Walther Schücking

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Walther Schücking

Walther Max Adrian Schücking (born January 6, 1875 in Münster ; † August 25, 1935 in The Hague ) was a liberal politician , international lawyer , pacifist and, from 1931 until his death, was the first and only German permanent judge at the Permanent International Court of Justice in The Hague .

family

Schücking was a grandson of the well-known Droste friend Levin Schücking (1814–1883) and the writer Louise von Gall (1815–1855) and came from a family of lawyers and scholars who had lived in the Münsterland for centuries. He was the brother of English language professor and Shakespeare researcher Levin Ludwig Schücking (1878–1964) and of Husum's mayor, lawyer, writer and pacifist Lothar Engelbert Schücking (1873–1943). He was married to Irmgard Auguste Charlotte Marte von Laer (1881-1952) and of the Old Catholic denomination .

Life

Training, teaching

Schücking was born in Münster as the son of the district judge Carl Lothar Levin Schücking and his wife Luise Wilhelmine Amalie, née. Beitzke (a daughter of Heinrich Ludwig Beitzke ) was born. He spent the first years of his life in Burgsteinfurt . The family moved to Münster during his childhood. There he attended the Paulinum grammar school and passed the Abitur in 1894 with excellent results.

Schücking completed his studies in political science and law from 1894 first in Munich , then one semester each in Bonn and Berlin and from 1896 in Göttingen . There, Walther Schücking did his doctorate under Ludwig von Bar on a topic of international law (maxime laudabiliter). He completed his legal traineeship in Dülmen and completed his habilitation in 1899 at the Georg-August University in Göttingen on a legal-historical subject “Taking office”. In 1900 he was appointed as the youngest adjunct professor in Prussia against the will of the faculty at the University of Breslau and in 1902 as an associate professor and a year later as a full professor at the University of Marburg .

In Marburg, Schücking taught constitutional law, international law, canon law and administrative law until 1920. In contrast to the professors of the very conservative Marburg law faculty, Schücking established contacts with the two left-liberal leaders of the neo-Kantian school Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp as well as with the theologian Martin Rade . He became chairman of the local group of the Progressive People's Party and ran unsuccessfully for the Prussian House of Representatives in 1908 and 1913 . When Schücking protested against the official expropriation of Polish property by the Settlement Act, a conflict arose. The Prussian Ministry of Culture permanently excluded him from the legal examination committee for the trainee examination because of his moral unworthiness .

In a briefly lively discussed paper from 1913 with the title New Goals of State Development , Schücking summarized his political ideas and generally opposed the “ presumption ” of intellectual life and the adaptation to the Prussian state. He called for Prussia to transition to a parliamentary system of government, equality for women, the separation of state and church , the balance between capitalism and socialism, the reconciliation of nationalism and internationalism and the integration of social democracy into the state. In the conservative-reactionary press, his work was insulted as a “hair-raising Tertian carver”, while it was more likely to find recognition in the specialist press.

In 1907 Schücking published an article in the Festschrift for Paul Laband, "The Organization of the World", in which he formulated the unification of the national ideal with the international as the task of the future and in which he developed the idea of ​​a world organization from the Roman Empire to the Hague Peace Conferences . As a pacifist , he joined the German Peace Society founded by Bertha von Suttner and worked closely with Ludwig Quidde .

Even during the First World War , Schücking remained committed to the idea of ​​international understanding. As a member of the Central Organization for a Lasting Peace , in which personalities from all warring countries except France were represented, he took part in the Hague Conference in April 1915 and tried by means of memoranda and discussions in the Foreign Office to assert his ideas of a mutual agreement , but without success until the military collapse of the German Empire. His activities displeased the political and military leadership, so that in 1915 the Kassel General Command forbade him to correspond with foreign colleagues about these problems, to travel abroad and to represent his ideas through international organizations.

1918-1935

Walther Schücking (right in the light coat) in the German peace delegation during the negotiations on the Versailles Treaty (1919)
Walther Schücking (first person from left) in the German peace delegation (1919)

After the proclamation of the republic, Schücking joined the newly founded left-liberal DDP , in which he initially worked as a leader. From 1919 to 1928 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly and the Reichstag for the constituency of Hessen-Nassau. In view of his international reputation as a pacifist and as an international lawyer, he was one of the six main German delegates to the Versailles peace negotiations. Schücking was deeply disappointed with the result, which, to the detriment of Germany, did not match his ideas that unite people. He advised against ratifying the peace treaty and justified this for the majority of his parliamentary group in the National Assembly. Nevertheless, he advocated the League of Nations idea and was instrumental in founding the German League for the League of Nations .

In November 1918 Schücking was appointed chairman of the commission appointed by the Council of People's Representatives to investigate the charges of illegal treatment of prisoners of war in Germany . It was also called the Schücking Commission for short after him . He was a member and since 1924 chairman of the parliamentary committee of inquiry. a. examined the origins of war, Germany's position at the Hague Peace Conferences, the missed opportunities for peace and the violations of international law during the war. On the other hand, despite his reputation as a constitutional lawyer, he did not succeed in being appointed to the constitutional committee of the Weimar National Assembly. He was therefore unable to take part in the drafting of the Weimar Imperial Constitution in the form he wanted, which he perceived as a bitter resignation from his party.

For several years Schücking also worked on the Presidium of the German Peace Society. He was a member of the Council of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva and was particularly active in the Interparliamentary Union , an association founded in 1888 by parliamentarians from different systems of government to promote mutual understanding, whose meeting in Berlin he chaired in 1928.

