Walter Klaas (lawyer)

Walter Klaas (born July 25, 1895 in Darmstadt , † March 30, 1978 in Karlsruhe ) was a German lawyer and judge at the Federal Constitutional Court .

Life

Klaas was the son of the Secret State Culture Council Dr. phil. Udolf Klaas. After graduating from the humanistic New Gymnasium in Darmstadt in 1913, he planned to pursue an officer career. Although he enrolled in Erlangen for the summer semester of 1913 to study law and political science and attended lectures there, he became a flag junior in the Royal Bavarian 6th Chevaulegers Regiment "Prince Albrecht of Prussia" in the autumn of the same year . For health reasons, however, he was unable to pursue his career aspirations and was forced to resume his studies in the winter semester of 1913/14. Then he went to the University of Freiburg for a semester . After the outbreak of World War I , he served briefly as a war volunteer in his hometown and at the Grand Ducal State Insurance Institute in Darmstadt. He then continued his studies for one semester in Heidelberg and three semesters in Gießen until he passed the first state examination in November 1916.

His preparatory service, which began in the same month, was immediately interrupted by an appointment to the War Food Office in Berlin , where he was employed as a research assistant until 1919. At August Skalweit he was involved in the scientific and historical processing of war nutrition issues. In 1917 this led to his doctorate in law at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Giessen on "The development of the state regulation of the war pig market". During this time he was also the secretary of the Diet Advisory Council . From 1919 on he did his legal preparatory service at courts in Hesse , the Bensheim district office and a Hamburg lawyer. After the second exam in 1921, he became a court assessor in Hamburg , but soon took leave to work in a Hamburg import company as a lawyer and later as an authorized signatory . In 1924 he was admitted to the bar in the Hamburg courts and earned his living as a lawyer until 1945.

After the Second World War he was appointed Attorney General at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in August 1945 . At the same time, he was given responsibility for the Hamburg prison administration. In February 1947 he was appointed to the Central Justice Office for the British Zone in Hamburg to become President of the Criminal Law Department. He initially retained his position in the prison administration. He was also accepted as a deputy member of the zone advisory board. After the dissolution of the Central Justice Office on April 1, 1950, he worked in the Hamburg state administration, in particular in the building authorities, of which he became president. In 1951 he was appointed judge of the Federal Constitutional Court , where he was a member of the second senate until his retirement in 1963.

At the age of 82, he died in Karlsruhe in 1978. Klaas was married to Ursula Engels for the second time and was the father of four children.

literature

• Walter Klaas: The development of the state regulation of the war pig market. Dissertation, Gießen 1917, self-written curriculum vitae on p. 57.
• The Federal Constitutional Court: 1951 - 1971. 2nd edition. Müller, Karlsruhe 1971, p. 229.
• Walter Klaas - former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court has died. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung No. 65 of April 3, 1978, p. 4.
• International Biographical Archive 22/1978 of May 22, 1978