Hermann Conrad (legal historian)

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Hermann Conrad (born October 21, 1904 in Cologne , † March 18, 1972 in Bonn ) was a German legal historian. His two-volume German legal history developed into a standard work .

Life

Conrad came from a family of lawyers. His grandfather was a higher regional judge , his father an administrative officer and judge- martial . Due to an illness, he did not acquire the Abitur until 1925 . He then completed his law studies at the University of Cologne , which he completed in 1928 with the first state examination in law. From 1925 he was a member of the Catholic student association VKDSt. Eckart Köln in CV (merged with KDSt.V. Rappoltstein in 1977 ). With the dissertation supervised by the canonist Franz Gescher (1884-1945) The iurisdictio delegata in Roman and canon law he received his doctorate on February 11, 1930 at the University of Cologne. With the Second State Examination successfully passed in Berlin in 1932 , he acquired the qualification for judicial office and completed his legal training. This was followed by a brief activity as a district judge at the Cologne-Mülheim district court . From 1932 to 1937 he held several assistant positions at the University of Cologne, including for the university professors Hans Planitz and Hans Carl Nipperdey . He received his habilitation in 1935 with a thesis on medieval real estate law in Cologne . After a lectureship at the University of Cologne, he received various teaching positions at the universities in Rostock , Cologne, Freiburg im Breisgau , Lausanne and Geneva as well as a deputy professor at the University of Wroclaw , without receiving a call for a full professorship. On November 1, 1941, he was appointed full professor at the University of Marburg and was also a substitute professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main . In 1942 he was briefly posted as head of the scientific department at the German Institute in Paris to replace Karl Heinz Bremer , who had been drafted into the Wehrmacht . On October 1, 1948, he accepted a position at the University of Bonn , where he was given a chair for German legal history, civil law, commercial law and church law. Shortly before his retirement , Conrad, who had remained unmarried, died at the age of 67 from circulatory failure after an operation. In his commemorative speech given to Conrad on November 17, 1972 at the University of Bonn, the legal historian Karl Siegfried Bader describes him as a person “who appeared to be a bit dry, knowingly reserved or mentally restrained, but behind whom there was a downright benevolent and rather sensitive character have hidden ”.

Scientific work

Conrad's scientific work can be divided into three phases. After he had mainly worked on canon law issues at the beginning of his career, including in his dissertation, he then turned to problems of Rhenish legal history. In the final phase of his work, Conrad took a comprehensive look at German legal history, which ultimately led to the publication of the broad, two-volume textbook on German legal history . It was primarily through this work that Conrad left lasting impressions on legal history. In 2011 his German legal history was reprinted in an unchanged reprint of the editions of 1962 (1st volume) and 1966 (2nd volume). In some cases, reviewers commented critically on this work, especially with regard to the first volume, that Conrad was rather defensive to modern research developments such as the greater consideration of socio-historical questions. The work is therefore not innovative enough and is based primarily on older research results. When writing the second volume, which deals with the history of law, in particular the German constitutional history of the modern era up to 1806, Conrad, however, was dependent on the lack of scientific preparatory work on this epoch to develop the material to be presented largely through his own research. The presentation of the history of private law in modern times was planned for a third volume, which should also deal with the legal history of the 19th century. However, the planned final volume was never completed.

Fonts (selection)

  • The iurisdictio delegata in Roman and Canon Law (1930, dissertation).
  • Real estate transfer and entry in the land register in Cologne during the Middle Ages (1935, habilitation thesis).
  • History of the German Defense Constitution (1939).
  • German Legal History , Volume 1: Early Times and the Middle Ages (1954, 2nd edition 1962), reprint 2011.
  • German Legal History , Volume 2: Modern Times to 1806 (1966), reprint 2011.

literature

  • Karl S. Bader: Commemorative speech for Hermann Conrad (1904–1972) given in Bonn on November 17, 1972 , in: Joachim Rückert / Dietmar Willoweit (eds.): The German legal history in the Nazi era, its prehistory and its aftermath. Tübingen 1995, pp. 327-342.
  • Carsten Bernoth: Hermann Conrad (1904–1972) , in: Concise Dictionary of German Legal History , Volume 1, 2nd Edition, Sp. 881–882.
  • Nikolaus Grass : Hermann Conrad † 1904–1972. In: Historical yearbook. Volume 92, 1972, pp. 501-508.
  • Gerd Kleinheyer, Paul Mikat : Contributions to legal history. Commemorative writing for Hermann Conrad. Paderborn / Munich 1979 (= legal and political publications of the Görres Society. New series. Issue 34).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Complete CV directory 1961, p. 148.
  2. ^ Hermann Conrad: Franz Gescher †. In: Journal of Legal History. Canonical department. Volume 34, 1949, pp. XII-XVI.
  3. ↑ Reimund Haas : "Gescherianum" - Rheinische church legal history of the Middle Ages in Cologne and Wroclaw. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 8/9, 2012/2013 (2014), pp. 311-325, here: p. 316.
  4. ↑ Frank-Rutger Hausmann : "Even in war the muses are not silent". The German Scientific Institutes in World War II. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001. ISBN 3-525-35357-X , p. 100 ff.
  5. ↑ Bader, commemorative speech , p. 329.
  6. ^ Bader, memorial speech , p. 340.
  7. ^ Foreword to Volume 2 of German Legal History .
personal data
SURNAME Conrad, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1972
Place of death Bonn