Michael Benjamin

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Michael Benjamin (right) at a youth consecration in 1976.

Michael Benjamin (born December 27, 1932 in Berlin ; † August 7, 2000 there ) was a German legal scholar . He was the son of the Jewish doctor and resistance fighter Georg Benjamin and the later Minister of Justice of the German Democratic Republic Hilde Benjamin and nephew of the philosopher Walter Benjamin .

Act

After studying law in Berlin and Leningrad , he worked at the Academy for Law and Political Science of the GDR in Potsdam . There was carried out in 1960 his doctorate Dr. jur. with the thesis " The exclusion of criminal liability due to insignificance of the act and for reasons that lie in the person of the perpetrator, as a means of education for socialist state and legal consciousness " and finally the habilitation in 1966 with the thesis " The tasks of the conflict commissions at advising on violations of criminal law ”.

Grave in the central cemetery Friedrichsfelde

He also worked as a professor in Moscow , where he also lived for a few years. After his return in 1990 he took part in the PDS in building up the Communist Platform , for which he was considered a public representative in the following years. In addition to leading the PDS party council, in 1999 he assumed duties as a member of the party executive committee.

In 1994 he ran for the Bundestag in the Bundestag constituency Berlin-Steglitz - Zehlendorf unsuccessfully, in the 1999 election in Berlin he was a direct candidate for his party in Steglitz-Nord . He was also active as an author and publicist .

In 1999 his statements about the Berlin Wall caused a sensation. Benjamin explained: "It was a measure that was permissible under international law, at the time enforced by the circumstances". Gregor Gysi kept his distance from Benjamin and emphasized that the wall had violated human rights and was therefore "anti-socialist", spokesmen for other parties were appalled by Benjamin's statements.

In 1973 he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze.

His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Fonts

  • The exclusion of criminal liability for minor acts. Berlin 1962.
  • Conflict commissions, criminal law, democracy. A theoretical study of the position and tasks of the conflict commissions according to the new criminal law of the GDR. Berlin 1968.
  • The person in front of the counter and the person behind the counter. A little German administration apprenticeship. Baden-Baden 1993.
  • East German identity and social foundations. Thoughts on left politics. Schkeuditz 1996.
  • Power and violence, state and party. Schkeuditz 1998.

literature

Web links

Commons : Michael Benjamin  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ PDS board member Benjamin defends Mauer. In: Dresdner Latest News . January 25, 1999.
  2. ↑ New Germany . October 6, 1973, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Benjamin, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 2000
Place of death Berlin