Famous German Lawyers

Vote for Your Favourite German Lawyers

Right IconThis ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet.

 1 
Carl Schmitt
(German Jurist, Political theorist and Prominent Member of the Nazi Party)
Carl Schmitt
4
Birthdate: July 11, 1888
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Plettenberg, Germany
Died: April 7, 1985
Known for works such as Constitutional Theory and Political Theology, Nazi political theorist and academic Carl Schmitt explored liberalism and the Weimar Republic. He was banned from teaching by the Allied powers after World War II but continued producing works such as Ex Captivitate Salus.
 2 
Patrick M. Knapp Schwarzenegger
(Lawyer, Businessman)
Patrick M. Knapp Schwarzenegger
0
Birthdate: February 2, 1968
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Munich, West Germany
Height: 6'1" (185 cm)
 3 
Horst Mahler
(German Far-Left Political Activist Who Later Turned to Right-Wing Politics)
Horst Mahler
3
Birthdate: January 23, 1936
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Haynau, Lower Silesia, Germany

German political activist and a founder-member of the Red Army Faction, Horst Mahler also supported Maoism, before becoming a neo-Nazi lawyer. He later turned to rightist politics and became a prominent Holocaust denier and a National Democratic Party member. He was jailed in 2009 for spreading racial hatred and released in 2020.

Recommended Lists:
 4 
Gustav Ritter von Kahr
(German Jurist and Politician)
Gustav Ritter von Kahr
3
Birthdate: November 29, 1862
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Weissenburg, Germany
Died: June 30, 1934
 5 
Richard von Weizsaecker
(German Politician)
Richard von Weizsaecker
3
Birthdate: April 15, 1920
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Free People's State of Württemberg, Weimar Republic
Died: January 31, 2015
 6 
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
(German Soldier and Jurist)
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
3
Birthdate: July 1, 1907
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Halle (Saale), Germany
Died: September 3, 1980
 7 
Wilhelm Stuckart
(German Nazi Party Lawyer, Official and a State Secretary)
Wilhelm Stuckart
3
Birthdate: November 16, 1902
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Wiesbaden, Germany
Died: November 15, 1953
 8 
Friedrich Merz
(German Politician and Lawyer)
Friedrich Merz
3
Birthdate: November 11, 1955
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Brilon, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Height: 6'6" (198 cm)
 9 
Guido Westerwelle
(German Politician)
Guido Westerwelle
3
Birthdate: December 27, 1961
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Bad Honnef
Died: March 18, 2016
 10 
Gregor Gysi
(German Attorney and Political Leader)
Gregor Gysi
2
Birthdate: January 16, 1948
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
 11 
Roman Herzog
(President of Germany (1994 - 1999))
Roman Herzog
2
Birthdate: April 5, 1934
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Landshut, Germany
Died: January 10, 2017

A doctorate in law, Roman Herzog had initially been a teaching assistant and then a political science professor. Stepping into politics later, he was elected as the first German president following the reunification of Germany. Apart from an honorary knighthood, he also won the Charlemagne Prize.

 12 
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
(German Lawyer and Jurist Who is Regarded as a Pioneer of Sexology and the Modern Gay Rights Movement)
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
2
Birthdate: August 28, 1825
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Aurich, Germany
Died: July 14, 1895

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was a German lawyer, journalist, jurist, and writer. Today, he is widely regarded as a pioneer of the modern gay rights movement and sexology. Ulrichs is considered the first openly gay man in the history of mankind. In August 1867, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs urged the goverment to revoke anti-homosexual laws, becoming the first homosexual to do so.

 13 
Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
(Advocate, Resistance fighter)
Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
0
Birthdate: March 15, 1905
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
Died: August 10, 1944
 14 
Ferdinand von Bismarck
(German Landowner and Lawyer)
Ferdinand von Bismarck
2
Birthdate: November 22, 1930
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Died: July 23, 2019
 15 
Otto Rasch
(German Nazi Official)
Otto Rasch
2
Birthdate: December 7, 1891
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Friedrichsruh, Aumühle, Germany
Died: November 1, 1948
 16 
Gerhard Klopfer
(German Politician)
Gerhard Klopfer
2
Birthdate: February 18, 1905
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Schreibersdorf
Died: January 29, 1987
 17 
Wolfgang Vogel
(German Lawyer)
Wolfgang Vogel
2
Birthdate: October 30, 1925
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Bolesławów, Poland
Died: August 21, 2008
 18 
Albert Battel
(German Lawyer and Army Lieutenant)
Albert Battel
2
Birthdate: January 21, 1891
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Prężynka, Poland
Died: 1952 AD
 19 
Bernhard Schlink
(German Lawyer, Novelist, and Academic)
Bernhard Schlink
2
Birthdate: July 6, 1944
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Großdornberg, Germany
 20 
Henriette Reker
(Lawyer)
Henriette Reker
2
Birthdate: December 9, 1956
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Cologne, Germany
 21 
Hans Luther
(German Political Leader)
Hans Luther
2
Birthdate: March 10, 1879
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: May 11, 1962
 22 
Ferdinand von Schirach
(German Writer and Lawyer)
Ferdinand von Schirach
2
Birthdate: May 12, 1964
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
 23 
Franz Walter Stahlecker
(German Officer and Commander of the SS Security Forces)
Franz Walter Stahlecker
2
Birthdate: October 10, 1900
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Sternenfels, Germany
Died: March 23, 1942
 24 
Adam von Trott zu Solz
(German Diplomat and Lawyer)
Adam von Trott zu Solz
0
Birthdate: August 9, 1909
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: August 26, 1944
 25 
Alexander Kluge
(Director, and short story writer who won the Hanns-Joachim-Friedrich Prize for TV Journalism in 2001)
Alexander Kluge
2
Birthdate: February 14, 1932
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Halberstadt, Germany
 26 
Helmuth James von Moltke
(Lawyer)
Helmuth James von Moltke
0
Birthdate: March 11, 1907
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Krzyżowa, Poland
Died: January 23, 1945
 27 
Theodor Storm
(Author)
Theodor Storm
2
Birthdate: September 14, 1817
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Husum, Germany
Died: July 4, 1888
 28 
Günther Oettinger
(German Lawyer and Politician Who Served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources)
Günther Oettinger
2
Birthdate: October 15, 1953
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany
 29 
Francis Daniel Pastorius
(Educator)
Francis Daniel Pastorius
2
Birthdate: September 26, 1651
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Sommerhausen, Germany
Died: 1720 AD
 30 
John Peter Altgeld
(Governor)
John Peter Altgeld
2
Birthdate: December 30, 1847
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Selters (Westerwald), Germany
Died: March 12, 1902
 31 
Hartley Shawcross
(Barrister)
Hartley Shawcross
2
Birthdate: February 4, 1902
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Giessen, Germany
Died: July 10, 2003
 32 
Walburga Habsburg Douglas
(Lawyer, Politician)
Walburga Habsburg Douglas
0
Birthdate: October 5, 1958
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Berg, Germany

