Ingo von Münch

Ingo von Münch (born December 26, 1932 in Berlin ) is a German lawyer , publicist and politician ( FDP ). He is a professor emeritus of constitutional and international law , who has made a name for himself as a commentator on the Basic Law .

Life

Von Münch comes from a family of officers. After graduating from high school at the (later so-called) Ratsgymnasium Goslar , von Münch completed a law degree as a working student at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer . In 1959 he was promoted to Dr. jur. PhD. In 1963/64 he completed his habilitation at the University of Frankfurt with the text The international law offense in the modern development of the international law community .

From 1965 to 1973 von Münch initially taught at the Ruhr University in Bochum . This was followed by teaching at the University of Hamburg (until his retirement in 1998), which was interrupted after reunification by taking up teaching at the University of Rostock . The establishment of the Institute for International Affairs at the University of Hamburg also fell in von Münch's time .

In 1985 von Münch, who has been a member of the Free Democrats since 1968, took over the chairmanship of the Hamburg FDP and held it until he was appointed Senator in 1987. He led the Liberals back into the Hamburg parliament after nine years of abstinence in the elections on May 17, 1987 . From September 2, 1987 to June 26, 1991 he was Senator for Science and Culture and Second Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , during which time his mandate was suspended. After the SPD had won an absolute majority of the seats in the 1991 general election and the FDP was no longer needed to form a government, von Münch not only resigned from the Senate, but also renounced his mandate.

From 1992 to 1995 von Münch also held the office of judge at the State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . Between 1995 and 2001 he taught as a visiting professor in Australia , France , New Zealand , South Africa and the USA .

In addition to Philip Kunig, von Münch is co-editor of the “yellow” commentary on the Basic Law .

From 1973 to 1977 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation , from 1985 to 1987 he was also deputy chairman of the board. In 1986/87 he was chairman of the foundation's selection committee for the support of talented students.

reception

The historian Rudolf Lill insinuated in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on the occasion of Münch's “History in front of the court - The Engel case”, in which he passed the first instance judgment against the former SS commander of Genoa , Friedrich Engel, because of the massacre at the Turchino Pass sharply criticized the historians and publicists who condemned the “ conduct of the Wehrmacht in Italy ” for not being more objective than those who had spread the legend of the “clean Italian war” well into the 1970s . Engel, who was convicted of 249 murders in Italy, was later acquitted by the Federal Court of Justice because of the statute of limitations .

The historian Christoph Kleßmann found on von Münch's work “Frau, komm!” The mass rapes of German women and girls in 1944/45 that the author had clearly ripped himself off. The presented documents have all been known for a long time and through numerous publications; Münch cites them extensively without adding new knowledge or even contextualization. In addition, the publication in a publishing house of "dubious reputation" completely spoiled the reading. The Ares-Verlag publishes right-wing literature intersections to the far right.

Awards

• 1993: Emil von Sauer Prize from the Hamburg Lawyers' Association
• 1994: Honorary doctorate from the University of Rostock
• 1999: Pro bene merito medal from Stellenbosch University
• 2014: Culture Prize of the East Prussian Landsmannschaft

Fonts (selection)

• as editor: Documents of the divided Germany. Source texts on the legal situation of the German Empire, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (=  Kröner's pocket edition , vol. 391/392). 2 volumes, Kröner, Stuttgart 1968/1974, ISBN 3-520-39201-1 (Vol. 2).
• PhD . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-16-147896-7 .
• Story in court. The angel case. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8319-0144-9 .
• German citizenship. Past present Future. De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89949-433-4 .
• “Woman, come!” The mass rapes of German women and girls in 1944/45. Ares, Graz 2009, ISBN 978-3-902475-78-7 .
• Why Rostock? Ingo von Münch and Rostock. Collected contributions, speeches and interviews from the years 1989 to 2011 on Rostock, its university and questions of recent German history in general (=  Rostock contributions to contemporary questions , vol. 1). ß Verlag & Medien GbR, Rostock 2013, ISBN 978-3-940835-38-3 .
• Legal Policy and Legal Culture: Comments on the State of the Federal Republic of Germany. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-8305-1712-2 .
• Good science. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-428-13952-1 .
• Freedom of expression against political correctness. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-428-15268-1 .

literature

• Ingo von Münch , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 48/2007 from December 1, 2007 (hu). Supplemented by news from MA journal until week 02/2014, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Philip Kunig: Ingo von Münch on her 80th birthday . In: Archives of Public Law . tape 137 , no. 4 , 2012, p. 627-630 , JSTOR : 44318462 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Ingo von Münch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ingo von Münch  in the German Digital Library
• Short biography and reviews of works by Ingo von Münch at perlentaucher.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ German postulate of absoluteness , FAZ.net, August 20, 2004.
2. ↑ Review note on Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 24, 2010 , perlentaucher.de on “Frau komm!”, Accessed on July 9, 2019.