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Philip Emanuel Bockelmann

Demokratisches Denken in der frühen Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Der Staats- und Verwaltungsrechtler Walter Jellinek

Philip Emanuel Bockelmann is a doctoral candidate at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig. He studied History and German Philology at Georg August University of Göttingen as well as Medieval and Modern History at Leipzig University and completed his Master of Arts degree in 2019. His research interests revolve around the legal history of Germany in the 20th century.

The dissertation project examines the process of reestablishing the democratic rule of law in Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II and the early years of the Federal Republic. Its central focus is on Walter Jellinek (1885–1955), a Heidelberg-based constitutional and public law expert and today a largely forgotten figure who committed himself wholeheartedly to democracy and the rule of law. In contrast to many legal experts who were forced into exile, Jellinek survived the entire Nazi era in Germany in a so-called »privileged mixed marriage«. He thus had a rare insider perspective on the Nazi dictatorship and developed specific views on the democratic reconstruction after 1945.

The project focuses particularly on the question of how and why Jellinek’s life story – his ambivalent integration into German society and his experiences of both the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime – influenced his democratic thought as well as his position in Germany and the field of jurisprudence. In order to assess the relationship between his life and work as well as continuities and breaks in his legal thought, the project combines approaches from biographical research and methods from contemporary legal history.

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