Klaus Tolksdorf
Klaus Tolksdorf (born November 14, 1948 in Gelsenkirchen ) is a German lawyer . From 2008 to 2014 he was President of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and is honorary professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . He was also an ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia .
Life
Tolksdorf is the son of the former Vice President of the Federal Criminal Police Office , Herbert Tolksdorf.
Born in Gelsenkirchen and initially raised in Münster, he graduated from high school in Wiesbaden due to his father's official residence . Then he attended the police school in Münster. While still in the police force of North Rhine-Westphalia, he began studying law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn .
During his legal clerkship and from 1978 as a judge, he worked at the Bonn and Münster regional courts , and later as a judge at the Hamm Higher Regional Court . In between, he was seconded to the Federal Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court as a research assistant .
He submitted his dissertation in 1988 to Gerald Grünwald, a criminal law professor who is considered liberal, on the subject of prohibition of participation for the biased public prosecutor and received his doctorate from the faculty there . After initially working as a lecturer at Münster University from 1994 , he has also been an honorary professor at this university since 1999.
Tolksdorf had been a member of the BGH since 1992, initially to the 4th Criminal Senate and since 1995 also to the Grand Senate for Criminal Matters. In 1997 he was also presidential judge . In autumn 2001 he became the presiding judge at the 3rd criminal division of the Federal Court of Justice . Under his leadership, the Senate had, among other things, to decide on the revision proceedings against members of the “ Hamburg Cell ” because of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as in the Mannesmann trial .
On August 24, 2005, the UN General Assembly elected him ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague .
With effect from February 1, 2008, Tolksdorf was appointed as the successor to Günter Hirsch as President of the Federal Court of Justice and was introduced to this office on January 31, 2008 by Federal Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries . As president, Tolksdorf was, by law, chairman of the major senates of the Federal Supreme Court and of the bar association. In accordance with a long tradition, he also took over the chairmanship of the Cartel Senate.
With effect from January 1, 2013, in connection with the dispute over the chairmanship of the 2nd Criminal Senate , he gave up the chairmanship of the Cartel Senate and rejoined the 3rd Criminal Senate until he passed on July 1st, after the dispute was settled and a new one was appointed Presiding judge for the 1st, 2nd and 4th criminal senate, again took over the presidency of the antitrust senate.
In an article in SPIEGEL No. 8/2013 on February 18, 2013, Tolksdorf is compared to a landlord in his role as President of the Federal Court of Justice; one federal judge therefore feared a “loss of reputation” of the highest German civil and criminal court, another spoke of a “shame”. In 2019, federal judge Andreas Mosbacher also raised allegations against Tolksdorf, who "obviously undisguised" had an influence on the election of BGH judges and had "inquistorically" questioned candidates he didn't like.
At the end of January 2014, Tolksdorf retired. His successor at the head of the Federal Court of Justice was Bettina Limperg .
Tolksdorf is married and has three grown children.
Web links
Wikinews: Klaus Tolksdorf - in the news- Literature by and about Klaus Tolksdorf in the catalog of the German National Library
- Portraits of Klaus Tolksdorf:
Individual evidence
- ↑ Presidium decision of the BGH of June 26, 2013 ( Memento of the original of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hipp, Dietmar , " Der Gutsherr ", SPIEGEL 8/2013 of February 18, 2013.
- ^ Joachim Jahn , Monika Spiekermann: Future federal judges in the quality check. In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 17/2019, cover pages (NJW-aktuell) 12–13.
- ↑ Press release of the Federal Court of Justice
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tolksdorf, Klaus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer, federal judge at the Federal Court of Justice |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gelsenkirchen |