Walter Wilburg

Walter Wilburg (born June 22, 1905 in Graz ; † August 22, 1991 ibid) was an Austrian civil lawyer .

Life

Wilburg received his doctorate in 1928 after studying with Armin Ehrenzweig at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz . He then studied from 1930 to 1933 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign and International Private Law in Berlin with Martin Wolff and Ernst Rabel and completed his habilitation in 1933 ( Austrian and German civil law and foreign private law in a comparative representation ) with Oskar Pisko in Vienna and taught 1933 as a private lecturer (from 1935 as an associate professor) at the University of Graz, Austrian and international private law.

His appointment as full professor, proposed three times by the law faculty of the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz in the years 1939–1944, was rejected each time by the Reich Ministry. He declined appointments to the universities in Prague, Greifswald, Vienna and Göttingen. Wilburg was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943.

In 1945 Wilburg became a full university professor (full professor for civil law) in Graz. Between 1945 and 1964 he was dean of the Faculty of Law seven times ; 1948–1951 and 1955–1962 he was a member of the Academic Senate and 1950/51 rector of the Karl-Franzens-University. From 1951 Wilburg was a corresponding member, from 1964 a real member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Wilburg developed the concept of the "movable system". This is based on the idea of ​​organically interacting forces in law and exerts a great influence on jurisprudence. Also important is his theory of unjust enrichment (which has also become extremely influential in Germany) with the distinction between performance and intervention conditions.

Wilburg retired in 1975.

Students of Wilburg are or were professors from Graz and Vienna, Franz Bydlinski , Viktor Steininger , Helmut Koziol , Bernd Schilcher , Attila Fenyves and Willibald Posch .

Honors

In 1963 Wilburg received the Great Silver Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria . The universities of Vienna and Göttingen awarded him honorary doctorates in 1975. 1977 Ring of Honor of the State of Styria . 1985 Large gold medal of the state of Styria with the star . He was an honorary member of the Austrian Legal Association.

Selection of works

• Development of a flexible system in civil law , Graz 1950. (English: The Development of a Flexible System in the Area of ​​Private Law ), new edition Vienna 2000, ISBN 978-3-214-14845-4
• The elements of damage law , 1941
• Interplay of forces in the structure of the law of obligations , Archive for civilist practice 163, 1963, 346
• On the problem of buying in good faith , in: Kurt Ebert (ed.): Festschrift Hermann Baltl (Research on Legal and Cultural History 11), Innsbruck 1978
• Is it advisable to limit liability for damage caused culpably? Can the severity of the fault and the scope of the violated norm be used as a basis for the scope of the liability for damages? (Verh. 43. DJT, Volume II, Part C, 1st section) 1962

literature

• The scientific way of Wilburg. In: Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Walter Wilburg. Graz 1965, p. 7 ff.
• Gunter Wesener : Austrian Private Law at the University of Graz (= History of the Law Faculty of the University of Graz, Part 4, Graz 2002), pp. 87–94.
• Franz Bydlinski : Walter Wilburg. In: Austrian Academy of Sciences. Almanach 1991/92, 142nd year, Vienna 1993, pp. 455–463.

Web links

• Literature by and about Walter Wilburg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Walter Wilburg at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz