This book opens with the First World War, analyses the highly creative years of the Weimar Republic, and recounts the decline of German public law that began in 1933 and extended to the downfall of the Third Reich. The book examines the dialectic of scholarship and politics against the background of long-term developments in industrial societies, the rise of the interventionist state, the shift of state law and administrative law theory, and the emergence of new disciplines (tax law, social law, labour law, business administration law). The book examines the doctrine of state law and administrative law during the First World War and the impact of the Weimar Constitution and of the Versailles Treaty on the discipline is discussed. Here the famous ‘quarrel of direction’ that occurred in the field of state law doctrine (1926–9) played a central role. But equally important was the development of state law and administrative law theory, administrative doctrine, and the jurisprudence of international law. Part two of the book is devoted to the impact of National Socialism. The displacement of Jewish scholars, the change of direction in the professional journals, and the shutdown of the Association of State Law Teachers form one aspect of the story. The other aspect is manifested in the erosion of public law. The book tackles questions about the co-responsibility of scholars for the Holocaust, and the reasons why academic teachers of public law were all but absent in the opposition to the Nazi regime.
Im Rezensionswesen gibt es die "Selbstanzeige", wenn der Herausgeber einer Zeitschrift eine eigene Arbeit vorzustellen hat. Sie hat kurz zu sein und sich aller Wertungen zu enthalten. Dahinter steht Taktgefühl gegenüber externen Rezensenten, die möglicherweise in Konflikte geraten würden, die Schwächen eines Buches des Herausgebers deutlich zu benennen. 1 Um einen solchen Fall handelt es sich hier aber nicht. Doch bleibt es eine prekäre Aufgabe, auf Wunsch des Herausgebers dieses Bandes etwas zu meinen drei Bänden der "Geschichte des öffentlichen Rechts in Deutschland" (1600-1945) zu schreiben, die 1988, 1992 und 1999 im Verlag C. H. Beck erschienen sind. 2 Prekär deshalb, weil es zu einer Art Persönlichkeitsspaltung nötigt. Die Bände sollen gleichzeitig aus der Nähe und aus der Distanz, von außen und von innen betrachtet werden. Das kann eigentlich kaum gelingen, wie man auch Eltern überfordert, wenn man ihnen eine "objektive" Sicht ihrer Kinder abverlangt. 3 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1
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