The German-Swedish lawyer and politician Walburga Habsburg Douglas serves as the vice-president of the Paneuropean Union and is also a board member of the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism. The former parliament member was born in Germany and is the daughter of last crown prince of Austria-Hungary and the granddaughter of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I.

 33 
Gustav Radbruch
(Politician)
Gustav Radbruch
1
Birthdate: November 21, 1878
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Lübeck, Germany
Died: November 23, 1949
 34 
Friedrich Hecker
(German Lawyer and Revolutionary Who Played a Central Role in the 'Märzrevolution' of 1848/49)
Friedrich Hecker
1
Birthdate: September 28, 1811
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Angelbachtal, Germany
Died: March 24, 1881

Friedrich Hecker was a German lawyer, revolutionary, and politician. Hecker was one of the most famous agitators and speakers of the German revolutions of 1848–1849. Like many other Forty-Eighters who left their motherland after the revolutions failed, Friedrich Hecker moved to the United States where he served in the Federal Army during the Civil War.

 35 
Georg Jellinek
(Lawyer)
Georg Jellinek
1
Birthdate: June 16, 1851
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
Died: January 12, 1911
 36 
Hugo Preuß
(Lawyer)
Hugo Preuß
1
Birthdate: October 28, 1860
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: October 9, 1925
 37 
Justus Jonas
(Jurist)
Justus Jonas
1
Birthdate: June 5, 1493
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Nordhausen, Germany
Died: October 9, 1555
 38 
Johannes Althusius
(Jurist)
Johannes Althusius
1
Birthdate: 1557 AD
Birthplace: Diedenshausen, Bad Berleburg, Germany
Died: August 12, 1638
 39 
L. F. L. Oppenheim
(Jurist)
L. F. L. Oppenheim
1
Birthdate: March 30, 1858
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Windecken, Electorate of Hesse, German Confederation
Died: October 19, 1919
 40 
Walter Simons
(Lawyer)
Walter Simons
1
Birthdate: September 24, 1861
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany
Died: July 14, 1937
 41 
Johann von Wowern
(Philologist, Lawyer)
Johann von Wowern
0
Birthdate: March 10, 1574
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Germany
Died: March 30, 1612
 42 
Anton Rintelen
(Jurist)
Anton Rintelen
1
Birthdate: November 15, 1876
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Graz, Austria
Died: January 28, 1946
 43 
Rudolf Stammler
(Philosopher)
Rudolf Stammler
1
Birthdate: February 19, 1856
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Alsfeld, Germany
Died: April 25, 1938
 44 
Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg
(Poet)
Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg
1
Birthdate: November 7, 1750
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Bramstedt, Germany
Died: December 5, 1819
 45 
Theodor Geiger
(Professor)
Theodor Geiger
1
Birthdate: November 9, 1891
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: June 16, 1952
 46 
Gerhart M. Riegner
(Lawyer and activist)
Gerhart M. Riegner
0
Birthdate: September 12, 1911
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: December 3, 2001
 47 
Hans Mayer
(Scholar)
Hans Mayer
1
Birthdate: March 19, 1907
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Cologne, Germany
Died: May 19, 2001
 48 
Rudolf von Gneist
(Jurist)
Rudolf von Gneist
0
Birthdate: August 13, 1816
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: July 22, 1895
 49 
Ernst Bassermann
(Politician)
Ernst Bassermann
0
Birthdate: July 26, 1854
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Wolfach, Germany
Died: July 24, 1917
 50 
Josef Kohler
(Jurist)
Josef Kohler
0
Birthdate: March 9, 1849
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Offenburg, Germany
Died: August 3, 1919