Rudolf Steinberg

Rudolf Steinberg (born June 23, 1943 in Cochem on the Moselle ) is a German legal scholar and emeritus professor of public law . Between 2000 and 2008 he was the sixth President of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Life

After graduating from high school in Gelsenkirchen , Steinberg studied law and economics at the universities in Freiburg and Cologne and political science at the University of Michigan in the USA . First State Examination in Freiburg 1967, Second State Examination in Stuttgart 1973. In 1970 Steinberg received his doctorate at the University of Freiburg on the subject of political theory and interest groups: Interest groups in the mirror of American and German literature and jurisprudence . From 1970 to 1977 research assistant at the institute for public law, chair Konrad Hesse . In 1977 he completed his habilitation with the thesis Politics and Administrative Organization: on the reform of the government and administrative organization with special consideration of the supreme federal authorities in the United States of America.

From 1977 to 1980 he was professor for public law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hanover . From 1980 to 2000 Steinberg taught public law , environmental law and administrative science at the University of Frankfurt. Scientifically, he was heavily involved in government action and often represented in consensus procedures at round tables to balance interests. In several nuclear law proceedings before the Federal Constitutional and Federal Administrative Court , he represented the nuclear-critical side. He was particularly interested in specialist planning law . He advised several state governments on environmental, energy and nuclear law. In the last five years of his activity as a professor, he also worked as a judge at the Thuringian Constitutional Court in Weimar . Steinberg was a liaison professor at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation for several years .

Steinberg is married and has four children.

President of the Frankfurt Goethe University

On February 16, 2000, Rudolf Steinberg was elected President of the University of Frankfurt and had to stop teaching because of the high workload. The inauguration took place on June 21, 2000. In February 2006 he was re-elected with a large majority.

During his tenure there were decisive structural changes at the university. Rudolf Steinberg mainly managed the move from the Bockenheim campus to the Westend campus and the Riedberg campus , which involved extensive construction work and a lot of planning responsibility, as well as the conversion of the university from a corporation of the State of Hesse to a foundation university under public law, which but it was criticized from different sides and was accompanied by a high concentration of power in the presidium and the corresponding dismantling of democratic structures. After taking office, after intensive discussion, the first university development plan of the Goethe University was passed by the Senate with a large majority. He was successful in raising endowment capital of 120 million euros, third-party funding for research amounting to 120 million euros and a large number of endowed professorships. In the first round of the Excellence Initiative in 2007, the university was able to position itself at the top of the German research universities with three clusters of excellence in all areas of the university (natural sciences, humanities and medicine). Added to this was the implementation of the Bologna Process .

Many of these changes met with considerable criticism, especially among the student body, which continued until he left office. But Steinberg's support for tuition fees at Hessian universities also put a lasting strain on the relationship between him and the students. Among other things, he was accused of preferring the natural and economic sciences over the humanities. However, this is countered by the fact that Steinberg intensively promoted the development of the interdisciplinary cluster of excellence for the development of normative orders with the participation of the social sciences and humanities, especially in terms of personnel. During his tenure, Steinberg also successfully sought third-party funding, something which the University of Frankfurt had never done before.

Steinberg was President of Goethe University for almost nine years, longer than any other of his predecessors in office. One day after his 65th birthday, he announced that he would leave the office of President of the University on December 31, 2008. Werner Müller-Esterl was elected as his successor .

Fonts (selection)

• Political theory and interest groups: Interest groups in the mirror of American and German literature and jurisprudence - a critical comparison , dissertation, University of Freiburg im Breisgau, 1970.
• State and associations - On the theory of interest groups in industrial society , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1985, ISBN 3-534-07248-0 .
• Politics and administrative organization: On the reform of the government and administrative organization with special consideration of the highest federal authorities in the United States of America , Nomos, Baden-Baden 1979, ISBN 3-7890-0462-6 (Habilitation thesis, University of Freiburg im Breisgau, 1978); New edition: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8305-0689-9 .
• Disarmament and Arms Control Administration in the Federal Republic of Germany , Publications on Public Law, Volume 425, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1982, ISBN 3-428-05176-9 .
• The ecological constitutional state , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-58269-0 .
• The neighboring right of public facilities: Neighbor protection against plan approval and other public facilities , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1989. ISBN 3-17-009933-7 .
• Technical planning , 4th edition, with Martin Wickel and Henrik Müller, Nomos, Baden-Baden 2012, ISBN 978-3-8329-7610-1 .
• The new University of Frankfurt am Main. Your new building and your return to the foundation university, Societätsverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-942921-53-4 .
• Representation of the people: the image of man and the democratic system of government. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8487-0317-3 .
• Headscarf and burqa: secularity, tolerance and religious homogeneity in Germany and France , Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3848728558 .
• Between the Basic Law and Sharia: The Long Road from Islam to Germany , Campus Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3593509891

Awards

• 2009: Hessian Order of Merit
• 2012: Plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Steinberg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Rudolf Steinberg's website
• “ Between the Basic Law and Sharia. The long way of Islam to Germany ”. Lecture by Rudolf Steinberg followed by a discussion; December 13, 2018 . Youtube

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kilian Kirchgessner: The educational construction site. The University of Frankfurt am Main is building a superlative campus and is fighting for more autonomy. Die Zeit, September 27, 2007, accessed on May 9, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Irony of Autonomy: Legal Science in Pact with Economic Power , in: Kritische Justiz, Vol. 47 (4/2014), pp. 414-431, here pp. 428-429.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Georg Leppert: Withdrawal from the lectern. Frankfurter Rundschau, December 10, 2008, accessed on May 8, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Stephan M. Hübner and Imke Folkerts: The 'architect' leaves. Rudolf Steinberg looking back on eight and a half years of presidency. In: Uni-Report No. 8/2008. Goethe University, pp. 14–15 , accessed on May 8, 2011 (14f .; interview). 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Steinberg receives plaque of honor from the city of Frankfurt ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . The former president of the Goethe University and “architect” of the foundation university is honored for his significant reform work. Press release. University of Frankfurt. March 21, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2012.