until his retirement in 1971 he was Vice President of the Federal Administrative Court.

Grave of Helmut R. Külz, his wife Ursula and his sister-in-law Charlotte Reißmann at the Wilmersdorf cemetery in Berlin

Külz succeeded Carl Haensel as chairman of the Gerhart Hauptmann Society and remained so until his retirement in 1971. He was 1st Vice President of the German-British Lawyers Association , Vice President of the Society of Friends of Africa and a member of various other committees. In 1968 he became honorary professor for administrative procedural law at the University of Giessen . In the same year Külz was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a Star .

Külz was married to Ursula, née Reißmann, and had five children. Külz found his final resting place in the Wilmersdorf cemetery , where his parents were also buried. His estate is now in the Federal Archives in Koblenz .

Publications

(Selection)

  • Edited together with Richard Naumann: Citizens and State Authority. Administrative law and administrative jurisdiction in the past and present. Anniversary font. For the 100th anniversary of the German administrative jurisdiction and the 10th anniversary of the Federal Administrative Court. 2 volumes. On behalf of the Association of Presidents of the German Administrative Courts, CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1963.
  • Object Germany. The reunification in the ups and downs of the negotiations. In: Die Zeit , No. 19/1966, May 6, 1966 ( online ).
  • Potsdam no way out . In: Theo Sommer (Ed.): Thinking of Germany. On the problem of reunification. Nannen Verlag, Hamburg 1966, p. 44 ff.
  • The catchphrase of the "preliminary work". A contribution to the discussion on German Ostpolitik. In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1967, June 23, 1967 ( online ).
  • Administrative control under National Socialism . In: Kritische Justiz , 2nd year, 1969, pp. 367–378 ( PDF; 1.3 MB ).

literature

  • Keith R. Allen: Interview - Review - Control. The reception of GDR refugees in West Berlin until 1961 (= contributions to the history of the Wall and the escape ). Ch. Links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-722-9 , pp. 132 ff., Here in particular pp. 140-144.
  • Bernhard Löffler: Social market economy and administrative practice. The Federal Ministry of Economics under Ludwig Erhard (= VSWG supplements . Volume 162). Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-515-07940-8 , pp. 509-510.
  • Petra Weber: The rule of law in Thuringia? Reconstruction and instrumentalization of the judiciary in Thuringia after 1945. In: Heiner Timmermann (Hrsg.): Dictatorships in Europe in the 20th century - the case of the GDR (= documents and writings of the European Academy Otzenhausen . Vol. 79). Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08957-X , pp. 113–132, here pp. 123–124.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Keith R. Allen: Inquiry - Verification - Control . P. 140.
  2. Keith R. Allen: Inquiry - Verification - Control . Pp. 140-141.
  3. ^ A b c Bernhard Löffler: Social market economy and administrative practice. The Federal Ministry of Economics under Ludwig Erhard. P. 510.
  4. a b Keith R. Allen: Inquiry - Verification - Control . P. 141.
  5. ^ Klaus Hildebrandt: The Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gesellschaft e. V., Berlin. History - goal setting - tasks . Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gesellschaft website , accessed on January 19, 2014.
  6. Knut Suhr: How it all began. The beginnings of the German-British Lawyers Association (PDF; 294 kB). Website of the German-British Lawyers Association , January 2013. Accessed January 16, 2014.
  7. BArch N 1366