Werner Pünder

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Werner Pünder (born September 15, 1885 in Trier , † June 10, 1973 in Rheinbach ) was a German lawyer .

Life

After attending school, Pünder studied law . He finished his studies with a doctorate as Dr. jur.

At the First World War Pünder participated as a reserve officer in part. At the end of the war he resigned as captain of the reserve. He later opened a law firm in Berlin .

As the brother of the long-time State Secretary in the Reich Chancellery Hermann Pünder and distant relative of the chairman of the Catholic Action Erich Klausener , Pünder belonged to the Catholic Center Party , but without distinguishing himself politically. After 1933, Pünder belonged to the professional organization of the National Socialist Legal Guardians Association .

In 1933 Pünder took over the defense of the former Reichstag deputy of the Center Party, Andreas Hermes, in a case staged by the National Socialists for embezzlement. On this occasion he took up a position of confrontation with the National Socialist state for the first time.

A few hours after Pünder's relative Erich Klausener was shot by an SS man at midday on June 30, 1934 in the course of the Röhm affair in the Reich Ministry of Transport , where he had been Ministerial Director since 1933 , the rumor of his violent end began to circulate in Berlin: When Klausen's wife, his son, and the pastor Albert Coppenrath hurried to the ministry that afternoon to make sure of Klausen's fate, Pünder accompanied them as legal counsel. Despite the support of the Reich Minister of Transport, they were denied access to Klausener, who was lying dead in his office, by the SS guards posted in front of the door.

At the request of Klausen's wife, Pünder began to deal with the case legally: On March 27, 1935, Pünder and his partner Erich Wedell filed a lawsuit at the Berlin Regional Court for compensation for murder against the German Reich , represented by Adolf Hitler and the Country of Prussia .

"Legal action

1.) the widow Hedwig Klausener b. Kny; 2.) their son, born on January 18, 1917, the pupil Erich Klausener, represented by his mother, both in Charlottenburg, Schlossstrasse 40, plaintiff, authorized representative: lawyer Erich Wedell in Berlin W 8, Mohrenstrasse 19, against 1.) the German Reich, 2.) the Land of Prussia represented by: a) the Reich Chancellor in Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstr. 78, b) the Prussian Prime Minister in Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstr. 63, c) the Reich and Prussian ministers of the interior, Berlin NW 40, Königsplatz 6, d) the Reich and Prussian ministers of justice, Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstrasse 65, defendant,

for compensation (monthly 200 RM pension) "

After the Second World War, this step was recognized again and again as an outstanding achievement of practiced courage in the face of unlawful conditions. The National Socialist regime reacted to Pünder and Wedell's lawsuit by having the two lawyers arrested by the Secret State Police - whose chief Reinhard Heydrich had ordered Klausener's murder. Both were subsequently held for four weeks in the Gestapo's house prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse as prisoners and threatened with shooting. After the advocacy of several conservative ministers and the Swedish government, the two were released on May 16, 1935. Given the political circumstances, the proceedings did not take place.

At the beginning of the Second World War , Pünder was called up to military district command III, Berlin. From 1940 to 1945 Pünder worked for the Wehrmacht High Command .

Around December 1946 the Soviet secret police arrested MWD Pünder in the " Heikekeller " in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. Pünder remained in Soviet special solitary confinement until 1953. Released in 1954, he joined the law firm founded by his son Albrecht Pünder.

Pünder's youngest son Reinhard Pünder was the first bishop of the Brazilian diocese of Coroatá .

Honors

In memory of Werner Pünder, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main has regularly awarded the Werner Pünder Prize, named after him, for scientific work on freedom and totalitarianism since 1987. In 2016, the award received a donation from the historian Marie-Lise Weber, widow of Albrecht Pünder's former partner in Pünder Volhard Weber, Dolf Weber.

Fonts

  • The effects of the liquidator's refusal to perform on the mutual contract as a consequence of innocent liability. Berlin 1914. (Dissertation)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Erler : "GPU basement". Detention centers and remand prisons of the Soviet secret services in Berlin (1945–1949) . Association of the Persecuted by Stalinists, Landesverband Berlin, Berlin 2005, p. 69.
  2. ↑ Academic celebration of the University of Frankfurt 2018, Werner Pünder Prize 2018 , p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Pünder, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1973
Place of death Rheinbach