Karl Larenz

This article describes the lawyer. For the MP see Carl Larenz

Karl Larenz (born April 23, 1903 in Wesel , † January 24, 1993 in Olching near Munich ) was a German civil lawyer and legal philosopher . After 1945 he was best known for his works Methodology of Law and Textbook of the Law of Obligations .

Life

Karl Larenz was the son of the Higher Administrative Court Councilor Karl Larenz and his wife Ida, geb. Page engraver. He attended pre-school in Poznan , grammar school in Neuwied am Rhein and Osnabrück and, since 1915, Heinrich v. Kleist secondary school in Berlin-Schmargendorf . After graduating from high school in 1921, Larenz began studying law, economics and history in Berlin in the winter semester of 1921/22 , where his father was last President of the Senate at the Higher Administrative Court. This was followed by a change of study location to Marburg , again Berlin, Munich and Göttingen . In January 1926 he passed the legal traineeship examination in Celle . At the beginning of November 1926, after his dissertation on the subject of "Hegel's theory of attribution and the concept of objective attribution" had been accepted by the Göttingen law and political science faculty, he received his doctorate in law. In 1928/29 Larenz completed his habilitation with Julius Binder in Göttingen with the text "The method of interpreting the legal transaction" without having completed the legal preparatory service or passed the assessor examination.

From May 1933, Larenz taught at the University of Kiel , initially as a substitute and from 1935 as holder of the chair of the legal philosopher Gerhart Husserl , who had been removed from this office because of his Jewish origins. Along with Franz Wieacker , Karl Michaelis , Wolfgang Siebert , Ernst Rudolf Huber , Georg Dahm and Friedrich Schaffstein, Larenz belonged to a group of younger professors called the Kiel School , who saw themselves as a group of pioneers in the National Socialist reform of the law . According to Ernst Klee , Larenz was "one of the most important Nazi theorists in civil law".

Since 1934, Larenz was together with Hermann Glockner editor of the magazine for German cultural philosophy . On May 1, 1937, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 5.041.008). He was also a member of the National Socialist Lawyers' Association .

During the Second World War , Larenz worked on the Nazi project war mission of the humanities . In 1942 he received the War Merit Cross 2nd Class.

After the end of World War II , Larenz, who was initially banned from teaching because of his work between 1933 and 1945, returned to Kiel University in December 1949. In 1960 he was appointed to the University of Munich , where he stayed until his retirement.

Larenz and National Socialism

Larenz's relationship to National Socialism has long been the subject of controversial discussion. On the one hand, there is Larenz's defense that at the beginning of his time in Kiel in May 1933 he was an opponent of National Socialism and part of the so-called Ahlmann Plan for the intellectual containment of National Socialism. Claus-Wilhelm Canaris in particular joined this line . On the other hand, Larenz's involvement in National Socialism has been increasingly dealt with since the 1960s . From this point of view, Larenz was classified by Bernd Rüthers and Uwe Wesel in particular as the crown lawyer of the Third Reich, who paved the way for murderous anti-Semitism. The is Ernst Klee followed Larenz was "one of the most important Nazi theorists in civil law" and Wolfgang Benz , Larenz was "one of the most important Nazi theorists in civil law and in legal philosophy."

Due to a reassessment, Bernd Hüpers comes to a mediating result in his Rostock dissertation (2010). Larenz was not a resistance from the very beginning, but a devoted "academic preacher of National Socialism". In the absence of originality and reputation, Larenz was unable to take on a theoretical leadership role. It was only during the Russian campaign that Larenz distanced himself from the regime and - very covertly and only called on the small group of his students - to no longer obey in blind obedience. For this purpose, Larenz used the so-called "war effort of the humanities" of Aktion Ritterbusch. After the war, Larenz did not draw any ethical consequences. In the years after 1933, Larenz endeavored in his works to align the legal system with the principles of National Socialism and to redesign it in this sense. He wanted to tie in with Hegel's idealism .

The early discussion focused primarily on a paragraph from the essay entitled Legal Person and Subjective Law ; Larenz wrote there in 1935: “Not as an individual, as a person par excellence (...) I have rights and duties and the opportunity to shape legal relationships, but as a member (...) of the national community . Only as a being living in community, as a national comrade, is the individual a concrete personality. Only as a member of the national community does he have his honor, he enjoys respect as a legal comrade. ”He therefore proposed to change the basic regulation of § 1 BGB , according to which the legal capacity of (i.e. every ) person begins with the completion of birth, as follows : “Legal comrades are only those who are national comrades ; Volksgenosse is whoever is of German blood . ”He also wrote in the same article:“ Volksgenosse is who is German blood. Whoever stands outside the national community is also not in the right. ”With this, Larenz stood on the ground of the National Socialist racial ideology .

