Konrad Hesse

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Konrad Hesse (born January 29, 1919 in Königsberg , East Prussia , † March 15, 2005 in Merzhausen ) was a German legal scholar and judge of the Federal Constitutional Court from 1975 to 1987 .

Live and act

Konrad Hesse grew up in Breslau . He passed his Abitur in 1939, after which he was immediately drafted into the war and labor service. After the war, he resumed his legal studies at the University of Göttingen , where he in 1950 Rudolf Smend with a thesis on equality doctorate was. He then worked from 1952 to 1956 as a consultant at Smend's Canon Law Institute in Göttingen. In 1955 he completed his habilitation in Göttingen with the thesis The legal protection by state courts in the church area ; his Venia included heads of state , administrative and ecclesiastical law . In 1956 he was appointed professor of public law at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , where he taught until his retirement in 1987. Hesse's academic students include Alexander Hollerbach , Peter Häberle , Hans-Peter Schneider , Friedrich Müller , Rudolf Steinberg and Friedhelm Hufen . From 1961 to 1975, he also worked as a judge at the Baden-Württemberg Administrative Court . From 1968 to 1976 he was also Chairman of the Court of Arbitration of the Evangelical Church in Germany . His textbook Basic Features of Constitutional Law of the Federal Republic of Germany , first published in 1967, became a standard work and shaped generations of lawyers. Hesse was honored by being awarded an honorary doctorate in law in 1983 in Zurich and in 1989 in Würzburg .

At the suggestion of the SPD and FDP , Hesse was elected to the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court by the Federal Council in 1975 . As the successor to Theodor Ritterspach , he was a member of the court from November 7, 1975 to July 16, 1987. He was followed by Dieter Grimm , Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem and Johannes Masing . Hesse's department in the court, which is sometimes referred to as the "heart of the Federal Constitutional Court", included freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of broadcasting, commercial law and state church law. As a rapporteur, he shaped a number of fundamental decisions of his Senate, including the co-determination decision 1979 ( BVerfGE 50, 290 ), the decision in the Böll / Walden case in 1980 ( BVerfGE 54, 208 ) and the broadcasting decisions of 1981 and 1986 ( BVerfGE 57, 295 , BVerfGE 73, 118 ). In connection with the census ruling in 1983, he played a key role in establishing the right to informational self-determination, which was developed in science ( Wilhelm Steinmüller , Spiros Simitis , Adalbert Podlech ) . The resolution of fundamental rights collisions by establishing the so-called practical concordance goes back to Hesse .

In 1964, Hesse became co-editor of the Public Law Archives . The magazine honored him in 2019 with special articles on the occasion of Konrad Hesse's 100th birthday , with his successors in the Federal Constitutional Court Dieter Grimm, Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem and Johannes Masing contributing texts.

Since 2003 Hesse was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . From 1971 to 1973 he was chairman of the Association of German Constitutional Law Teachers .

Konrad Hesse was married and had two children and five grandchildren at the time of his death.

Works (selection)

Complete list of publications: Peter Häberle / Alexander Hollerbach (eds.): Bibliography Konrad Hesse. CF Müller, Heidelberg 1999

  • The Unitarian Federal State , CF Müller , Karlsruhe 1962
  • Selected writings , ed. by Peter Häberle and Alexander Hollerbach, CF Müller, Heidelberg 1984, ISBN 3-8114-2084-4
  • Constitutional and private law , CF Müller, Heidelberg 1988, ISBN 3-8114-8588-1
  • Fundamentals of the constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany , CF Müller, Heidelberg (20th edition) 1995 (reprint 1999), ISBN 3-8114-7499-5

literature

  • Hans-Peter Schneider : Constitutional law between science and judicial art. Konrad Hesse on his 70th birthday , CF Müller, Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 3-8114-8089-8
  • Peter Häberle : On the death of Konrad Hesse (1919 to 2005) . In: Archives of Public Law , Vol. 130, 2005, pp. 289–293.
  • Peter Häberle: Konrad Hesse (1919–2005) , in: Peter Häberle / Michael Kilian / Heinrich Wolff (eds.): Constitutional law teachers of the 20th century , Berlin / Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2015, pp. 893–908.
  • Ernst Benda : Konrad Hesse: Federal Constitutional Judge 1975–1987 . In: Yearbook of Public Law of the Present . New Series, Vol. 55, 2007, pp. 509-514.
  • Peter Lerche : European constitutional law teacher. The scientist Konrad Hesse . In: Yearbook of Public Law of the Present. New Series, Vol. 55, 2007, pp. 455-461.
  • Rainer Wahl : The normative power of the constitution. Konrad Hesse's inaugural lecture in its historical context. In: Der Staat 58 (2019), pp. 195–221.
  • Andreas Voßkuhle / Jakob Schemmel: The constitutional law teacher Konrad Hesse as judge of the Federal Constitutional Court - At the same time on the relationship between constitutional law studies and constitutional case law. In: Archives of Public Law 144 (2019), pp. 425–442.
  • Johannes Masing: Democracy - Understood in the spirit of Konrad Hesse. In: Archives of Public Law 144 (2019), pp. 443–456.
  • Dieter Grimm: Openness as a leitmotif in Konrad Hesse's understanding of the constitution. In: Archives of Public Law 144 (2019), 457–466.
  • Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem: Practical Concordance in Constitutional Law Thought by Konrad Hesse. In: Archives of Public Law 144 (2019), 467–485.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary for Konrad Hesse , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, accessed on July 5, 2020
  2. ^ Taz (Christian Rath) of May 18. 2020
  3. ^ Special articles on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Konrad Hesse. In: Archives of Public Law 144 (2019), pp. 425–485 ( table of contents ).
personal data
SURNAME Hesse, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1975–1987)
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 2005
Place of death Merzhausen