Schücking now also aspired to leave the small Hessian town of Marburg professionally. Attempts by the Social Democrats and the liberal press to put him in charge of the Institute for Foreign Public and International Law, which had been newly established at the University of Berlin , failed due to the faculty's resistance. So in 1921 Schücking accepted a position at the Berlin Commercial College as the successor to Hugo Preuss and in 1926 at the University of Kiel . Together with Hans Wehberg he wrote a commentary on the statutes of the League of Nations , which appeared in three editions between 1921 and 1931 .

Schücking's professional high point was his election as the first German judge at the Permanent International Court of Justice in The Hague on September 25, 1930 by the League Council and the League of Nations Assembly, where he had already worked as an ad hoc judge in 1923. After his appointment as a judge, his position was final until the end of his nominal term of office of nine years. When the Hitler government wanted to drive the democrat and pacifist Schücking out of his judicial office after the National Socialist “ seizure of power ”, he was able to afford to reject the German government's request. Since 1921 Schücking had been appointed by the German government to represent the German at another international court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. In 1927 his election was extended for another six years. The Hitler government did not extend Schücking's office in 1933, but instead installed Axel von Freytagh-Loringhoven, who was closely related to National Socialism . At the same time, the National Socialist rulers robbed Schücking of his chair and institute in Kiel with the help of the so-called law to restore the professional civil service . Schücking's successor was temporarily Kurt Rühland and from 1935 Paul Ritterbusch . Schücking therefore stayed in The Hague, where he died in 1935.

Honors

Memorial stone for Walther Schücking in Kassel

The Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel , a street in Kiel , a square in Kassel and a street in Marburg are named after Schücking . In Kassel there is also a memorial stone with the inscription "The indomitable / democrat / the pioneer / the international / understanding / Walther Schücking / 1875-1935 / professor of / rights in Marburg / Reichstag / deputy / judge at / permanent inter- / national / court / in The Hague ”and on the back with Schücking's leitmotif“ Peace through law ”.

Today's reception

Angela Klopsch wrote in 2009: "Schücking is [...] seen alongside Hans Wehberg as one of the most important constitutional and international lawyers of the early 20th century."

Fonts (selection)

  • The state and the agnates. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1902 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • Collection of sources on Prussian constitutional law. Mohr, Tübingen 1907 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • The organization of the world. Alfred Kröner, Leipzig 1909 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • The Association of States of the Hague Conferences. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1912 ( digitized in the Regensburg University Library ).
  • Culture and war. (= Publications of the Association for International Understanding . Issue 14). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1914 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • The permanent peace war essays of a pacifist. Verlag Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig 1917.
  • The League of Nations - Studies and Lectures on Organizational Pacifism. New Spirit, Leipzig 1918.
  • International legal guarantees - expanding and securing international relations. Broschke & Co., Hamburg 1919 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • The statutes of the League of Nations - commented by Walther Schücking and Hans Wehberg. Vahlen, Berlin 1921.
  • The international law institute of mediation. H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard), Kristiania / Oslo u. a. 1923.
  • The attempt at codification concerning the legal relations of the territorial sea and the reasons for its failure. F. Hirt, Leipzig 1931.

literature

  • Detlev Acker: Walther Schücking (1875–1935) (=  publications of the historical commission of Westphalia, XVIII, Westphalian Biographies, VI ). Munster 1970.
  • Frank Bodendiek: Walther Schücking's conception of the international order. Dogmatic structures and significance in the history of ideas (=  publications by the Walther Schückings Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel, Vol. 133 ). Berlin 2001.
  • Wolfgang Kohl: Walther Schücking ( 1875-1935), constitutional and international law expert - democrat and pacifist . In: Thomas Blanke (Ed.): Critical Justice. Controversial lawyers. Another tradition . 1988, ISBN 3-7890-1580-6 , pp. 230-241 .
  • Ulf Morgenstern :  Schücking, family of merchants and scholars. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 629 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ulf Morgenstern: Citizenship and family tradition. The Schücking family of liberal scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries , Paderborn a. a. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-77353-1 .
  • Ulf Morgenstern: Seven years on the fjord. Walther Schücking as a university professor and international lawyer in the Holstein university town from 1926 to 1933. In: Oliver Auge / Swantje Piotrowski (ed.): Scholars heads on the fjord. Verlag Ludwig, Kiel 2014, ISBN 978-3-86935-224-4 , pp. 181-215.
  • Klaus Schlichtmann: Walther Schücking (1875–1935), international law expert, pacifist and parliamentarian . In: Historical communications from the Ranke Society (HMRG) . tape 15 , 2002, ISSN  0936-5796 , p. 129-147 .
  • Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
  • Andreas Thier :  Schücking, Walther. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 631-633 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Walther Schücking  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Thier : Schücking, Walther . In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) , Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, pp. 631–633.
  2. ↑ Ewald Grothe : Walther Schücking and pacifism. Online resource of the Archives of Liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom .
  3. ↑ Cf. Ulf Morgenstern: “Oh that's nice here!” Walter Schücking's private letters from the Versailles peace delegation in 1919. In: Yearbook for Liberalism Research 30 (2018), pp. 299–335.
  4. ↑ Ordinance of the Council of People's Representatives on the Composition and Course of Business of the Commission to Investigate the Charges of Illegal Treatment of Prisoners of War in Germany , dated November 30, 1918, RGBl., P. 1388.
  5. ↑ Detlev Acker: Walther Schücking (1875-1935). (= Publications of the historical commission of Westphalia , XVIII, Westfälische Biographien , VI), Verlag Aschendorff, Münster 1970, p. 203 f.
  6. ^ The history of the law faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin in the upheaval of Weimar , BWV, Berlin 2009, p. 175.
personal data
SURNAME Schücking, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schücking, Walther Adrian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DDP), Member of the Bundestag and international lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1935
Place of death The hague