These statements contain a commitment to National Socialism; but no theoretical, philosophical or legal, paving the way can be attributed to them. Item 4 of the NSDAP's party program of February 24, 1920 already provided for something similar: “Only those who are comrades can be citizens. Only those who are of German blood can be a national, regardless of their denomination. No Jew can therefore be a national comrade. ”Also Larenz's often not quoted supplement:“ Anyone outside the national community is also not in the right, is not a legal comrade. In many respects, however, the foreigner can and will be treated as a guest on an equal footing with legal comrades. " Anyone who is not a citizen should only be able to live in Germany as a guest and must be subject to foreign legislation. "Hüpers sums up this finding as follows: Larenz 'remarks" lose the murderous sense that they are supposed to have. However, they are not fully qualified. Larenz has noticeably caught up with the nationalist avant-garde. He, too, is now for a racial apartheid regime. Far-reaching tendencies of an anti-Semitic nature, exuberant tirades of hate, or thoughts of exploitation or annihilation cannot be identified. Larenz, with his reform proposal to § 1 BGB, finds himself on a similar racist level as the regime in its Nuremberg Laws. The 'others', especially the Jews, are no longer fellow citizens. Life and work are made more difficult, but not made impossible. "

Act

After the Second World War, general civil law and legal methodology were the focus of his academic work under the changed conditions. In particular with his textbooks on the law of obligations and on the general part of civil law, he influenced legal science in the Federal Republic. His textbook on methodology, which coined the term teleological reduction (a case of restrictive interpretation), has also attracted considerable attention . He turns away from the jurisprudence of interests , which wants to implement the interests set by the legislature, and instead focuses on the "order of life" and the "needs of life", which according to Larenz itself could become normative. In doing so, he gives the judge far-reaching decision-making powers and loosens his ties to the law. With regard to this flexibilization of the law, Larenz's methodology is viewed critically under constitutional law. Although Larenz's methodology contains a so-called historical-critical part, there is no discussion of the legal positions - including his own - from the era of the Third Reich. In 1979 Larenz expressed his legal philosophical views in the text Correct Law ; In it, he is committed to a legal system based on private autonomy.

Larenz was the teacher of some of today's influential legal scholars (such as Claus-Wilhelm Canaris , Uwe Diederichsen , Helmut Köhler , Detlef Leenen , Manfred Wolf ).

Works

After 1945:

• Textbook of the law of obligations , Munich 1953 (vol. 1), 1956 (vol. 2) (referred to as the first edition, although a previous work by Larenz under the title "Contract and Injustice" was published in 1936 (vol. 1) and 1937 (vol. 2 ) appeared.) Multiple reprints.
• General part of German civil law , Munich 1960. Multiple new editions.
• Methodology of Law , Heidelberg 1960. Multiple new editions, ISBN 3-540-59086-2 .
• On the indispensability of jurisprudence as a science , Berlin 1966 ( online ( memento from May 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at the Berlin Legal Society ).

Before 1945 in particular:

• (with Günther Holstein ) State Philosophy , Munich 1933.
• German reform of law and legal philosophy (= Law and State in Past and Present , 109), Tübingen 1934.
• Basic questions of the new jurisprudence . Edited with Georg Dahm a . a., Berlin 1935.
• Popular spirit and law. In: Journal for German Cultural Philosophy , year 1935, p. 40 ff.
• Legal entity and subjective law. In: Karl Larenz u. a. (Ed.): Basic questions of the new jurisprudence , Berlin 1935, p. 225 ff.
• Contract and injustice. Part 1: Contract and breach of contract. Part 2: Liability for damage and Enrichment . Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 1936/37.
• On the subject and method of national legal thought , Berlin 1938.
• Hegelianism and the Prussian State Idea. The philosophy of the state Joh. Ed. Erdmanns and the 19th century picture of Hegel. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 1940.

literature

• Claus-Wilhelm Canaris : Karl Larenz . In: Stefan Grundmann & Karl Riesenhuber (eds.): Civil law teachers of the 20th century in reports from their students . Volume 2. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89949-457-0 , pp. 263-308. PDF .
• Jörn Eckert: What was the Kiel School? In: Franz Jürgen Säcker (Hrsg.): Law and legal theory in National Socialism . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1992, ISBN 3-7890-2452-X , p. 37-70 .
• Ralf Frassek: Karl Larenz (1903–1993) - private lawyer under National Socialism and post-war Germany . In: JuS 1998, pp. 296-301.
• Frank Hartmann: The methodological thinking in Karl Larenz . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-631-36325-7 .
• Bernd Hüpers: Karl Larenz - Methodology and Philosophy of Law in Past and Present , Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-8305-3637-6 .
• Horst Heinrich Jakobs: Karl Larenz and National Socialism . In: JZ 1993, pp. 805-815.
• Massimo La Torre: A National-Socialist Jurist on Crime and Punishment - Karl Larenz and the So-Called “Deutsche Rechtsernerung” . European University Institute, Florence 1992.
• Rudolf Meyer-Pritzl: The Kiel law and political sciences. A "shock troop faculty" . In: Christoph Cornelißen , Carsten Mish (ed.): Science at the limit. The University of Kiel under National Socialism. 2nd edition, Klartext, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0240-4 , pp. 151-173.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Larenz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 358.
2. ^ ^{A b} George Leaman: Contextual misreadings: the US reception of Heidegger's political thought . Part 1. University of Massachusetts 1991, p. 110.
3. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 358.
4. ↑ Ralf Dreier: Karl Larenz on his attitude in the Third Reich. In: JZ 1993, p. 455 f. Also Josef Kokert: Letters that make history - Karl Larenz and the National Socialist era. In: ZNR 18 (1996), pp. 23-43.
5. ^ Claus-Wilhelm Canaris : Karl Larenz. In: Stefan Grundmann, Karl Riesenhuber (ed.): Civil law teachers of the 20th century in reports from their students . Volume 2. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010.
6. ^ Rolf Seeliger: Brown University. Documents II , Munich 1965, pp. 34-37.
7. ↑ Bernd Rüthers: Degenerate Law. Legal teachings of crown lawyers in the Third Reich , Munich 1988, pp. 32 ff., 76 ff., 195 ff., Ders .: Images of persons and images of history - ways to reinterpret history? Notes on a Larenz portrait. In: JZ 2011, p. 593.
8. ^ Uwe Wesel : Geschichte des Rechts , 3rd edition, 2006, pp. 502–504.
9. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 358.
10. ↑ Wolfgang Benz u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism , 4th edition, Munich 2001.
11. ↑ Bernd Hüpers: Karl Larenz - Methodology and Philosophy of Law in Past and Present , 2nd Edition, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-8305-3637-6 , pp. 506, 479 ff.
12. ^ Karl Larenz: Morality and Law. Investigations on the history of German legal thought and ethics. In: ders. (Ed.): Reich and Law in German Philosophy , Volume 1, Berlin 1943, pp. 169–412.
13. ↑ Bernd Hüpers: Karl Larenz - Methodology and Philosophy of Law in Past and Present , 2nd edition, Berlin 2016, p. 269.
14. ↑ Karl Larenz: Legal Person and Subjective Law - for the transformation of the basic legal concepts. In: Georg Dahm, Ernst Rudolf Huber, Karl Larenz, Karl Michaelis, Friedrich Schaffstein, Wolfgang Siebert (eds.): Basic questions of the new jurisprudence. Junker and Dünnhaupt Verlag, Berlin 1935, p. 241.
15. ^ Quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 358.
16. ↑ Bernd Hüpers: Karl Larenz - Methodology and Philosophy of Law in Past and Present , 2nd Edition, Berlin 2016, pp. 160 ff.
17. ↑ http://www.documentarchiv.de/wr/1920/nsdap-programm.html .
18. ↑ Karl Larenz: Legal Person and Subjective Law - for the transformation of the basic legal concepts. In: Georg Dahm, Ernst Rudolf Huber, Karl Larenz, Karl Michaelis, Friedrich Schaffstein, Wolfgang Siebert (eds.): Basic questions of the new jurisprudence. Junker and Dünnhaupt Verlag, Berlin 1935, p. 241.
19. ↑ http://www.documentarchiv.de/wr/1920/nsdap-programm.html .
20. ↑ Bernd Hüpers: Karl Larenz - Methodology and Philosophy of Law in Past and Present , 2nd edition, Berlin 2016, p. 146.
21. ↑ Joachim Rückert, Ralf Seinecke: Methodology of civil law - from Savigny to Teubner . Nomos, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8452-5978-9 , pp. 553 , doi : 10.5771 / 9783845259789_551 ( nomos-elibrary.de [accessed on February 27, 2019]).